# i need help with my baby gerbils



## kath1975 (Apr 22, 2009)

hi. woke up 3 days ago to 7 gerbils instead of the 2 male gerbils i supposedly started out with. I looked up info on sites but keep getting conflicting info. I have seperated the male and female on day 1 but am upset as this afternoon foun a dead baby. Have I done wrong? I havent touched them is this right or wrong?:confused5:


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

It's an idea to keep the male with the female when it's her first litter as he will help out. But obviously, you'd need a expect another litter.

Are you supplementing the female with additional protein? She needs plenty of food, water and quiet. New mothers can get stressed easily.

Unfortunatly, some pups do die, especially if their the runts of the litter. Don't worry about that. Just keep an eye on them and the mother 

And also, you can touch the pups within hours of birth, so that won't be a reason as to the death of one. And you havn't done anything wrong hun, don't blame yourself


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## kath1975 (Apr 22, 2009)

thanks for the support. she keeps kicking them out of the nest because she is digging by them all the time. i can still hear squeaks but i dont know how many have survived as i darent go near her. should i put the male back in?


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

No, you can leave the male out now 

If it helps, my black female had 5 pups this morning and she constantly digs around the pups. She's just getting more comfy 

This might help. When you pick a pup up and look at it's side, you should see what looks like a tiny white bean. This is the pups stomach and the white colour shows that the pup has a full tummy


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## kath1975 (Apr 22, 2009)

im afraid to go near them as she has always been very nervous around me. she bolts if i walk in the room. we adopted them from a local pet shop after they were taken back a bit worse for wear. 

what should i be feeding her?


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## CharleyRogan (Feb 20, 2009)

Chicken, Cheese, Yoghurt.... anything with protein and fats in.

Char
xxx


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

CharleyRogan said:


> Chicken, Cheese, Yoghurt.... anything with protein and fats in.
> 
> Char
> xxx


After speaking with other gerbil breeders, cheese, youghurt and chicken is not a good idea.
Your best with mealworms (alive or freeze dried). You can buy them from pet shops, wilkinsons and morrisons 
Also from speaking to a breeder in Yorkshire, gerbil mothers don't need additional fat, just protein. Although in my opinion, a little extra fat won't harm her.

Feed her whatever gerbil food your currently feeding her and make sure theres fresh water at all times.
You can give peanuts and sunflower seeds in small amounts and also mealworms :thumbup:


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## Chinquary (Mar 5, 2009)

Marcia said:


> After speaking with other gerbil breeders, cheese, youghurt and chicken is not a good idea.
> Your best with mealworms (alive or freeze dried). You can buy them from pet shops, wilkinsons and morrisons
> Also from speaking to a breeder in Yorkshire, gerbil mothers don't need additional fat, just protein. Although in my opinion, a little extra fat won't harm her.
> 
> ...


Sorry to barge in...
Saw this thread this morning, and so while I was in town, I popped into Wilko's and got some bird meal worms - are those the ones you mean?
And do you know if they are ok for dwarf hammies?

Oh and I saw some baby gerbils in the adoption centre of my local pets at home - so so cute!

Our hamsters did that to us a few months ago - it is a shock at first, but they make up for it in being so utterly cute.


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

Yep, thats them 
I use them for our pregnant and lactating gerbils. 

You can give them to hammies as a treat, a couple each per week


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## Chinquary (Mar 5, 2009)

Thank you.

I just need them to wake up now. =]


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## CharleyRogan (Feb 20, 2009)

Sorry bout the crap advice I gave. I went searching on the net and thats what it said!

Char
xxx


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

It wasn't crap advice hun  I'm just saying that the breeders i know only use mealworms as a source of additional protein


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## kath1975 (Apr 22, 2009)

thanks everyone for your advice. gerbils doing fine at present and i'll have to go and get the mealworms. 

xx

kath


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

keep us updated on their progress 

Fur should start coming in soon too.

Just out of curiosity, what colour are the parents?


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## kath1975 (Apr 22, 2009)

mum is black all over and dad is light brown. she is hiding the pups but i have seen some flashes of a dark colour.


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

It sounds like the mother is black and the father is an Agouti.

At a guess, all of the pups will be Agouti unless there are any hidden recessives


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## kath1975 (Apr 22, 2009)

whats a hidden recessive?????


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

If you don't know about gerbil genetics, it's difficult to understand. It's nothing bad. It just means that you might get a colour turn that you didn't expect


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## kath1975 (Apr 22, 2009)

Help Me Save My Baby Gerbils. Mum Has Not Come Out Of Nest All Day. 5 Babies Alive This Morning Only 2 Left. I Have Brought Them Out To Check On Them And Remove The Dead Ones And They Dont Look Very Full. I Tried Giving Kitten Milk To One Which Took A Bit But I Dont Know If I Am Doing Right. Help Me Please.


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

You need to syringe feed kitten replacement milk every 2 hours to the pups. As they get older, the less they'll need.

Buy the powdered and mix one teaspoon up at a time. Mix 1 part powder with 2 parts room temperature water (according to instructions for a kitten). Stir with your finger and microwave for 7 seconds. Tilt the pup back slightly and put the syringe to the side of the pup's lip. Feed one tiny drop at a time until the pup figures out this is food and laps it up. This milk dries like cement so try not to get it on the pup's fur and wipe excess with a warm, moist paper towel. Use the milk for runts, if the mother's milk is unavailable, or for severe respiratory infection. This is usually used to supplement the gerbil mother's milk or in the final stages of weaning for a pup whose growth stagnates.


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## kath1975 (Apr 22, 2009)

mum is frantic when i go near them will she disown them


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

No she won't 
Maybe she's as worried as you are. I have supplemented 1 pup before and it's 4 weeks old now, she's doing great.

Don't panic, theres still a chance for them


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## kath1975 (Apr 22, 2009)

could i have had the room too cold


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

Here's a link to more information about hand rearing pups 

Health & Breeding | eGerbil

It's about half way down the page


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

kath1975 said:


> could i have had the room too cold


I doubt it. It could have been because your female is a first time mother. There are many factors that dertermine the fate of gerbil pups 
It's certainly not your fault *hugs*


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## kath1975 (Apr 22, 2009)

thanks. prob is i am working 12 hrs tomorrow


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

Could you get someone else to do it for you?

If not, just give a good feed before you leave and hopefully the mother will be able to produce some during the 12 hours for them.


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## kath1975 (Apr 22, 2009)

hi. bad news everyone. none of the babies have survived. really upset i dont know what was wrong. I spent all day yesterday crying. We have now put the male back in and decided that if she has anymore to leave him in with her and accept that we may end up with two broods. I hope this will work out ok. can you all give me some advice so that i can help them be more ready when their next pups arrive.


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

I'm so sorry hun 
I've left you a visitor message


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## kath1975 (Apr 22, 2009)

hi. she had another litter a week ago and they seem to be doing fine. covered half cage with towel had taken out the layers and toys. also left male in this time. hopefully everything will be fine this time. we think there are about three but we havent seen them yet. any advice appreciated. thanks for your support.


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## shellinch (Apr 2, 2009)

you really need to take that male out! otherwise your gunna have litters every 6 weeks until she either dies or cant do it no more!

you were right the first time aroudn for taking the male away and the females will always lose some in their first litter as they dont know what they are doing! even kittens and dogs lose some and somtimes all their litter! its not like us hwre they have books to read up on etc...

you must seperate otherwise you just gunna have more and more babies to deal with and if you cant give them away thats more for the charities to have to deal with!

also mum can literally conceive days after birth and then if you dont properly sex and split babies they can mate with each other and mum from as young as 6 weeks old!

i dont mean to sound rude but its not that responsible to going stickign the male back in is it? thats just asking for trouble! and you obviously dont knwo how to sex them properly so what are you going to do when it comes to spliting up the babies too??? your gunna end up with loads of gerbals. encouraging interbreeding, over breeding. you may think its great to have babies but it isnt fair on your female to keep letting it happen!


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

shellinch said:


> you really need to take that male out! otherwise your gunna have litters every 6 weeks until she either dies or cant do it no more!
> 
> you were right the first time aroudn for taking the male away and the females will always lose some in their first litter as they dont know what they are doing! even kittens and dogs lose some and somtimes all their litter! its not like us hwre they have books to read up on etc...
> 
> ...


That's quite harshly worded even if it is true.

Unfortunately, the male does need removing, it's not advisable to breed more than 2-3 litters back to back, it can be damaging to the females health.

For shellinch's information once again. The pup are not sexually mature until they reach 10-12 weeks of age. Even though you should remove the pups at 6 weeks of age, keeping them together for a few more days is not going to cause a problem.


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## shellinch (Apr 2, 2009)

oops my bad wrong breed info for sexual maturity 9-12 weeks but then there are cases where liek anything maturity can come later or earlier so just to be safe you must split by 6 weeks.

atleast im the only person that has brought up the fact that she shouldnt be breeding them full stop. yeah lets tell her to put the male back in liek you did marcia. lets encourage breeding! 

and just because you dont like me which oooo i kinda guessed does not give you the right to be so nasty and rude to me! especaily when your the one encouraging her on. since you seem to know so much why havnt you brought up any of these facters yet???

like the female can get pregnant literally strait away after giving birth?
removing the male strait away to prevent this?
being able to actualy sex the gerbils?
female being over bred at such young age?
getting homes for them all if she doesnt intend to keep them?? or theyl end up at a charity

cumon you may not like me but you know encouraging breeding is wrong! you shoudl have told her strait away to remove the male and not let her become pregantagain but guess wot. you told her to put male back in and guess what second litter! thats not very good advice! there should nver have had to cum to a second litter!


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## shellinch (Apr 2, 2009)

and its not her fault because she generally doesnt knwo what she is doing and its people telling her wrong advice which has led to this so im not having ago at her im having ago at people who tell her to put the male back in and not giving her the exact facters to what will happen and how gerbal mate etc...!

kath im not having ago at you as i mean you dont generally know what to do as you wouldnt be asking for help off people on here. its just not fair that people have given you the wrong advice and when they have given you advice they havnt explained themselfs properly and given you the pro's and con's to make up your own desicion!


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

shellinch said:


> oops my bad wrong breed info for sexual maturity 9-12 weeks but then there are cases where liek anything maturity can come later or earlier so just to be safe you must split by 6 weeks.
> 
> atleast im the only person that has brought up the fact that she shouldnt be breeding them full stop. yeah lets tell her to put the male back in liek you did marcia. lets encourage breeding!
> 
> and just because you dont like me which oooo i kinda guessed does not give you the right to be so nasty and rude to me! especaily when your the one encouraging her on. since you seem to know so much why havnt you brought up any of these facters yet???


I have never said to put the male back in other than when the female was pregant the first time!!!  Males help with the upkeep of the pups and all males should be present during the females first ever litter.

I always remove my males before the arrival of the second litter so that the female does not breed again! 

And also, i've never said that i don't like you so stop twisting things. I have never encouraged her on, she had the first litter accidentally which is not her fault! Yes, she shouldn't have put the male back in because if you keeping producing pups from the same female back to back, it can have serious health problems! And she did not mention that she had put the male back in before yesterday, otherwise i would have advised her not to.


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## shellinch (Apr 2, 2009)

see thats a better explanation. but do you see where im cumn from she doesnt have a clue and you didnt exactly explain proeprly until now. for example you didnt say to keep male with first litter but as you have already removed hm dont put him back because....

when giving information to people who dont have a clue you really need to explain the pros and cons and go into to it fully.

thas all im saying!


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

shellinch said:


> see thats a better explanation. but do you see where im cumn from she doesnt have a clue and you didnt exactly explain proeprly until now. for example you didnt say to keep male with first litter but as you have already removed hm dont put him back because....
> 
> when giving information to people who dont have a clue you really need to explain the pros and cons and go into to it fully.
> 
> thas all im saying!


I said that by putting the male back in, she would need to expect another litter which she didn't want. So i'm confused as to why a second litter has appeared. Obviously they wanted another litter.


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## kath1975 (Apr 22, 2009)

hi all. i am glad my predicament has caused this discussion as i think it was inept of the pet shop to let me adopt the gerbils when they were incorrectly sexed. I intend on keeping any of the pups that she has as i love them. I intend to remove the male in 2 weeks time once the pups are over the first few weeks. I am doing everything i can to look after them and do not intend on her becoming pregnant again. I am well aware that she will have another litter from leaving the male in but we didnt want them to live alone and wanted her to have some young. I believe all owners should be shown how to sex their pets so that this situation can be prevented. I have looked up various sites about sexing the pups at 11 days and later. I hope i can rely on you all to make sure that i can confidently sex them correctly as like you say i do not believe in encouraging inter breeding either. 

I am trying to do my best in an awkward situation.

thank you everyone for the continued advice you have given me.


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## sakurakero (May 21, 2009)

i found i didn't have to add anything extra to my gerbil when she had any of her litters and they tend to eat the babies if they die shes just cleaning the cage up so don't be alarmed if u see that at all. U will very rarely have a pup die. Never believe a pet shop on sexing of animals learn to do it yourself. Gerbils are the best small animals for lookin after pups there great parents. Even if she is a jumpy gerbil feel free to handle them about 2mins per pup a day will help tame them


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## bexy1989 (May 10, 2009)

kath1975 said:


> hi all. i am glad my predicament has caused this discussion as i think it was inept of the pet shop to let me adopt the gerbils when they were incorrectly sexed. I intend on keeping any of the pups that she has as i love them. I intend to remove the male in 2 weeks time once the pups are over the first few weeks. I am doing everything i can to look after them and do not intend on her becoming pregnant again. I am well aware that she will have another litter from leaving the male in but we didnt want them to live alone and wanted her to have some young. I believe all owners should be shown how to sex their pets so that this situation can be prevented. I have looked up various sites about sexing the pups at 11 days and later. I hope i can rely on you all to make sure that i can confidently sex them correctly as like you say i do not believe in encouraging inter breeding either.
> 
> I am trying to do my best in an awkward situation.
> 
> thank you everyone for the continued advice you have given me.


the pups will have to stay with the mum till at least 6 weeks old


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## Lavenderb (Jan 27, 2009)

The pups can be sexed straight after birth if you know what you are looking for. The females genital area will be closer to the anus then the males, but this can be hard to tell if your not totally sure. The females will develop nipples as the days go by, this is another good indicator of sex.

Feel free to post up some photos of the pups bum areas lol , we can try to help you sex them if you aren't sure.


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## kath1975 (Apr 22, 2009)

pups are 2 weeks old today. there are 3 of them. all doing well. 2 brown with white around eyes 1 all black. havent handled them yet as we are afraid of anything going wrong. moved towel yesterday and mum and dad dont seem to mind us watching them. 1 brave pup even took a stroll around the tank looking for mum.


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

You need to start handling them asap in order for them to become tame 

I handle them from day 1 so that they can get used to my smell before they open their eyes. Imagine opening your eyes and seeing a giant staring at you lol


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## kath1975 (Apr 22, 2009)

hi all. gerbils been keeping me busy. they are so adorable. one is light brown, one is slightly darker and 1 black with a white belly. black one like mum but other 2 really light compared to dad. soooooooo cute. been playing with them every day. mum and dad fine with us handling them. it has even made them more friendly.


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## kath1975 (Apr 22, 2009)

please help me anyone. i have mum, female teenager (3 1/2 months and famale baby (2 months) in a gerbilarium. mum has started chasing teenager around cage trying to sniff her butt teenager if having none of it and running frantically around cage being chased by mum. Why? What can you suggest to stop it. Mum done the same about 4 weeks ago them things settled down. teenager terrified though and jumps out of cage at me when i open the door.
Had mum in ball for 3 hours today to give others peace but cant seperate them because of cost and lonliness. any suggestions please?


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

kath1975 said:


> please help me anyone. i have mum, female teenager (3 1/2 months and famale baby (2 months) in a gerbilarium. mum has started chasing teenager around cage trying to sniff her butt teenager if having none of it and running frantically around cage being chased by mum. Why? What can you suggest to stop it. Mum done the same about 4 weeks ago them things settled down. teenager terrified though and jumps out of cage at me when i open the door.
> Had mum in ball for 3 hours today to give others peace but cant seperate them because of cost and lonliness. any suggestions please?


I sent you a wall message helping you out


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