Will a male/female pair ever declan?

[wendybird]

I have a pair with a female over two and she has never gotten pregnant. I'm wondering if male/female pairings are less likely to declan? Compared to the possibility with same sex pairs.

[betty]

Very interesting question indeed when you drill down to the specific details.

I am not sure though, if there was ever a way to say that is was the gender-combination of a clan that did it unfortunately - I think it all hinges more on whether they were split together or were raised together from pups/one pup.

I didn't keep such detailed records in the past myself on this particular stat - but I can't remember ever having a declan between two adults who were originally split together when one or both of them was already an adult - either males or females. Any pair I split together (past teething) has stayed together until one of them passed. I even ran some retirement experiments where male and females partnered each other out into the 3s and 4s without a single squabble - even when illness struck.

However, as far as I can remember, all the pairs or trios that declanned contained at least one gerbil who was a pup right from the get go - even if this includes their siblings or parents - but not all such pairs declanned of course.

Perhaps you should re-read the thread where all the declans are listed and see if any of those were M:F pairs? Perhaps some more seasoned breeders would have more stats on this - especially if they pair for life with their clans.