I was wondering about the different ways that male gerbils help to raise
their pups.
For the first 10 days of pup rearing Alan and Cara seemed to work in
shifts. They had two nests established with Cara on the "pup nest" most
of the time. Whenever Cara got up to eat or drink or gnaw up something
Alan would run over and settle right in on top of the pups. Sometimes
Cara would move over to the empty nest and take a break and let Alan
spend a good amount of time sitting on the pups. Four or five times I
found a single pup with Alan in the other nest (he seemed to take the
same one every time -- the argente cream girl) -- maybe he got lonely
there all by himself.
Now the nest is moved to a third corner of the tank and the whole
family all sleeps there together in a big gerbil & pup pile. They seem
very content.
