Hi All,
I am currently witnessing something quite interesting regarding how quickly
young gerbils mature. I wonder if anyone else has observed this. I have a
litter of five pups. Three of them are males. Two weeks ago I acquired a
young female. At that point the males were 4.5 weeks old and identical in
size and development. I usually keep pups with their parents until they
are 6-7 weeks old. However as this female was already about 7 weeks, I
decided to put her with her new mate straight away. I duly chose one of
the 3 males and put them together. It was love at first sight. The rest
of the litter are still with their parents.
The pups are now 6.5 weeks old. There is now an enormous difference
between the male who has been paired up and his siblings. He is much much
bigger. In fact he has almost grown as big as his older new partner. All
three males are nutmegs. Whilst my paired gerbil has already fully moulted
and has his adult coat, his siblings are still nearly all orange with only
a few hairs of black ticking coming through.
Is this just chance. Are young gerbils held back, by being kept with their
parents? Does being housed with a pubescent female cause a male to develop
faster?
Comments appreciated
Sue
