cj.morris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
>
>two questions:
>1, are DPP available in the UK?
They do crop up. We have had several. However, they do not breed true,
and attempts to breed DPP to DPP have tended to produce small sickly
litters. So they are very rare.
>2, I keep my gerbils (1m+2fs) in a 36" - 15" - 12" aquarium with a mixture
>of Peat moss, fullers earth cat litter and Chinchilla dust, with quite a bit
>of sandblasted tree roots as sold for aquariums (they also have a nesting
>box with a 12" piece of 2" pipe for an entrance with the open side to the
>glass so that I can peek in)....is this OK? (true they're not as
>'handleable' as they would be in a more modest set up, but I'm primarily
>interested in observing their behaviour rather than petting them)
Sounds OK to me.
>
>p.s. I wouldn't try it now but when I kept gerbils as a youngster, we used
>to dab 'Vicks' (you know the stuff you use when you have a cold!) on to any
>adult gerbils we wanted to introduce to each other and had no problems with
>them fighting or excepting each other..........
Scents on the nose can help. But we have found that the slit cage is
much less likely to lead to trouble. Scent on the nose lead to some
nasty fights, and there was no guarantee what would happen when the
scent wore off.
We recommend the split cage, only if repeated efforts have failed do we
suggest the scent method be used as a last resort.
--
Julian
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
National Gerbil Society
http://www.gerbils.co.uk/
