Hi Christine,
As I am sure that others are telling you, this is a
dangerous breeding arrangement. You should breed in a
very simple 10 gallon tank. Only give them litter,
food (no food bowl) and a little bit of carboard to
chew everday. Any object and especially a wheel in
the tank can crush/kill a pup. They also serve as
distractors for the parents and can lead to
neglecting the pups. If the parents need a "den" I
cover half the tank with a towel.
All that said, I would be reluctant to change the
environment too much after the pups are born. The
mother can go into a frenzy, putting the house in
order and forgetting all about the pups for several
hours.
Also, have you removed the two breeding females into
separate tanks? If not, do so right away. This is
not a safe way to breed, because the mothers can get
very protective of their litters and have another
mature female around is stressful. It can lead to
attack/killing of the other mothers' pups.
All that said, congratulations on the new litters.
Hope all the pups do well. And enjoy them!
Donna
ABC Gerbils
www.abcgerbils.com
>>Speedy is having her babies this morning and I got
to watch her do it which
was good because she had this real problem. They
have a spinning wheel that
she loves and i guess super gerbil that she is
she thought she'd put in a
few spins right before giving birth and one of
the kids fell out of her and
into the wheel and she was in a panic and two
more came and she ran back to
her nest but there were three kids in the
wheel... So I opened the wheel,
got the kids and put them in the lower nest and
she ran around until she
heard thier cries and came and got them and put
them in the nest she had
made up to deliver in. She is currently in there
with the three and I assume
she will now continue to deliver the rest. Does
labor happen so quickly that
she wouldn't know she needed to be in the
delivery room?I am taking it as a
good sign she came and got each one and put then
in the nest and is with
them. so that is two new moms in two days. Now
I am not sure who is the
father of speedy's kids. I know that I saw
snowflake and crystal mating but
I never saw speedy mating with any one. i wonder
if the fighting broke out
between crystal and speedy because they were
both pregnant at the same time.
Well, I will know from now on that speedy's kids
will be fathered by
snowflake and that crystal's kids will be
fathered by felix.
Christine
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