Greetings Amber,
On 6 Jul 2001, at 1:44, Amber White wrote:
> The other day, my friend had her boyfriend over, and I was showing off
> my new gerbil pups. Dustin (her boyfriend) told me that in addition
> to having water and food in the tank, I should put one a water bottle
> of milk in there. I've never heard of this sort of advice before, and
No, no, no...not a good plan at all :(. The boy was either pulling
your leg or mis informed, I am affraid.
Unless you are experiencing problems with the pups (if you don't
think they are getting enough milk, they start dying inexplicibly etc)
I would say leave well enough alone. I gave a bit of boiled egg to
my moms (of most rodent types) as a bit of extra nurishing treat,
but other than making sure she got a goodly measure of good food
(okay - I confess to making sure she eats well period :)) and
always has fresh water available I leave well enough alone. Gerbils
have been haviing babies without our help for a looooong time, I
figure ;), so mostly I just fuss and cossett :)
I have heard of people supplementing moms with pups KMR (kitten
meal replacer) but never in a bottle! The usual way is to sop a bit
of bread in the KMR and give it sparingly so you can monitor if it is
eaten. If it isn't eaten in an hour or so remove it.
With a smile,
Deborah
> I was just wondering if it's actually a good thing to do, or not. He
> used to own hamsters, so maybe he was thinking of them? At any rate,
> I haven't put any milk in with my gerbils, because they've bred fine
> without it in the past, and since I wasn't sure about it, I just kept
> it out!
>
> Other question (this is more of a curiosity thing) comes from
> something I just read online. It says that "Adult male gerbils are
> highly territorial creatures," and while I know males of any species
> are generally territorial, I thought it was more the female gerbils
> that were territorial?
>
> Oh well, that's it for me this time! Have a lovely day, everyone!
>
> ~*~Amber~*~
> The Eisen Clan
> http://burrow.envy.nu/index.html
>
