Gerbil Update

Ok, so I have a single pair of breeding gerbils. The female is a black and white, and the male is a gray and white. They had a litter of 6 last week and the babies are a week old. They are just getting their fur in and are so soft. I can't tell sexes yet, but it seems to be an even spread of black and whites and gray and whites, though there is a baby that looks to be solid gray, so I might keep that one. I plan on keeping at least 2 from this litter anyway. :) Pictures to come as soon as I can take some. Every time I try and take a pictures of the babies, the male steps in and shields them from the camera.

So we have 4 black and whites, 1 gray and white, and 1 solid gray. We are going to keep the solid gray whether or not it is female and then keep another female. :) Can't sex them yet. Its too hard to tell.

Congrats on the babies!!! Can't wait to see pics :D

I tried getting pictures the other day but the papa gerbil kept getting in the way of the camera. Now I can't find my camera again. Rah! But they are cute little buggers.

Found my camera. It was on the floor????

Entire Litter
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/DSCN4546.jpg

The one we are keeping
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/DSCN4543.jpg

Mom and Dad
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/DSCN4537.jpg

As you can see, the male is very protective of his litter. I actually tried taking several pictures of the litter in the cage and he would block them from view just like that every time. :P

SQUEEEEEE!!!! Utter CUTENESS!!!! :P


Glad you found your camera! They are flippin adorable!!!! :D

They are very adorable. Its going to be hard choosing the other female to keep. The others are destined to be food. :( But such is the way of life. If that other gray one is a girl then I might keep that one. I'm keeping at least two females so it if the solid gray is a boy, then I'm keeping two others.

So your balls eat gerbils instead of mice or rats.
Just curious, how you changed them over and why?

No, my snakes eat mice and rats. My ferrets eat gerbils. They are on a raw/whole prey diet, and I plan on introducing them to gerbils as soon as this litter is grown. (And please don't get on me about the ferret's diet. We had a whole debate about it in another thread and I'm done defending my ferrets' diet)

oh, I see.

Cute pics, never been a gerbil fan tho.

I'm not really a gerbil fan either, but they are incredibly cute. And very expensive. Since I need to vary the ferrets' diet as much as possible, this seemed like a good food source, but since they were so expensive I opted to breed them myself.

Why gerbils over rats or mice to the ferrets?

Variety provides them with a wide range of sources for nutrients. Gerbils have a different nutritional make up than rats just as rats have a different nutritional make up than mice. I will be feeding the following to my ferrets: (but I won't be breeding all of them just yet, especially the rabbits)

Rats
Mice
Gerbils
Hamsters
Rabbits
Guinea Pig
Button Quail
Chicken
Superworms
Crickets
Feeder Fish

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

Variety provides them with a wide range of sources for nutrients. Gerbils have a different nutritional make up than rats just as rats have a different nutritional make up than mice. I will be feeding the following to my ferrets: (but I won't be breeding all of them just yet, especially the rabbits)

Rats
Mice
Gerbils
Hamsters
Rabbits
Guinea Pig
Button Quail
Chicken
Superworms
Crickets
Feeder Fish

---

Gotcha. Thought you meant just Gerbils and nothing else. :)

Oh no, that wouldn't be very healthy for them. These little buggers are soooo cute. They should be opening their eyes this weekend. :) I'll take more pictures then.

Big fan of pictures. Keep posting, I've never seen a gerbil litter grow up before.

I'm so excited. The solid gray one that I want to keep turned out to be a girl! Now I'll have to think of a name for her. I sexed the others and the gray and white is a boy, one or two of the black and whites are girls, I can't remember if I saw one or two, since I can't tell them apart yet. But they are all so adorable. I'll post pictures when I can. They are soooooo active!