gerbil breeding question. any help greatly appreciated!!?

Question

my gerbils are about 2 months old. i want ONE litter of babies from them. first, before the mother starts to show, are there any signs shes pregnant? second, how do i know when the female comes into heat? and third: i have read that you must not separate the mother and father when the babies are born because the stress of a new mother raising a litter on her own is too much. is there anybody out there who has had a mother gerbil raise her litter on her own because i really want to separate the mother and father so that they dont breed more than once but i need to know if this is safe or not. thank you!

Answer 1

Gerbils mate for life. You will not be able to get just one litter. If you want to breed them you should put a lot of thought into what you are about to do. It is not safe to separate the mother ond father once you breed them. Especially if you pair them and a young age. I had a male die from starvation after I took the female out of his cage. You need to do alot of research.

Gerbils become fertile at about 10 weeks of age. There have been cases, however, where gerbils have produced offspring as young as 7 weeks. Despite this, many pairs will not have pups until the female is 5-6 months old. Once the female is sexually mature, she will go into heat close to every 6 days. Your gerbils will mate at this time, and will mate again at the next heat if the pregnancy didn't take.

Separating your gerbils also means having to split up a bonded pair. You will need to leave one same-sex pup with each of the parents because gerbils must be kept in pairs. Gerbils are very social animals and get incredibly lonely and depressed if housed alone.

The gestation period for a gerbil is 24-28 days. If the gerbil is nursing, however, she will delay implantation of the embryos. This gives her enough time to wean the current pups before the next litter arrives. This causes the gestation period for nursing gerbils to be a bit longer, 30-43 days.

Early in the pregnancy you will not be able to tell that your gerbil is pregnant. The babies are still too small to be noticeable. About day 18, you may notice that your gerbil is looking a bit "bulky". If she is currently nursing, however, this slight change may not be noticeable because her body hasn't gotten the chance to return to a pre-pregnancy state.

At about day 20-23, your gerbil will begin to look more pregnant. If you still are questioning whether she is pregnant, you can usual tell by the "hand test". This just involves setting the gerbil on your hand and seeing if her belly brushes your palm. In the normal, non-pregant state, her belly will be lifted slightly off your hand. When she is pregnant, however, you can definately feel the light weight of her stomach touching your palm.

Very late in the pregnancy, day 24-28, your gerbil will feel very large and look pear-shaped. There is no question that she is pregnant at this point! Some people say that the female feels lumpy, like a little sack of potatoes. I've never noticed this, but you may. Whatever you do do not press on her belly to "feel" the babies. This is very uncomfortable for your gerbil and cannot be good for the developing pups. Please don't count your chickens before they've hatched!

Of course if the litter is really small, you might not be able to tell that your gerbil is pregnant. In the pictures below, Indira, my gerbil, was carrying either 5 or 6 pups. Also keep in mind, however, that some gerbils will balloon out with only three pups, while a litter of six may still look fairly small.

Answer 2

I have had gerbils in the past. They make great parents & often mate for life. It will be very hard for you to seperate them once they have a litter together. Mama gerbil may go thru a serious depression. If this happens, please put them together again, & adopt the babies out.

Females dont go into heat as a mammal does, they are always ready! You wont be able to tell she is pregnant until about a week before the birth. Not sure the exact # of days of gestation, but I believe it is around 36. You will see a marked increase in her weight, especially around her abdoman. She will also have visibal nipples if you look closely. She may also begin nesting on the other side of her cage in preparation for the birth. Both parents aid in raising the young.

They are fascinating parents to watch! Also, their offspring, if handled young, are often the sweetest most socialized gerbils. Just watch for signs of depression in the adults after seperation (not eating). You may have to put them together again before the female starves herself from missing her mate.

Lots of luck to you!

ps--gerbils make MUCH better parents than hamsters

Answer 3

if she goes into heat she"ll bleed. Also if gerbils are anything like hampsters seperate them for sure b/ if not as soon as the babies are born the mother will eat the fathers brains b/ if she don't the dad will eat the babies. No I'm not kidding I've seen it my hampsters did that or at least the mom ate the dads brains. the store I bought them from explaind why she did it to me. So if she gets pregnant seperate quickly..........

Answer 4

I had 2 gerbils once they made 6 babies. Email me and i willl help you.

Answer 5

i had to separate mine the male thought the babys were food and had no problems