Birth Announcement-First Time Gerbil Mom

[Susan Fitts]

Hi Folks! I have a birth announcement to make! Xena gave birth to 6 pups (best as I can tell) on New Years Day!  All pink.   A short story leading to it: In the end of October my son was having his 9th birthday and asked me if he could have gerbils.  This wasn't the first time he asked. He asked during the summer when a friend of his had gerbil pups to give a way. Realizing that "Mom" would be the primary caretaker I hesitated at first.  Like most families with children we'd been the fish route, iguana, fish tank and guinea pigs. Add the rabbits and my parrot with our half dozen Siamese cats and (now) 2 dogs. All this with 3 children in a small mobile home (get the picture?) We are down to 1 cat, 2 dogs, 1 bird and now, of course gerbils and a hamster. The pet store didn't have any on display, but when I explained it was my son's birthday and he really wanted gerbils they relented and told us they had an old male they previously used for breeding that they needed a home for.  They basically said his breeding days were over.  I asked them if they had any babies and they said initially yes but that they wanted to keep them for breeding.  After a little fuss on my part and the agreement that we'd take the old fella too (a golden agouti), they got us a black female from their future breeders.  I didn't want a lonely gerbil pining away by itself.  At the time I knew nothing about gerbils and luckily my instinct served me correctly. My son named them Hercules and Xena. Just after Christmas I noticed Xena looking a little plump, but nothing radical.  Then this past weekend, Saturday morning 12/30/00 I finally confirmed Xena was expecting.  Remembering my cats pregnancies, I knew that when it became obvious that birth was very soon!  I decided that cage cleaning time was upon us.  I didn't want to disturb the cage after the birth so everyone received new carefresh bedding after the thorough cleaning with a mild bleach/water solution to the tanks. My other two gerbils, Astro and Star (Yes, "gerbils" that I got from Donna Anastasi in the southern part of the state-I couldn't help it they were so cute!), I moved them into a 20 gallon tank at the same time.  My hamster had previously occupied this very large tank and I knew that a thorough disinfecting and cleaning would be necessary before Astro and Star could take up occupancy.  My hamster (Elvis) was moved into the 10 gallon tank which he is quite cozy in.  Hercules and Xena though are in the same tank, a long 30 gallon tank with lots of room to exercise.  I haven't taken out the wheel yet. My question is, should I remove it?  I have a metal wheel with masking tape on both sides of the wheel so no slats are open.  Both Hercules and Xena have been on it regularly and I am concerned about the pups when they begin to wander out of the nest.  I'm also concerned about touching the pups at this young age.  I did slightly when I removed the top of the box where they were nesting to see if they were ok.  I didn't want to disturb them much so I counted the best I could and noted they were all pink and plum and wriggly.  "So Cute!" Xena ran right over and checked them out and all seems well. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks! Sue