Gerbil Care and Breeding

[maddie]

I got three gerbils from my local pet store around Christmas time, thinking they were all girls. As you can expect to my surprise there was a male gerbil and one of my girls had 8 babies. I have a few questions. Should i separate the other female from the mix? I read that you should keep the father with the mom for they raise the babies together. Its been 4 days and they all seem to be living together fine. I've never had issues with any of them fighting. Also do i need anything special now that i have the babies? i wasn't expecting them, but i am completely okay with them i just want to make sure that i am taking care of everyone properly in this situation. Finally what kind of toys do you recommend for my gerbil? i  give them lots of toilet papers tubes, egg cartons, etc. but they go through them so fast i was wondering what other suggestions there are? Sorry  for the long post i am just very concerned and want to make sure i do everything i can to ensure all 8 little babies make it and i have a happy gerbil family. 

[betty]

You have accidentally posted this in an area not usually visited by people for talking about pups etc.

The best thing would be to re-post the first part of this in the main section under Breeding, Pups and sexing gerbils to get more responses.

Then repost the toy section of this post in the Housing and accessories section.

My answer to your question would be depending on what you want to happen next. The second female may already be pregnant also, so taking her out means that she will either now be on her own for a while (you could try splitting her to a female pup in 5 weeks) or she will have her own litter soon and have to raise it herself (something she can do herself).

The first female may already be pregnant again too, so she could have a second litter in the next few months. Leaving the male with her will mean that he can help her raise the first litter with her, but you need to take him out before she has the next one. Then you could resplit him to his sons from the first litter a few weeks later.

Some people leave females together if they get pregnant - but there is the chance that one of them will eat the other ones babies. Either way, you need to remove the male before either of them has any more pups. If they stay together, you won't be able to leave their pups with the mums really as females aren't often that stable in large groups in a domestic environment, so you will need to rehome all the females.

Either way, you are going to be needing at least one more tank - possibly 4 short term.

Also, gerbils don't often fight unless they mean it, so them not fighting so far doesn't mean they never will - but when something upsets the balance and they do start to fight, there is no going back - you will have to split them up. Gerbil clans are very delicate and everything always looks fine until it's not. You don't get gerbils living together and having little arguments along the way - it's all or nothing. So you will need to be quite vigilant with your trio - between the females in particular. Trios like yours can work fine through several litters - but it is the pups who draw the short straw.

Unless you want to neuter the male and leave the three of them together?

[maddie]

I think the second female is already pregnant as she seems to be getting bigger each day and I saw the pups nursing from her. It seems like all three are taking care of the first litter very well together. I truly have never seen the females fight they even all sleep together with the babies. If the second female is pregnant you think that the second liter of pups will cause the mothers to fight?

[betty]

Unfortunately you can never tell - until it happens.

Like I said - no gerbils look like they don't love each other - until the start fighting - and if I had a £1 for every time someone said their gerbils loved each other until last night I would be a very rich girl. But, some gerbils never do fight - and so if you feel that it would be worth a go keeping the two females together, then just take out the male ASAP and leave the mums to it. The females may be fine - just you might lose some pups.

There is usually always a dominant female, and it is usually this female who may kill the other females pups so that their own pups have a better chance of survival. Sometimes they allow other the other female to have all their pups and share the nest like besties. Sometimes they only allow them to keep some of their pups and sometimes they 'remove' all of the other females pups.

It really is a gamble.

The only thing you really have control over is removing the male so you only have two more litters max.

Like I said though, you will have to rehome all the pups if you want to keep the two females together for ever after all this has passed, otherwise splitting the females up before the second mum has her pups would mean none could be harmed and would allow you to keep a few female pups from each mum and then you can have yourself 3 happy clans out of this and only rehome the surplus pups (or keep them all yourself and get a few extra tanks...).

Also, if might be worth while if you aren't already - feeding the mums some kitten formula, and scatter feeding sunflower hearts and mealworms etc on top of their normal increased food amount. The nutritional demand of feeding one litter of pups is huge as it is - but if they are going to share feeding of a mega litter, then they will need all the nutrients you can give them to do so. If they don't get the extra nutrients from their food - they will start to use the nutrients up from their own bodies and could really jeapodise their health and that of the growing pups. I would also put in a second water bottle on the opposite side to the existing one - as they need to drink enough water during this time to create all the milk they need to feed their pups.

Help them out here as much as you can, they will certainly all the better for it.

Good luck.