Need some advice breeding gerbils

[bigrn69]

Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong. I breed ASF and rats no problem at all. I have 5 pairs of gerbils all housed separately. They are fed lab block and seed mix. I use aspen bedding. I have terrible luck with them. If I get 5 babies a month im lucky. I have a few of my ball pythons that will only eat them. Need some advice

[mermaid1978]

I use to breed gerbils when I was younger. But for pets. I always had luck. But I had mine in large tanks with wheels which they need to have. They aren't good under stress or with out being able to run. Not sure what your set up is.

But also I was looking through my book on them. I remember they social rodents that live in family groups. Here is something my book says.....

Only 1 female in the group will normally have babies. The older youngsters will not normally breed with each other but instead help the parents rear the new siblings. Gerbils are mostly monogmous but sometimes will mate with gerbils outside there territories. It helps with inbreeding.The young gerbils don't normally breed when with the parents. Seeing they can suppress there sexual development. Many believe the adults suppress it. They are territorial even though they are social. Gerbils have scent glands on the belly and will mark each other sometimes it may look like mating even but it is to also to show who is higher up and know who is from the group. They aren't known to breed like rats at all.

They only have small litters from 4-6 and do not breed at all the way rats do. The females fertility is for 18 moths they are known to have only 6-7 litters. If they are not happy with there temps or set up they can breed slower. Male are known to fight when together sometimes more with space issues and females can become ornerier with each other.

Hope this helps......

Monique

I only have one gerbil for now but he has alot to do and keep busy. Even 2 wheels, Tubes to run through and things to chew everyday.

[tomfromtheshade]

I used to breed gerbils for the pet market. This is kind of how things work.

1. Pair your gerbils up while they are young. They are not very tolerant of being introduced as adults. They will usually fight and mess each other up pretty badly.

2. Only run gerbils in pairs. I have found that if you try to put more than one female in with your male it can sometimes be trouble.

3. Getting five babies per month from each female is not bad. Gerbils aren't like rats. They don't have 12-16 babies every 21 days. It just doesn't happen.

4. I used to keep one pair in a 10 gallon tank. I would keep the male and the female together ALWAYS. The male would breed the female back right after the babies dropped. I would think that the 20x15x5 bus tubs would be a good size for a pair of gerbils. Remove the litters when the new babies are born.

Other than that, here is one tip that could take you forever to learn.

grey male + agouti female = cinnamon babies! (for the most part)