Hi, Roger. How big a tank are we talking about here? Hopefully at least a
20 long?
A lot of people in the Netherlands or other parts of Europe breed the way
you're talking about: not doing the "mate for life" thing with their
gerbils, and introducing the new partners with a split cage, so from that
standpoint it is doable. I would remind you that it takes 8 weeks or so to
get a first molt, if you're considering weird breedings, like schimmel to
siamese, to see what happens. Otherwise it's best to keep the pups until
they're 5-6 weeks old, which is pretty large, so you need to make sure you
have room.
Just a couple of things to think about.
"ok... lets say i have them separated, male and female. then i do a
"siamese/siamese in one compartment, then a burmse/burmese mating in the
"other. how would i time the changes? lets say they have their littler...
"and i take the males out and put into maybe a third compartment, together...
"then when the mommas are done with the littlers i could take put them back
"together and the males into their compartment or something. any new thoughts?
It would be complicated, if you're trying to introduce gerbs in cages that
already smell like other gerbs... I see what you're trying to do, to save
space (you're in a dorm room, right?). I have successfully introduced
several pairs in those 1/2 gal. critter keepers with some hardware cloth
(wire mesh) splitting the cage diagonally and a book holding down more
hardware cloth on top (the lids of the critter keepers are not flat.) Maybe
you could try that for introductions? Part of the intro thing is to switch
them back and forth so they get used to someone else's scent in the place
where they are. I just don't see how you could work it with 4 gerbils in
one container to switch pairs, but I haven't had my coffee yet, so maybe
I'm missing something.
Rebecca...
