I am relatively new this breeding stuff, and wanted to do lots of research before I embarked on the quest. BUT...I have had a gerbil for about 3 years (Jerry) that my son inherited from his preschool. He has been living by himself, getting quite fat and thought perhaps he should lose some weight. So, I told my son we should go and get Jerry a friend. So, we went to a chain petstore (no name...you all know who they are) about 2 months ago and got Jerry a MALE friend. Jerry is a spotted agouti and Johnny is a spotted black. They live in a pretty big wire cage (Jerry came with it, so we just stuck with it). My son has been playing with Johnny and Jerry has also become much more friendly since he got a cagemate (gee...imagine). Well, Alex, my son had been telling me Johnny was getting bigger and I told him that was because he was kind of like a teenager and still had some growing to do. Since that purchase of Johnny, I have obtained others gerbils as breeding pairs, but Alex claims Johnny and Jerry as his and does most of the work etc. So, I did not think much about it. (You all know where this is going, don't you?) So, tonight we did major cage cleaning of Johnny and Jerry and BOY is Johnny bigger. In fact, Johnny has ben renamed Mrs. Jerry, since Johnny is indeed a female and not a male. (she came from the "male gerbil" part of the cage...oh what you learn in 2 or 3 months from the internet..like NEVER trust a pet store's sexing!) And I think Mrs. Jerry is very pregnant. So, I put them both in an aquarium with all their stuff since I have read that pups can strangle and get caught in mesh cage wiring. Needless to say, they are none too happy. Their wire cage is/was about twice the size of their 10 gallon aquarium and has/had the care litter in it. Now they are in aspen and both are digging furiously and rearranging the cage every 5 minutes. Are they annoyed or is this normal? Is mom going to wig and miscarry since I moved her? Should I put them both back in the wire cage and risk losing pups? HELP??? I gave them a paper towel roll (Jerry has always loved shredding those) and he has completely shredded it in about 2 hours. I can probably get them a toilet paper roll before the night is up also. Any hints or suggestions out there? Thanks, Cindy -- Kokopellis Kritters **The Anasazi Clan**
