baby gerbils bullied

Question
hi my female gerbil has a 2nd litter of pups and doesnt seem to want them, i left the females from the 1st litter with her to help with the babies, she gets on fine with the older pups but hurts the younger by biting them and stamping on them whilst gripping them with her teeth and also chasing them, should i remove the mum or the babies or neither? should i try fostering them? can i use ordinary milk that we use? there are two tubes and plenty space to have nests, the older pups are 9wks the younger are 2wks, how successful could it be to hand rear them at this stage as i cant stand the sound of them squealing when she is attacking them, i have to interfere every time, thanks

Answer
Hello Jenna,
fostering baby gerbils is very hard to do as you do have to feed them every hour on the hour for quite a few days. I wouldn't seperate the moms from the babies as the mother really does know what is best. If you decide to rear the pups yourself you can use either baby formula or puppy formula and give them each a drop or two every hour. It is possible to lose some of the pups doing it this way.