From: "Jeremy Wheelock" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Her digging was so vigorous that several pups were actually
> kicked through the air to a distance of 5 inches from the nest!
Another
> pup was caught between her and the wall for about 12 seconds and
> squeaked with her every kick. The nest was totally broken
apart...pups
This is her first litter, right? First-time gerbil mothers, especially
if they were in the cage to see their mothers raise a litter, sometimes
don't quite get the hang of it. With -our- very first litter, Misty
actually moved all of her pups into her wheel -- and then began to run
in it! We were there when she did it, and stopped the motion of the
wheel when she started to run.
Her mate, Loper, thought she was completely nuts, so he went about
trying to rescue the pups. He'd pick on up and carry it back to the
nest, and she'd run back, pick one up out of the nest and put it in the
wheel. She was a bit better at it, though, so she kept ahead of him.
For a few minutes we just about laughed ourselves into a stupor watching
the two of them running back and forth with the pups, and then took pity
on Loper, and took Misty out and put her in a ball to run her energy
down a bit and let Loper get all the pups back into the nest where they
belonged. After we put her back in the cage, she had completely
forgotten the notion of putting her pups in the wheel, and she never did
anything like that again.
Michelle
Flutist
