Unexpected litter - now dad and two females

[brindle]

Hi everyone. We found an unexpected litter today of unknown number as yet (a couple of days old), from what we thought was a mum and two daughters. Main question is when to move the male as we've read about the male staying until pups are 4-5 weeks or just before female gives birth in normal male and female pair cases, but we now have have two adult females and a male.

So they could both now be pregnant, or the daughter may not be pregnant yet, or could give birth to a litter in next few days / weeks. So we want to stop any additional litters beyond the possible three we already may have coming.

Please help if you have any advice. We are thinking maybe better in this case to move the male sooner and we'd have to do a split cage method to add any boy pups we find after say 4 weeks?

[betty]

Hi there brindle - how's things? Have you already moved anyone or are they all still together?


You are right that both the other gerbils (if both females) could well be pregnant again already - but depending on the age of the pup (and the dominantion of the mother if this is the case) she may well not have mated (or at least not carry the litter in rare cases).

Taking the male out will be the only way to prevent a further pregnancy if she isn't already pregnant of course - and male pups are usually very easy to introduce back to dad even after several weeks.


As you may already be aware, gerbil 1:2 trios can have issues with the females after mating - but there are now a growing number of reported female pairs who can breed and raise pups together - it really all hangs on how they are interacting with each other and sometimes how close/distant the births are. This would totally be up to you with your decision.

Leaving the females together could allow them to support each other raising the pups (especially if the female pup herself is very young) - however there is always the risk of the more dominant female (and/or the one with the first pups) to reject the pups from a second younger litter or one born to a subordinate female, and she may even injure or kill some or all of the pups. If you would rather leave the females together long term anyway - then perhaps that is a risk worth taking.

[brindle]

Thank you so much for replying. We are at 1 week we think, with 6 lovely pups and we are going to take the male out tomorrow into his new dad pad! So helpful, thank you

[betty]

Fingers crossed it all stays on track then - let's hope the 2 girls stay friends...

[brindle]

Hi Betty and all,

We are at day 10 and whilst getting the babies out 1 by 1 for a little cuddle, we took out the dad into his new home. The mum freaked out and when the topper was back on, she kept taking the babies one by one, carrying them up to the topper and leaving them in or next to the sandbowl. She was also digging a bit in the sand and they were in distress. We observed and took the babies back down to auntie (who is doing brilliantly) but mum kept repeating it. We have decided to put dad back in and that seems to have calmed everything down. Any advice? Dad needs to come out as we don't know if and when auntie might have babies for her first time and can't manage another litter after that and mums already second one on the way.

Wait a few more days? Try again? Get rid of the topper even? It's down to about 15cm burrowing material from normal 25-30cm.

X thank you

[betty]

Sorry for the delay - what did you decide on?

It is always complicated with a pregnant trio as there are so many possible variables - but I would have possibly suggested not putting the topper back on when you take the male out the next time.

Having the first mum stressed isn't ideal - so hopefully without hte topper she will be less mobile with them - does she have her wheel just out of interest as sometimes that can distract them and let them clear their mind focussing on that.

It can go either way with the second female if she has pups - it is really a total unknown with two litters in together. The usual suggestion given on this and other forums/chats is to take out the second female of course - so anything other than that is very much a wait and see situation.