Hi Sue, I got a silver nutmeg this spring from Rebecca Allbritten. Even though
he was 9 weeks old he had barely started molting. She made the comment that it
was because he had stayed with his parents. After I got him, he went through
an immediate and steady molt.
Right now I have a litter of 3 nutmegs. I placed a pair (brother & sister) who
were the more mature pair (almost 7 weeks) and more than 3/4 molted. The other
brother was less than half molted. Since his siblings left he has been a real
momma's boy and has not molted any more (noticeably) in the past two weeks. So
I do have a couple of experiences that support what you are saying.
Donna
ABC Gerbils
http://www.geocities.com/abcgerbils/home.html
suegreen wrote:
> 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
