First Gerbil Experience

Question
QUESTION: Hi - Need help. First time gerbil owners.  To make a long story short. We got 2 female gerbils, one died, we replaced her with another female gerbil, it died!  Then after nursing the one of the original female gerbils to health we introduced another gerbil which we thought was female and noticed that undoubtably it is male and is much more rebust than the female.  I expect babies so....what are my responsible alternatives.  I was reading that a few days before I think the female is having babies, separate the male and then see if the female has a male and introduce it to the father 8 weeks after?  This way I can responsibly give the male away leaving him companionship.
What do you think?

ANSWER: Hello Julienne,

You basically have it spot on here!! You do need to take the male out as soon as you can so that he can't mate with the female again (gerbils will mate literally an hour or so after the birth of their babies), so she will become pregnant again straight away.

With mine i did the same as you are planning too, i took my male out, and after the babies first few days with mum i let him in for 5mins or so twice a day so he got to smell the babies. Then once the male babies could walk etc, i put them in his cage with him so that he would learn their scents and accept them. I did this once/twice a day. Then between 6 weeks, and 8 weeks at the latest you can take the boys out and put them with dad for good.

I think this is the best way to do it, and like you said leaves the father with company rather than being lonely!! This worked really well with mine, and now the females and mum are happy, and my dad and his boys are happy too!!

Let me know how you get on,
Thanks,
Charlie

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hey Charlie - Well this morning I heard chirping in Lily's tank although I am nervous to look and check because I keep reading you should not disturb the cage.  Can I?  If I do it very gently and quietly?  Also Mark is in the other cage near Lily.  He can see and smell her although late last night I couldn't resist and let him go visit supervised!  They were so happy together kind of made me sad to put him back in his own tank.  Anyways I just finished reading a book that said that gerbils really need two parents to survive well.  What do you think if Mark is supervised or should I just let the first time mom handle it? Also do you have any advise on how I can make Lily's cage, food etc. ideal for managing her kids.  I toke out all the extra stuff in the tank and now she has water, her turned over box (where he nest is) and food.  Should I give her a little cheese or hard boiled egg for protein or just leave the girl alone.  I know, I have alot of questions.  It is exciting.  

Answer
Hello again,

It sounds as though you have got babies, but don't rush in to look as disturbing in the first week is not a good idea. The mother can become very stressed and is capable of killing her babies if threatened. It is likely in a couple of days the babies will try to crawl around anyway so you are bound to see them!!!After a week and a half or so you can start to handle them for very short periods, but be careful as they can be very very jumpy!
A lot of people say different things about having mother and father gerbils together or separate to raise babies. I think having the 2 together will undoubtedly do a fab job, but you can not always be there to supervise which means they are highly likely to mate, and this is when she can become exhausted as she will be always looking after babies of some kind!! So i would leave them apart, but it is nice to let the male in the cage for a short time each day when you are around to watch so that he can familiarise with the young. This means when they grow you would be able to allow the males to live with him....that is if you wanted!! I would also look out for very small dots on their undersides as this is the easiest way to sex them. The females will have nipples from a few days old which if you look closely will be visible as little dots on the belly. These soon get covered with fur so the earlier you spot this the easier you will find it is to separate them later!!
You can put cheese in if you wish, and you can also put in human baby food as this is a fab source of protein. The Cow and Gate brand is the best, and a fruity one is good!!

Hope this helps,
Let me know how it goes!
Charlie
xxx