my gerbil just gave birth.

Question
Well I am a first time owner of gerbils and today I noticed babies in the cage. I saw 3 only but I don't know if she has more in the cage. Well is there anything special I should do, like change her diet or give her something special? Or do I just let her like  she is now? And can you spay gerbils, is it recommended? How many pregnancies do they go through in their life cycle? I really  want to keep the pups and the parents but I don't want them to have more, or not a lot more. I want to keep them as pets. Oh and do I have to remove the babies from the parents and if so, when? Any other things I need to know?

Answer
Hi there,

Is the father in the cage too? If so you need to take him out now. If he is in the cage then she will already be pregnant again, as they mate again straight after birth!! So once these babies have left the mother she will give birth a short time after!!! I don't think you can spay them as they are so small, but maybe ring the local vets to check that!!! Otherwise the only way to stop them having babies is to take the father out for good. If you don't you will always have babies in the cage, and you will risk killing the mother from exhaustion!! I think it is around 14 litters they can have in a life time, but i wouldn't recommend letting her have this many, due to the exhaustion i mentioned earlier!!

This is what you should do:

Take the father out and give him his own cage. Allow him in with the babies and mother once or twice a day so that he gets used to his babies and recognises them. At around 5 weeks old the babies need sexing and splitting, and this is when you can put the baby boys with dad and the girls with mum. (Male gerbils tend to accept very young gerbils and so he should be happy with the babies, plus he will know them - i did this with mine and all are very happy now). As mum is probably pregnant again she will have another litter just after. Don't worry about any baby females you leave in from the last litter, they will help mum raise them!! With this lot you would only be able to keep the females, as the male babies that are with dad would not accept more gerbils and would fight. (I hope this is making sense??!). So you may have to give any male babies of this litter away.

You want to be feeding the mother extra protein to help keep her energy levels up. The best sources of this are in dried meal worms found in most pet shops in the wild bird sections, and human baby food. Cow and Gate Sunshine Bannana (the powder form mixed with water to make a smooth paste) is best!!! You want to give this each day, and you should find that she will enjoy it, and so will the babies once old enough. Just be aware that when the babies can't see they may fall in, so only put the baby food in when you are there to watch, until the babies can see.

Some guidelines of events are below:

You can pick them up after two weeks old, just before their eyes open. This is the best way to tame them, just be careful they can be very jumpy, so hold them over something soft like a bed, and only hold them for short periods!
At 17 days their eyes should open.
Just after this they will probably start trying solid food - providing canary seed (from pet shops) is a good food to help them get onto solids.
At 5 weeks old they need to be sexed and leave the mother if you are not keeping them together!

Finally make sure you don't pick the babies up in the first week as this can distress the mother and she may kill the babies. Sounds horrible, but is natural if she is stressed. It is usual also for one or two to die and you may never find them as she will eat them. Again it sounds awful but they would do this in the wild to stop them rotting and making the nest dirty!!!

Do let me know if you need to know anything else at all!!!! I am happy to help!!

Let me know how they get on too!!!!

Thanks,
Charlie.