# Need advice regarding gerbil explosion!



## Lorelei80 (Aug 25, 2014)

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## ForestWomble (May 2, 2013)

Lorelei80 said:


> I've owned lots of rodents, including gerbils when I was younger. It has been awhile since then and I'm having a hard time remembering a lot of information.
> My teenage daughter acquired a pair of gerbils last year. She was told that they were both females. A few months went by and one day while I was playing with the gerbils I noticed that one was in fact a male.
> We figured since they did not mate already, we would just leave them together. One whole year went by before we heard little squeaks coming from the cage. The mother had 4 pups a little over 6 weeks ago. I kept the father in with her since I already saw them mating once again. I falsely assumed that the mating wouldn't take as it took so long for them to have the first litter.
> Tomorrow we were going to separate the Mom gerbil with her 1 daughter and keep the 3 sons in with the Dad. Then my husband informed me that he thought he heard squeaking coming from the cage again. I thought it would be impossible.
> ...


Hello Lorelei80 and welcome to the forum 

First of all, I would split the males from the females, though I am not sure if keeping anyone with mum would be OK or not, I guess that mum must be ok with the others otherwise I would of thought the new pups would be dead by now, but I don't know.

Not sure how many males can live together, I googled the question but couldn't find an answer, the only thing mentioned was that the bigger the group the more likely a possible de-clan at some point. Maybe max of 4, possibly 6? Wouldn't risk going above 6 though.


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## Epilum (Apr 21, 2014)

Heya.

I've been in your situation before, and when it happened I was really scared. Mainly because I had two females with pups. All the pups however except one was healthy in both litters. Here's how to deal with when your gerbils get pups.

First off all, gerbils are couples when they bring up their children, so if you are breeding you should keep the male and female together. However, since you are not, you need to buy a separate cage large enough to house a female with pups, and one for the father and his children. I separated my females and males immediately, because gerbils BREED RIGHT AFTER THEY GIVE BIRTH.

Don't separate the pups until they are of age(around 5-6 weeks), they need to be with their mother until they are old enough so they will learn crucial skills.

Introducing father and son, introduce them ONE AT a time. Use another cage that is completely unscented, it needs to be neutral ground. You can place the father and son together in the cage, however you must watch them very closely. They will run around in the cage and the pup will be scared, but as long as the father is not drawing blood he is only investigating and sniffing the pup. It will seem a bit scary at first but you will truly see when gerbils fight so leave them to figure it out for a few minutes. I would then place the next pup in the cage with the introduced pup and father. I have only introduced one pup before.

Males can be in almost unlimited numbers, the father will establish dominance over the offspring, and because there will be no females they will be fine.

Females can be more than pairs, however it isn't recommended because they do require a large amount of space to be kept happy.

You have to consider the size of their cage, depending on how many you have I would suggest buying two large sized aquariums.

Sex them early on, you should be able to see at 3 weeks if they got little bells under their tails and from there on plan who will be together. 

Personally I would try to keep all females together as the mother will establish dominance over the pups and so I believe it will be fine 

I wish you good luck  Gerbils are wonderful animals and it's so much fun when they are in bigger pairs!


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## Tomskrat (Aug 11, 2011)

OP says pups are over 6 weeks. 
In which case all females from the first litter MUST be seperated from their father. Else it is possible they will also breed, and there will be a lot of babies. As your were originally planning dad and male babies from the 1st litter should be seperated from ALL females in a large tank for themselves. Mum and females from 1st litter can be left together as long as mum doesn't seem stressed by their presence and there's no fighting. As your aware mother may be pregnant again so be prepared to house even more litters.


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