The orgins of my breeding program #2

[gerbils4fun]

I decided about the weeks ago to get another Gerbil and even take it a step further, start a breeding Program. I then got online and started looking for a local breeder knowing that would be a better sorce of breeding stock then a pet store. However i could not find one. I will be the first to registar with the AGS for my state, when I do sometime this next week or so. So I resigned myself and went to the small local pet store.. Both of them were out so I had to go to petco and hope..... I picked out a Siamese(I hope) I am also gonna post a pick of him for confimation of color. I also picked out a black..... when I got home and delved a lottle further into genetics I kept comming to the nothion that I would wind up with blacks most of the times and in order to avoid this i decided to go ahead and start my second pair. I then went back to the small pet store and picked out a PEW and what I believe is a golded augouti or a nutmeg. I will also post a pic of him when I do the siamese. so I have a siamese and a PEW as a pair and a black and a golded augouti or a nutmeg as a second pair. each side of the pair is from a diffrent store. So i hope i have solved the inbreeding problem. The smaller pet store said that there was a whole lota gerbs in a little cage when they brought in the PEW and the golded augouti I have. I am scared that they have medical issues but unless I want to spend a whole lot of money on just getting my program started I did not have many options. the AGS does not even have anyone registared from arkansas and the closeses I could find was Missouri.... I have recently discovered another problem with one of the grebs from the pet store..... He has a little to much attitude.... He bit me twice(never drew blood) and it was not a let me taste you it was a put me the heck down bite... He has since started to settle down a little though I still have to chase him a bit when trying to catch him.... so There is the start up of my program... I plan on selecting a gerb from each pair and locating another pair onling to match them with so as not to cross my lines to soon after out breeding again. i relize this is a shakey start to my program but I think with careful selection of the offspring for further breeding I will be ok.

[doomgerbiluk]

Couple of things here.
I'm sure you've checked the why do you want to breed? thread so I won't go over those.
My first thought is this, if the litter has any issues including the runs, RI or deformations please do not continue to breed from them.
The aggressive gerbil may have just had a bad start in life BUT if the aggression continues it is very likely he will produce aggressive offspring. If all is well and you continue to breed from the offspring PLEASE choose pups with a pleasant disposition to reduce this risk in future generations.
As they are pet shop gerbils and you do not have a good history of them it might be an idea to supplement their feed with a course of vitamins before breeding.

[gerbils4fun]

Thankyou for the reply. The overly agressive one is turning out to be a dream with everyday handling he is settling down and I have started to not take him out unless he chooses to climb in my hand and he is doing wonderful now. Still a little nervous but otherwise is settling down. And he almost always chooses to come out for a miniute. So like you said he coulda just had a bad start and I really think that was the case..... And my plan for breeding is not only to better the availiable gerbils in the area but to promote them and get people intrested in them in my area. They are not all that popular here though I cant imagin why,