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Post by beachbumgerbils on Oct 2, 2020 7:54:02 GMT -8
So I have an interesting situation...I bought (rescued) a bunch of gerbils (27!) from a breeder that got in over her head and just ended up with too many. They lived outside in stacked wire cages, wet shavings, pretty horrible conditions overall. I just couldn't leave any behind. She had 4 cages and I just transferred them directly into 4 aquariums and ran away. One of the cages was of the females she had been breeding. She was breeding 2 females with 1 male in a single cage...she had finally taken the male out when things got out of hand. So the cage currently has 2 adult females and the offspring (male and female) of what appears to be 2 separate litters. My guess is that one set is about 3 weeks and one is about 5 weeks. The individuals of the smaller group weigh 17-20 grams, the individuals of the larger group weighs 33-36 gram. I need help figuring out when to wean each group so I don't end up with even more gerbils! But I don't know when they were born...I just have weights to go off of. [These guys have been transferred to a much bigger cage, this was just for transport and pictures]
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Post by betty on Oct 2, 2020 9:10:59 GMT -8
Well done for rehoming them - they look adorable.
I do have a chart somewhere of all my pup weights at 6 weeks old - let me see if I can find it...
Also though, I would say if the youngest are about 3 weeks (eyes open at 3 weeks so I would say they are defo older than that) - then in 3 weeks further for sure they would be old enough to have been weaned as 6 weeks is ok at the bottom end for leaving their parents. It is the older ones who might be harder to judge visually.
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Post by suy on Oct 2, 2020 9:16:31 GMT -8
I’ve seen people on like Reddit, etc, who say they want to breed, but they seem they are amateur breeders. I don’t get it (!). It feels so irresponsible.
(Sorry to go off-thread)
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Post by betty on Oct 2, 2020 9:19:47 GMT -8
OK - so I had a chance to look now and it seems that on average I found the following:
6 weeks - average weight of just my own gerbils = 40g 8 weeks - average weight if just my own gerbils = 50g
Obviously they can be lighter if there were more in your litter and I have had individuals who were just over 30g at 6 weeks and just over 40g at 8 weeks. I suppose there will always be some wiggle room.
Also, the darker mother has an interesting moult pattern there - has it been like that long?
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Post by gerbilord on Oct 2, 2020 11:03:15 GMT -8
I always consider breeding, but I could never sell them as I don't know who's going to use them or for what (I'd absolutely hate my poor babies to be used for snake food). therefore I think I'd get overwhelmed with them and that isn't fair to the gerbils, so I think I'll stick to adopting same sex pairs from rescues.
(plus, there's so many gerbils and other pets that are in rehoming centres that it doesn't really make sense for me to be adding more to the number that are already in the world)
If I could manage it, I think it would be a great experience and very interesting to see all the different colours/breeds you can get, the pregnancy and birthing steps all the way to adult gerbils, but then I think about the tragedy of still borns, dead pups, neglected pups, and that would be overwhelming with grief for me I think.
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Post by beachbumgerbils on Oct 2, 2020 13:23:41 GMT -8
betty - Thanks so much for looking that up for me! So my plan is to continue to weigh them. Likely separate the larger babies in 1-2 weeks and the younger ones in 3-4 weeks. I've done a ton of research before deciding to do a little breeding myself, but I wasn't anticipating this particular situation...I just could not leave any of them in that condition. And the ironic thing was that she didn't even have the Siamese gerbil that I originally went to look at. I literally just picked up the whole clan yesterday, so I don't know how long that molt pattern has been like that, but I noticed it too. I'll keep you updated!
Yeah, this lady lived in a really (really) small town and I guess she thought she would be able to make money off of selling them, except that there was no demand for gerbils in a really small town. I am really, really glad that I already pretty much had all of the open aquariums I would need. I have more in 10 gallons than I would like, but I'll work on that and at least they aren't outside any more. She had 5 adult males together and 2 of them had pretty nasty healing wounds from fighting.
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Post by Markpd on Oct 3, 2020 9:53:59 GMT -8
Wow! That's one big rescue you've done!
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Post by beachbumgerbils on Oct 3, 2020 15:48:15 GMT -8
Yeah, make that 31 gerbils! The female I thought was possibly pregnant was definitely pregnant. I found 4 bald pink wiggling little aliens this afternoon.
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Post by Markpd on Oct 4, 2020 3:25:14 GMT -8
Lol. Do you have enough cages?
Btw, I can't believe that the 'breeder' seemed to have no concept of how many she'd be able to sell in her area! What on earth was she thinking?? And you'd think she'd stop them breeding earlier once she realised she wasn't able to sell them quickly enough!
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Post by beachbumgerbils on Oct 4, 2020 7:47:01 GMT -8
I don't have them in as big of cages as I would like, but I had been slowly gathering enough cages to start breeding myself in the next couple of months. So I was much better prepared than I could have been. Now it will be much longer before I plan any litters of my own. But I'm happy that I was able to just take them all away. I couldn't have chosen just a few.
The lady seemed nice enough, just completely clueless. She said her cats would be sad because they couldn't come over and stare and bat at them any more....I just took them all and I hope she learned her lesson and doesn't try it with some other species.
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Post by Markpd on Oct 4, 2020 8:54:09 GMT -8
Omg, bad enough they were outside, and they had a cat stressing them out too! Like you said, she's clueless, she shouldn't even have a pair let alone breed them!
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Post by betty on Oct 5, 2020 5:05:06 GMT -8
Jeez. Glad they are now with you then - but sorry it messes up your plans for a bit.
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Post by beachbumgerbils on Oct 6, 2020 9:21:00 GMT -8
Meh. I wanted baby gerbils and now I have a whole bunch of them! Playing with colors and genetics can wait. The little guys that are 4-6 weeks old are so cute and entertaining! And I have been pleasantly surprised at how friendly all of these guys are. I don't know if she got lucky and started with really good stock or did actually handle them some, but they are all happy to crawl all over my hand and aren't nippy at all.
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Post by Markpd on Oct 6, 2020 10:19:16 GMT -8
Very cute, and good to hear they're behaving nicely too
Of your new photos, are the top pup and bottom adult Satin creams?? I thought only Hamsters had that colour. Or is it just the photos making them look that way?
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Post by LilyandDaisy on Oct 6, 2020 10:43:22 GMT -8
I think the bottom one at least is either argente (if the belly is white) or red fox (if the belly is not white). The eyes look red but the white doesn't extend up the sides so it's not a red eyed honey.
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