Donna Anastasi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
>I was wondering about the different ways that male gerbils help to raise
>their pups.
>
>For the first 10 days of pup rearing Alan and Cara seemed to work in
>shifts. They had two nests established with Cara on the "pup nest" most
>of the time. Whenever Cara got up to eat or drink or gnaw up something
>Alan would run over and settle right in on top of the pups. Sometimes
>Cara would move over to the empty nest and take a break and let Alan
>spend a good amount of time sitting on the pups. Four or five times I
>found a single pup with Alan in the other nest (he seemed to take the
>same one every time -- the argente cream girl) -- maybe he got lonely
>there all by himself.
>
>Now the nest is moved to a third corner of the tank and the whole
>family all sleeps there together in a big gerbil & pup pile. They seem
>very content.
Gerbil fathers do a range of duties. A recent article in New Scientist
concerned Djungarian (Russian) Hamsters and evidence that the males
physically deliver the kits by pulling them out of the mother. Jackie
says she once saw a male gerbil do this. I would be interested in
hearing from anyone else who has seen this. it seems unusual to me as
the other usually pushes the male away during late pregnancy.
--
Julian
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* Jackie and Julian *
* [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* National Gerbil Society *
* http://www.gerbils.co.uk/ *
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