longest length of time between litters? indefinite!
Sometimes the post-birth mating doesn't take. Sometimes gerbil mom's take a
break for as long as a month or two before getting pregnant again.
Sometimes, due to extraneous stressors, she may never successfully give
birth again.
My experience with Cindy: She had one litter very young (she lived with two
older males). Then no pups for about 2 or 3 months, then 4 litters about 5
or 6 weeks apart, then no more. Right after she weaned the last litter, two
ferrets moved into the house and she increased her attacks on her two male
partners. I removed the most damaged male and she started attacking the
other male. She sometimes looked a little fat, but never had pups. Finally
I removed the second male. My only guess is that the addition of the smelly
carnivores worried her into not reproducing. Of course, she didn't act
stressed, she just started attacking her male partners and refused to mate.
Who knows what is happening in the bodies of our gerbils?
Deb Adams
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
