----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2001 2:59
PM
Subject: Birth Announcement-First Time
Gerbil Mom
Hi Folks!
I have a birth announcement
to make!
Xena gave birth to 6 pups
(best as I can tell) on New Years Day! All pink.
A short story leading to
it:
In the end of October my son
was having his 9th birthday and asked me if he could have gerbils. This
wasn't the first time he asked.
He asked during the summer
when a friend of his had gerbil pups to give a way.
Realizing that "Mom" would
be the primary caretaker I hesitated at first. Like most families with
children we'd been the fish route, iguana, fish tank and guinea
pigs.
Add the rabbits and my
parrot with our half dozen Siamese cats and (now) 2 dogs.
All this with 3 children in
a small mobile home (get the picture?) We are down to 1 cat, 2 dogs, 1 bird
and now, of course gerbils and a hamster.
The pet store didn't have
any on display, but when I explained it was my son's birthday and he really
wanted gerbils they relented and told us they had an old male they previously
used for breeding that they needed a home for. They basically said his
breeding days were over. I asked them if they had any babies and they
said initially yes but that they wanted to keep them for breeding. After
a little fuss on my part and the agreement that we'd take the old fella too (a
golden agouti), they got us a black female from their future breeders. I
didn't want a lonely gerbil pining away by itself. At the time I knew
nothing about gerbils and luckily my instinct served me
correctly.
My son named them Hercules
and Xena.
Just after Christmas I
noticed Xena looking a little plump, but nothing radical. Then this past
weekend, Saturday morning 12/30/00 I finally confirmed Xena was
expecting. Remembering my cats pregnancies, I knew that when it became
obvious that birth was very soon! I decided that cage cleaning time was
upon us. I didn't want to disturb the cage after the birth so everyone
received new carefresh bedding after the thorough cleaning with a mild
bleach/water solution to the tanks.
My other two gerbils, Astro
and Star (Yes, "gerbils" that I got from Donna Anastasi in the southern part
of the state-I couldn't help it they were so cute!), I moved them into a 20
gallon tank at the same time. My hamster had previously occupied this
very large tank and I knew that a thorough disinfecting and cleaning would be
necessary before Astro and Star could take up occupancy. My hamster
(Elvis) was moved into the 10 gallon tank which he is quite cozy in.
Hercules and Xena though are in the same tank, a long 30 gallon tank with lots
of room to exercise. I haven't taken out the wheel yet.
My question is, should I
remove it? I have a metal wheel with masking tape on both sides of the
wheel so no slats are open. Both Hercules and Xena have been on it
regularly and I am concerned about the pups when they begin to wander out of
the nest. I'm also concerned about touching the pups at this young
age. I did slightly when I removed the top of the box where they were
nesting to see if they were ok. I didn't want to disturb them much so I
counted the best I could and noted they were all pink and plum and
wriggly. "So Cute!"
Xena ran right over and
checked them out and all seems well.
Any advise would be
appreciated.
Thanks!
Sue
