> I would find it quite enlightening to hear the possible effects of
> inbreeding. I have a second-generation pair and know I'll need to pull in
> new DNA after this generation, but I'd like to know what happens to
gerbils
> if inbred.
My original breeding pair
(http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Reserve/1928/BreedingPairs.html)
produced a total of 10 litters from Nov. 1998 to Oct. 1999. Out of these ten
litters, they produced two pups from different litters that were born with
kinks in their tails. I still have one of these pups, he is pied black. You
can see a not-so-good picture of him at
(http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Reserve/1928/Salty.html) I am using him
for breeding (with an unrelated pied Golden Agouti) and he has not
reproduced his kinked tail. Also, he is a small gerbil.
My original breeding pair started out as part of a trio of males, but two
weeks after purchasing them, one of them had pups! (Good ol' pet shop sexing
expertise!)
I believe these three gerbils that I purchased were all from the same
litter. They were in the same tank at the pet shop when I bought them. (At
the time I didn't even know the AGS, NGS, and the GML exisited, I didn't
even know there were gerbil breeders on the net!) Who would of thought?
I kept the three gerbils together, (one female, two males--another thread),
They all seemed fine living like this. Last April of 1999, Pretzy one of the
males, passed
away.(http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Reserve/1928/Memorial.html),
Ann-Marie L. Roberts
T&T Gerbils
Escanaba, MI
AGS member MI004
Please visit my website at:
http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Reserve/1928/
