> hey guys, christopher here. been a while since i've interacted with the
> list. that's because (as most of you know), i am in brasil on exchange so
i
> can't be with my gerbs back home. i have 2 questions, one is from my host
> sister, the other is from me.
>
> 1. (from my host sister) i have 2 gerbils that 8 weeks ago had 6 pups, i
> believe the mother is pregnant again, and i would like to know what i
should
> do with the other pups. will the pups fight with the new ones or the
> parents? also, would it be a good idea to separate the mother and father?
> could i put the males in one cage, the females in another? if so how can i
> sex them?
If they're 8 weeks old it is possible the female daughters could already be
pregnant by the father. Having the mother around tends to slow their
maturing process, but there's no point in taking chances. Are you wanting
to continue breeding? If so I'd remove the female pups to one tank and the
male pups to another, until you find homes. If you don't want any more you
could put the father in with the male pups, and leave one female pup in with
the mother to help raise the next litter. The typical advice is not to have
more than one female in a breeding setup, but she'll be young enough that it
shouldn't be a problem. I've done this before and it worked nicely. You'd
need to remove the newest litter when they get about 6 weeks old.
>
> 2. (from me) i'm not sure if i mailed the list, but i recently lost my
> oldest gerbil "fred". he had a strange cut of some sort on his stomach
that
> got swolen and infected. the medicine i gave him didn't seem to help. i
> was just curious as to what it could have been. it looked like it was
right
> over his scent gland. i would also like to know if i should get his mate
> another partner? my mother's been writing me, and says she doesn't look
> unhappy, that she's continuing on like he was still there.
It's possible he had a scent gland tumor and gnawed on it enough that it got
infected. In such a case the tumor needs to be removed along with the
antibiotic treatment. I had to have that done with my "Grandpa" Rascal.
Some people will no doubt disagree with me, but I would tend toward leaving
the female alone if she seems happy enough, and just make sure she gets
enough toys and human attention. Females can be such a pain to pair when
they are adult. If you want to try it, though, I'd try to find a male about
the same size and do a split tank for 1-2 weeks. Don't assume it would be
better to get a male pup as adult females can be quite aggressive toward
pups not their own.
