Lauren, Congrats on your new gerbils. When we (my kids) got our first gerbils, the pet store clerk couldn't tell us their gender, so we ended up with a boy and a girl and two litters. Actually, watching the parents and the babies together was very enjoyable and memorable, but we decided we didn't want to keep having litters, especially since the parents were related (that's not a good idea beyond a few generations). I learned the hard way that corn cob bedding can contribute to respiratory infections in gerbils because it fosters mold and it's dusty. Carefresh and Eco-litter are much better for them since they are paper-based products. Another hard lesson I learned is to be very careful when treating gerbils with medicine and a dropper. If they get any of the medicine in their noses, they can aspirate it and die. And never pick the gerbils up by the tail and be sure you buy an all-enclosed wheel or put masking tape over the wheel gaps of a wheel that isn't all-enclosed. Gerbils can catch their tails in the wheels with the gaps. And be sure to get clips for the metal mesh top of your aquarium - or place a book on the corner of the frame - so the gerbils can't get out. They are able to jump quite high. Ours have even climbed up onto the top of the water bottle, and they've bonked their heads on the mesh top to the aquarium. The boys to whom I gave our two eldest girls have them in an aquarium that is not as deep as the one they left, so I catch myself wondering if the girls have noticed the difference yet (i.e., bumped their heads a lot sooner than expected). :-)
I am uncertain about how many girls to have together in an aquarium. I have three girls - the mom and one girl from her first litter and another girl from her last litter. I think I'm supposed to keep an eye on them because they *might* fight when they get older. If anyone on the list could refresh my memory on that, I'd appreciate it.\ Oh, and don't give them many sunflower seeds since it makes them fat. In fact, if you can start them out on a healthy food - like the Ox-Bow brand of gerbil food - you'll be farther ahead than I am. I started mine out on the seed mix. Now they'll eat some of the healthy food, but not enough that I don't have to throw in some seed mix, too. -Jean
