Hi all, Things have been a little crazy around here and email time is rather scarce. But I do have a couple of questions.
The first is related to pregnancy- I got my two gerbils Tigger and Guinan at the age of 3 weeks from some friends (they are litter mates) at the end of November (which puts them at about 11 weeks now). Shortly after that I found out that Tigger was a male. I know that gerbils *will* breed if a male and female are kept together and that they reach sexual maturity around 6-7 wks. I have read that gestation can last anywhere from 24-42 days. My question is, when should I be expecting the first litter? What signs of pregnancy will a female show? I have not noticed anything out of the ordinary with Guinan yet. My second question is related to food- what do you all feed your critters? How much? I am currently feeding them Kaytee's Fiesta, Hamster & Gerbil mix. There are quite a high percentage of sunflower seeds, so I usually pick those out and use them as treats. The instructions on the bag say to feed them 2 tablespoons per day per gerbil, but when I started out with that I just ended up with a lot wasted so I now feed them 2 instead of 4 tablespoons a day for both of them. They seem to be fine but I am wondering, am I feeding them enough? Are they getting all of the nutrition that they need, i.e. vitamins, minerals, proteins? Should I be feeding them anything else? Occasionally I have put some fruit or yogurt in their cage but they haven't shown any interest. I have heard that gerbils love fruit, veggies, and yogurt, so I'm a little confused. I seem to remember thinking of a couple of other questions, but I forget what they were now so I'll leave it at that. Thank you muchly, everyone! -Sharon
