gerbil colony breeding

Question
Hi, prepare yourself... This will be a long winded one.

2 years ago I bought two male gerbils from the same pet store, things were fine for a few months then one day I came home from work and I found 8 babies... Obviously Guinness and Baileys we not both male.

A year on from then I had kept a couple of pups from each litter, in total I had 8 gerbils in one tank. I have a huge (and I really mean huge) aquarium tank so size isn't a problem.

As of 8 months ago they stopped breeding, I only ever kept the females because I had an incident where I kept a beautiful male ( I named him Tequila ) and Guinness killed him, keeping females he never minded.

For 8 months I had 7 female gerbils and one male and they never mated, seamed like they stopped then in January I came home to 7 babies. A day later Baileys, I figured out with the first litter was female, had completely abandoned them. The next day Archers had a litter which was eaten, The next day etc.

All in all 6 females out of the 7 had pups and each litter failed.

This was completely unusual as when they had litters before they helped each other out, and if I had 2 litters at the same time they took it in turns feeding them all which was cute.

It wasn't my intention for this to happen, me breeding I mean, but I enjoy them and play with them for hours at a time.

Also I have a very reliable friend who owns a pet store who I bring the gerbils to when they are old enough.

After some of the mothers had a failed litter it seamed Guinness turned on them as they fought like hell. I had 3 females die.

For a week I wondered if Smirnoff was pregnant when... I came home from work and found one still born and 2 pups. Now one of the two alive I found this morning was unfortunately dead, it was smaller than the other, can my single pup survive with her producing so little milk for one, can she even do this?

Really my main questions are...

1. why did they stop breeding through the winter?
2. why did they all mate at once?
3. why did they abandon their litter?
4. why did he kill 3 of his mates?

5. (If you are british) Has watching Eastenders every night rubbed off on Guinness :P

Many Thanks, Lucy

Answer
Hi Lucy,
I am not really an expert on gerbils, but after you've typed all that, I can hardly not reply. So I'll do my best.


Firstly, I love all the names (Baileys, Smirnoff, Guinness, Archers etc). Haha.

I don't really understand your first question. why is she producing so little milk. As she only has one pup remaining, there is a better chance of it's survival. However, small litters are more prone to abandonment than larger ones

1. Their body cycle probably told them that is was too cold to breed, even though it was warm in the house. They can sense the seasons, and (usually, but not always) will not breed unless they feel their pups have the best chance of survival.

2. Basically, survival in numbers. When there are more of them, they feel safer. Perhaps they were all in heat at the same time.

3. If the females had never bred before, it is not unusual for them to abandon or kill their first litter, out of confusion.  If a female has repeatedly eaten, or in any other way killed, her young from more than 1 litter, then do not breed her again. When she has done it once or twice, she is more likely to do it again. I do not know why they all abandoned their pups. My best guess is that they did not feel secure, and, again, out of confusion and fright, abandoned the pups.

4. Gerbils (and all other rodents) go through cycles, and if they feel threatened in any way, can suddenly turn on their "best pals" and become very vicious. No one rally knows why, but it is not uncommon.

5. I think it probably has. :D

I hope this has answered your question. If you have any more, please feel free to ask.

Best wishes,
Kathryn