Gerbil Breeding

Actually, gerbils (the species found in the pet trade) are not a natural prey animal for ball pythons. They're natural habitats do not overlap.


I don't think they cannibalize due to nutritional deficiencies. As I understand it, such behavior is usually related to high stress factors. Sometimes they will do it to cull out unhealthy babies, too. But if they're just "munching" my guess would be some major stress involved that needs to be alleviated.

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Originally Posted by JLC

Actually, gerbils (the species found in the pet trade) are not a natural prey animal for ball pythons. They're natural habitats do not overlap.

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This is true, there are no ball pythons in Mongolia (where the gerbils sold as pets in the States originate from).

I believe Adam has posted before too that the teeth on gerbils are longer and can cause cuts inside your snake's mouth and throat when ingesting and then absess and he's rescued several with this problem. I'd be very cautious in feeding gerbils - another thing to consider, if you ever need to sell or re-home your ball pythons, it's going to be hard to find someone to take on gerbil feeders.

http://www.kingsnake.com/ballpythonguide/

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Gerbils and gerboas are a Ball Python's natural food item.

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Now, who is correct?


Robb

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Originally Posted by LilRobb

http://www.kingsnake.com/ballpythonguide/




Now, who is correct?


Robb

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I believe not. The gerbils in the pet trade are usually mongollian, not african.

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Originally Posted by Wolfsnaps

Gerbils have some nasty habits. WHen I worked at a pet store, my friend/co-worker and I took care of small animals. One female gerbil was like that, she would eat the limbs off her offspring slowly. They were still nrusing so to remove them would kill them, so everyday we would see babies missing more and more body parts. Finally, they started dying off. When there was only one left, it was old enough to be seperated from her and my friend bought it (yeah, the owner of the store woulnd't even give it to her fro free, and the thing was missing a rear leg!) Tripod lived out his days happily and was spoiled pretty well. :)


Gerbils (and hamsters...and mice) are SICK!

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hehe, Tripod.

Ya know, now that you brought it up.. I actually wanted to breed gerbils for my Ball python. But for now, I shall keep Chester on mice and rats :)

New babies born this morning - 11 (4+7) from different females.

Let's hope they stay alive long enought to be considered FOOD!


Robb