Gerbils...

[b.c.f.c]

well after my success with breeding hamsters and every thing goinng very well , ive decided to explore my other hobby by getting 2 grebils .
I have done a lot of research b4 buying them as i always do to try and make the best home and provide the best care for them. i hope to breed my gerbils so i made sure i got 2 very nice colours which were bright as the off spring are easyer to home once ready also i got them from 2 different pet shops that were some distance apart to make sure they were not related in any way.
ive had them about 3 weeks now and already they have doubled in size and doing very well , they are in a large tank with plenty of saw dust and other bedding material and have dug there own little maze of tunnels wich i think is great lol and very fun to watch them scutter around. but i cant help thinking theres more to learn about them apart from the basics. i do wish to breed them in the near future but i dont want them to breed too early in there life time so how to i prevent this ? or will nature take its place? ive got all the diet sorted out so thats not a problem .
also does any body know of a very good gerbil or rodent forum in which i could join? and also any other advice would be very much appriciated and any past experiances with breeding or just general care of these little creatures.

o and i did want too show you all some piccys of them but im feel rearly dum and dont know how to put them on here can anybody tell me plzzzzz.

 

[tank212]

Hi grats on the new gerbils. I recently got 2 rats and I love them already they are highly intelligent. I would like to breed them but I would have to read up more and probably would have to wait till I'm moved out to start as I have just enough room for my rats. Thinking about getting one more when my new cage comes in from Martins cages.

 

[lisie]

Gerbils are great. I've had them for years, and raised two litters of pups "accidentally" (bought two pregnant females from the pet store).

If you don't want them breeding too early, just separate them and then re-introduce them via the split'cage method when you're ready. Just as long as it's not -tooo- long because gerbs really don't like living alone.

I know you guys in the UK have the National Gerbil Society, but I don't know if you have any forums or anything for that. In the US we have the American Gerbil Society, and they have a Yahoo! Group (just search for agsgerbils) which is quite active, they're all great people and I'm sure they wouldn't mind having a Brit there in the least.

By the way, out of curiosity, what color(s) are your new little ones?

 

[grahamsokel]

I had gerbils years ago and i used to have them in a 4ft tank with a mesh lid.I used to have a mixture of compost and shavings half way up the tank and i used to burry tubes etc in the substrate so they could dig better and make tunnels.The compost mixed in it stopped the tunnels collapsing.
I always used the chemical free compost aswell for safety reasons

 

[b.c.f.c]

well the males pure white and the female is silver and white, the pet shop owner said to me that the male was a female and the female was a male, but ive done my reasearch and found out he was wrong.
thats another question i wanted to ask as well , i have the gerbils in a 3 foot aquarium, and ive put in there sawdust and i put toilet rolls in there too , but there tunnels seem to be collapsing, which material can i use so they can make thier tunnels stronger? but i dont rele want to use compost if i can avoid it

o and thx lisie for the links

 

[babybell911]

If you keep them together you will more than likely get more gerbils than you can cope with. I got 2 females and ended up with about 20! As soon as the female gives birth she's ready to mate again and then you get a litter every couple of months i think! I'd try and keep them seperate

 

[juliehainsworth]

The more loo roles the better or any card for them to chew as that would make the ground more stable for their tunnels! There are benefits to keeping them in compost as you dont need to clean them out as often! I remember that from when we had our first gerbil when I was about 7 so many years ago!

Have you tried to find out which colours out of your pair are recessive! Apparently certain colour combinations just produce the brown ones and not any interesting ones! My friend who currently has two grey gerbils one with a dark grey nose and black tail and another pure grey one not sure exact names for colours and they're offspring are a very dark grey/black colour! Unfortunately the last litter died at around 4 weeks old and were not sure why! Just the other day however the female gave birth to four more babies and were hoping these will do as well as the first litter! Not long after seperation from the young they seem to give birth again!

Good luck in breeding your gerbils! hope to see pics of the pair soon as they sound adorable