Last night at about 7:30, I decided it was finally time to face the horrible
truth. (Bum bum buuuum...) Looking in at the now (um, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... let
me count) 5 not-so-little-anymore gerbils running around the strewn-about 30
gallon aquarium's bedding, now consisting mainly of chewed up cardboard, a
little bit of aspen, chewed up cardboard, a few bits of conglomerated tissue
here and there, chewed up cardboard, some chinchilla dust, cornmeal, and
dehydrated milk mixed with chewed up cardboard, and (you guessed it) more
chewed up cardboard; I knew it was once again time to (gulp) clean the cage.
Actually, I'd been MEANING to for quite some time now, like last Saturday
abouts, but hadn't ever quite gotten around to it when I remembered, and when
I forgot, well, it just didn't get done then, either. I knew Radar was
pregnant, and would be having a litter in a few days, and really should have
a nice CLEAN cage to have a litter in... So, setting my mind firmly to it
(and my noseplugs firmly in, hah) I retrieved a garbage bag from the kitchen
and began shoveling the chewed up cardboard, aspen chips, and everything else
inside the bag. I removed each mostly unchewed item(of which, gerbils
provided for, there were about 4 from 37 total in the last few days or so),
dumped the dirty bedding in the bag, and placed it carefully on my bed behind
me while I scooped up most of the bedding around where it had been. The
gerbils, never having been in a cage while it was cleaned (we usually hosed
it out, after all) found this all very exciting and ran about like miniature
lunatics making even more of a mess("Oh look, mom, I found the food bowl
again! It's been a while since we saw tat, huh?") and generally getting in
my way however they could(see, Radar DOES have them trained!). My dad came
in to see what I was doing (he was hoping to play with the gerbils, I'll bet)
and informed me that I'd dropped a gerbil in the trash bag with the litter.
He and his jokes being what they are, I told him to cut it out and continued
cleaning. (I was a bit embarrassed to find, about 15 minutes after he left, a
small specimen of the order Mongolius Gerbilus playing happily in the bag of
dirty litter. I don't know if my dad put it n there or not...) Well,
finally I came to the last item in the cage--the "new" nestbox they were
using, a large cardboard box which some cd roms had been shipped in that was
much roomier than their now obsolete wooden one--I tipped it to the side a
bit and tapped to get all the gerbils hiding in there out, then lifted the
cover to make sure there were none left, and to my amazement found 6 small,
wriggling, pink gerbil pups squirming inside. Radar(probably pleased as
punch a having almost giving me a heart attack, with her sense of humor), to
many loud squeals of protest(it's amazing how LOUD they are as newborns! I
suspect the reason they're so quiet as adults is they've all gone hoarse from
shouting all the time as pups), went over and shoved them about a bit to make
sure they were all as pink and wriggly as ever. She then stuck them all
under her for a quick drink as I carefully emptied out a bit of the jam
packed full nestbox (I think the poor puppies and their siblings and parental
unit must have almost been suffocating in the thing, it was so tight) and
returned it guiltily to the aquarium in its rightful place after settling all
the pups on a clean new tissue nest (which is ven as we speak being added to
as well as shredded and ripped to bits by helpful brothers, sisters, and
mothers and mothers-to-be-perhaps-one-day). I scattered new chips around,
which everyone who was able to (meaning all but the newest six, who had to
sit and listen on the sidelines squeaking indignantly) promptly scattered as
far as they could as fast as they could. I swear, Radar must have lauged so
hard that night... I stayed up for at least an hour afterwards checking on
them every 10 to 15 minutes or so as Radar happily sent chips flying in the
playbox with Titanic(and even Bugger once or twice). And Radar, as usual,
wasn't concerned one bit about them, although I was a little afraid that the
new pups, not only being born at a strange time but having been disturbed so
early in life, would be canniballized or abandoned or something of the
nature. I was very sad, therefore, when I checked on the pups before school
and was dismayed to find one missing. I assumed that Radar had, despite her
outwardly easygoing additude about the pups being handled or disturbed, been
profoundly unsettled by my unexpect cage cleaning and ahd killed one, or that
one had died during the night and been buried or eaten. Having "lost" pups
before to find them tucked away in a corner later, and not wanting the
unmarred survival record to finally be broken : 0-( I decided to search for
it. I peeked into all the little nooks and crannies as quickly as possible
(it was, after all, time for school, and mom gets extremely POed sometimes
when we're late) I was disheartened (that IS a word, right?) to see not a
single trce of the sixth pup. I even looked in the playbox quickly to see if
Radar had carried one in there without me noticing, but to no avail.
Dredging for other possible hide-aways, I recalled seeing some of the second
litter pups digging underneath the nestbox the night before while the
youngest pups were still scattered about a bit. Grabbing up my flashlight
once again, I tipped the nestbox up a bit, as far as I could without putting
the nest of pups in danger of being squashed. The cage being on the floor,
it was still too hard to get a good look underneath at such an angle, even
with the flashlight on. Radar, who had been watching with curiousity as I
had scanned over the cage and nestbox ("Ok, NOW what is that crazy human up
to?") observed with acute interest as I slowly and carefully tipped the box
corner nearest me up a bit farther to try and get a good look underneath.
Suddenly, so clearly I could almost literally see a lightbulb click on above
her head, Radar jumped down and began to dig furiously next to the flashlight
at the corner I had lifted up. Astonished, I sat and watched for a secnd,
almost feeling my mouth drop open to the floor. After a second, however, I
slowly dropped that corner down, and Radar scooted out from underneath. I
reached for the other corner on the side farthest from me, and lifted that up
a bit. Radar immediately went to THAT spot and started to dig. Peering
around, I saw her digging a little farther in, closer to the middle of the
bottom of the nestbox. (Now that's a confusing decription of the spot!) I
slid my hand over a bit towards me, and she pushed forward and dug a bit
more. A second later, so that you could almost hear the sound of jubiliant
bugles playing brightly in the background, I observed with a widening grin as
Radar triumphantly emerged with a small, pink gerbil pup clutched between her
teeth. She promptly exited the scene and discarded it carelessly beside the
other pups--who had, of course, slept through the whole thing--and then ran
out to make trouble again where she could. Titanic came in to watch, puzzled
and curious, as I carefully placed the missing 6th pup back in the nest with
the others before obeying Radar's demand that she be taken out on the
instant. The predicaments my gerbils can get into, good seeds! And to think
I was worried that Radar would be BOTHERED by an insignificant HUMAN, of all
things... I really should have known better : 0-), Good old Radar, even if
she can be a bit annoying at times, lol! (Side note here: Titanic, who is
the one following most closely in her mother's footsteps of the first litter,
is the "favorite" that I decided to keep despite the fact that Pancake was
also my favorite. Jeesh, does this say something about my choice of gerbils
or what?! (I am now wondering why I didn't pick a nice, calm, blundering
dodo(not really, lol, only compared to Radar) like Scrabble? Actually, I
recall it was I who picked him out for Ben, and I think it was because he
wasn't as fat as the rest of the gerbils in there! I guess it's just my
PERSONAL gerbil choices that seem to be going askew : 0-), )) Anyways, I
did have one last thing(for any of you who actually have read this far,
lol--I can't believe anyone would read my rambling little stories!): For all
you experts out there : 0-), I've got a question. It seems like this
newest litter of six is a LOT smaller than the litters of 3 or 5 were
(although I wasn't there when the litter of three was born, but the fivers,
anyway). I mean, I'm talking half the size they were or less! I don't think
even I'd mix the sizes THAT badly : 0-), But anywayz, is it normal for the
larger litters to have smaller pups when they're born than smaller litters?
I'd expect them to develop a bit slower, perhaps, with not as much milk to go
around, but an hour or so after they're born?! That really surprised me.
After all, it's only one more than 5(for any who can't count out there, lol).
Actually, although I *think* they were born on the 18th--or did at the time
since te were so small, and I doubt anyone but a deaf person could go very
long without knowing about them!--that was really just a guess, so is it
possible that they were born earlier, even? It seems strange to have them
ealry in the day like that--well, I guess it WAS 9:30(I checked the time when
I first found them, for recording purposes or whatever I guess), so not early
early, but you know what I mean : 0-), I was thinking they couldn't have
been born earlier than 8:30 if they were so small (assupmtions, assumptions)
but if the large litters have THAT huge a size diff... Well, anywayz, thankz
4 reading : 0-), and g'night
Samantha, the pets who own her-- : 0-), <:3 )----* + 7, no, plus 13--her
Neopet Astrolis the Wocky, & Biskit & Co.
