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Post by Ferbillover on Aug 17, 2005 18:50:32 GMT -8
Well, I was over at a friends house a few nights ago an he has about 18 gerbils ,...about 10 in the top tank im guessing its a 70 gallon aqeriem ...four males in a ten gallon ...an one male an female in a nother 10 gallon. My friend recently had luck breeding in the large cage. BUT one day these kids barged into his house it was a older sister an a yunger brother. they went right to the cage an the sister saw the pinkies wile mama gerbil was rounding them up. (lasey dady gerb ;D)after she saw the pinkies she started touching them an stuff.Any way i walked into the gerbil room an saw one of the small gerbils from a elier litter chewing on one of the pinkies heads  !!! still in shock i told my friend immeditly an by the time he got there we could only find two of them one dead an the other with half of it's body gone  ! I feltso bad for the littel thing cause it was laying there withhalf of it's body chewen off sqerming aroung in ageny an gaspin for air. there were 7 pinkies an we found 2 of them the other ones were eaten compleatly for future refrence...why do gerbils do this ...im open to all awensers ....  ? |
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Post by reallybes on Aug 17, 2005 19:07:50 GMT -8
It was most likely because like you said, someone touched the pinkies. Gerbils identify each other by smell, so the gerbil attacked & ate the 'strange' smelling pinkies. The kid probably had a weird smell on her hands and spread it all over the pups. I read that they are usually fine with the smell of the original owners, so next time tell him to limit 'touching' to him only.
Another reason might be that disturbing the pinkies made the other gerbils nervous while they were tending to the pups. This raises the risk of cannibalism. When mom has pups, she needs to be given a lot of privacy.
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Post by gerbillover2000 on Aug 18, 2005 13:23:17 GMT -8
they also eat there dead young. perhaps he died, and she ate him.
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Post by reallybes on Aug 18, 2005 13:27:26 GMT -8
Yeah true, but he did not indicate they were dead before his friend's sister started touching them.
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Post by gerbillover2000 on Aug 18, 2005 13:43:44 GMT -8
*nodds*
true. could have happend tho.
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Post by reallybes on Aug 18, 2005 13:48:48 GMT -8
Yup you are absolutely right. They will eat their dead young  |
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Post by gerbillover2000 on Aug 18, 2005 14:52:18 GMT -8
i know that. while i'm not a breeder,, me gerbs made love once, when they were supposed to be males... *shakes head*
i'm only 13, but i have been around them since i was 4. i know quite a bit about them.
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Post by sandy on Aug 19, 2005 10:16:19 GMT -8
I have heard of gerbils from earlier litters eating the next litter to prevent overpopulation. Sounds like this is the case. I never leave the earlier litter in with a highly expectant mom, that's just my preference. I don't like taking that chance.
I also think that it gives the new litter a greater chance at mom's nipples if the older ones aren't still butting in for a suckle, which they do for quite a while.
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