I know this can be tricky, but... I am bringing together two gerbils just for mating -- Blossom my nutmeg girl and Silver Bullet my silver nutmeg spot boy. My goal is for Blossom to have one more litter and keep a girl pup for her partner and pass on some of Silver Bullet's great genes. Last evening I cleaned out Blossom's cage completely then put Bullet in a small habitrail cage within her tank and then put Blossom in the outer cage for a while. I just watched them for about an hour. It was very apparent that Blossom was very interested. She was pressing up against the plastic, trying to gnaw him out and rubbing her belly on things. Wearing gloves, I removed the small cage and put Bullet in with Blossom. She in fact did want to mate with him and tried every move possible to give him the message for the next few hours. Bullet however is young and inexperienced (12 weeks, never fathered a litter). He did engage is some preliminary mating behavior, but I'm guessing there was not success. Late that night I reintroduced Bullet with his male clan. That went fine although king Alan (a seasoned breeder) was very interested in Bullet's smell. I watched them for an hour or so rubbing litter and Alan-Bullet smell on the two of them. My plan is to do this again -- introducing Bullet on days 4,5,6 and if/when Blossom shows interest to put them together again. Any tips from anyone who's tried this with success (or not) would be very much appreciated!
