My rescue gerbils just had pups. Not The Spice
Gerbils, but the ones I sort of rescued from the pet
shop last week. I knew one of the females was pregnant
and last night she gave birth to five apparently
healthy little pups. Would have been six but I believe
one was stillborn.
I felt it neccessary to remove the other two females
because the mother seemed extremely disturbed during
the birth of her first two with all the excitement
that was going on in the cage.
It all began before the birth, while the mother was
scampering around the cage piling up the paper and
tissue to make a nest. The other females would trample
it and dig in it and this really upset the mother to
be. Plus, the male was busy trying to mate everything
that moved. I believe he and the female with the bad
nose had a successful mating. The other female appears
to already be pregnant, due in a week or so. So I will
have lots of little babies running around very soon.
Anyway, after the birth of the stillborn and the first
healthy pup, I decided to remove the other two
females. It just wasn't going to work out to have a
big colony. Once I had them in a new tank, the mother
calmed down rather quickly and concentrated on the
birthing. The male was still wandering around for a
bit looking for the other females, but he soon calmed
down too and rested near the mother.
I checked on them this morning and there are still
five little pink pups with tummy's visibly full of
white milk. I got at least one good picture of it
while the mother was away from the nest. They chose
not to use the nesting cover I gave them, just piled
the tissue and paper as high as it would stack.
Well, that's all for now I guess.
Jade
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