Its also possible their inter uterine position affected their
fertility.
See old Email from Jul 13 1998, below--
Subject: Re: Re-pairing
Michelle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
I am quite worried about my little PEW female Digger.
Julian responds--
I doubt that it is anything you are doing. Some gerbil pairs just never
reproduce. This is probably due to inter uterine position effects.
In the womb a gerbils will develop either:
a) between two gerbils of the same sex,
b) between two gerbils of the opposite sex
c) between one of each
d) at one end of the uterus and be next to one pup of either the same or
opposite sex.
Gerbils can therefore be described as 1F, 2F, 1M or 2M to describe the
numbers of pups of a particular sex that developed next to them.
Females that are 2F make the best mothers, breed earlier, more often and
have larger litters with higher survival rates. Females who are 2m are
the opposite and 1M and 1F females are in between.
The same happens with males with 2M males being better breeders than 2F
males.
If you are unlucky enough to have a pairing of a 2M female and a 2F male
you will not have much success breeding from them.
Julian
--
**********************************************
* Jackie and Julian
*
* [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*
* National Gerbil Society
*
* http://www.rodent.demon.co.uk/gerbils/
*
* Disclaimer - Our views do not necessarily represent those of the NGS *
**********************************************
BTW Did Digger ever have Babies? if so when?
--
Gary's web pages -
http://home.talkcity.com/StudioDr/go5
