>These gerbils absolutely LOVE running in the wheel.
>When I attempted to remove it, they totally abandoned the babies for
>nearly an hour with no sign of interest in the little ones at all. All
they
>did was run around, getting up on their hind legs at the sides of the tank
>looking for their wheel. Even after I walked away from the cage they
>continued their frantic search!
When I take the wheel away from wheel-a-holics, no matter if they
are hamster or gerbil, I feed them heavily. Come around to service
the tank...remove wheel...then feed. And in the case of gerbils,
throw in a toilet tissue tube and rearrange things a little. Not
so much as to cause parents with pups to have to do hours of
housecleaning, but enough to distract them for a short bit.
I will have those that look for that wheel, but quickly settle into
just domesticity.
>I placed the wheel back in afraid for the pups well being with
>neither parent tending to them. After a little run both parents were back
>with the babies. What I did do was lift the wheel higher from the tank
>floor, so when the pups wander out they won't get hit or tangled up in it.
>It's just low enough so the parents can hike up into it. About 2 1/2
inches
>or so up. The parents can still manage to get onto it and are happy again.
As long as they're not the type that like to pick up a pup, then jump
up and run with the pup in their mouth...
>I guess it is an individual thing to gerbils. If they hadn't made such a
>big deal out of the disappearance I would have kept it out, but clearly it
>is an important part of their daily/nightly routine!
Distraction can help.
I prefer that neither hamster or gerbil that has babies to have a wheel
until the young are almost at maturity (a few days before three weeks
old for hamsters (they are sexually mature at 3 weeks) and five weeks
old for gerbils).
I have had some wheel-a-holics, that spend their waking hours running.
It doesn't matter if they have pups over there. They will ignore the young
in favor of doing their run. I have had females give birth IN the wheel.
She stops like 'oh man' ...splurt... she turns around and sees 'oh, bloody
new squirmy' and turns around and goes for it again, dumping it out as
the wheel turns.
Those females never see a wheel again for their breeding days....
Deb
Rebel's Rodent Ranch
