>I spoke with the mom again today. The bites were deep and the gerbil
>bit her daughter on two fingers and a thumb. The gerbil was indeed
>quite pregnant (if that matters) -- that evening she had six pups. (So
>Alan & Blossom are grandparents, now). I also found out that a while
>ago this same gerbil nipped (no blood) a friend of theirs on his ear;
>making this a second bite for her.
Some have a tendency to be nippy.
>What would you recommend that I advice the mom/girls to do about this
>gerbil? I think they are willing to forgive this one bite, but if it
>happens again...
If the female keeps it up, you're probably best to take it back or
help them find another home for her.... if she has babies, they
can always keep a gentler female pup to take her place.
Some hamsters, no matter what I do, were bad nippers. Now days,
I tend not to breed them as the tendency can be perpetuated....as
a high strung animal, it lashes out first....and I concentrate on breeding
gentle laid back animals. I know, gerbils are a different animal,
but the policy and tendency to only want to perpetuate good
mannered animals should be something we all strive for.
>>I have never been bitten by a pregnant female that was in any
>>stage in her pregnancy in over 20 years of breeding. My first
>>thought would be was this girls mom watching her and if not
>>what did this girl do to get the gerbil to bite her, she may have
>>been a bit rough with her and just didn't know it and
>> it was probably a one time bite.
I am hoping that too, although I have had pregnant females be very
uncomfortable in their last few days of pregancy and it is very possible
that the young lady picked her up wrong or a bit roughly, and the
gerbil took offense to it....
>Thanks Doug! The pair had a single pup 26 days before; they both were
>excellent parents, but the pup died at a few days (was perfect/no
>marks). So I hope she will be a good/gentle mom here, too.
Hope so too. I am betting that the pup wasn't able to stimulate milk
production in the mother, and it starved. No fault of either.
