Hi Bill,
I am pretty close to both Londonderry and Goffstown but closer to
the Mass. border. I'll honk for you when I pass through!
There seems does seem to be patterns of pup losses - stillbirths,
small
litters, a couple in large litters, various accidents being the most
common. I've been fortunate here; my issue with Cara is that the pups
are sleek and healthy up to 3 weeks old, then at weaning time the
development of some subset of the litter seems to slow down in growth.
Some pups continue to grow and wean just fine. In her first litter it
was just one pup that stopped growing; I did the "just let nature take
its course" approach here and watched her fade and die. With the next
litter only one continued to grow and five showed the same-type symptoms
so at 4 weeks I put tetracycline in the water for their clicking and
gave KMR to the three worse-off ones for a week. They came through just
fine and weaned successfully at 5 weeks. One of the two small pups that
I did not supplemental feed at all died. The last one that I did not
supplemental feed looked bad at 5 weeks so I did give him KMR from 5-6
weeks (I know this is old for milk for pups, but these 5 are all small
about 2 inches in body length). I think he will be okay.
In general I do very strongly agree with your philosophy of "let the
parents raise their pups". Especially when the pups are under two
weeks.
But...I think there are times where jumping in to keep the pups fed or
warm is
appropriate -- either when you know from experience exactly what the
problem
is or other people on the list or another expert/experienced source
guide you
through the situation. Otherwise, I think the parents are the best bet.
As for breeding Cara again -- this is a main factor, but not the
only
one. Others are that she produces a lot of agoutis which are harder to
place
than colors and that she is an athletic, adventuresome girl and the
simple
breeding setup seems to get her a bit loopy after a while. I think she
is better off paired in a tunnel and multilevel housing setup. Plus I
have other
females with better breeding success and genetics.
Thanks for listening. Donna
PS -- any tips for getting more protein into a picky eater like Cara?
Blossom is easy, she'll down as many crickets as she can get.
Bill Cole wrote:
> From: "Donna Anastasi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> | Hi Bill, it is so great that you've had no losses of pups. I think my
> major
> | issue is the breeding (mother). If I breed again it will be with
> another
> | female. Donna
> |
>
> Hi Donna --
>
> My 30 live/0 lost reply appears pompous when I look at it. I attribute
> that good luck to my ignorance, so I kept hands off and let the gerbils
> handle all of it. Except I furnished lots of toilet paper, and extra
> protein + fat.
>
> Please don't decommission your favored female without further info.
>
> Do you notice much more birthing hassle reported in GML than there was
> even a few months ago? I can't believe gerbils have changed that quickly.
>
> BTW -- Please wave north to Londonderry and Goffstown NH, where most of
> my blood relatives live.
