What should i do whilst my gerbil is pregnant ?

Question

this is my 1 st time breeding and i dont no what to do :(

Answer 1

take it to the animal docter dah

Answer 2

Stop smoking.

Answer 3

umm dont handle hr u might hert the babys

Answer 4

I would say you shouldn't need to do too much; animals have been able to have babies for a couple of years now without our help. You could go to a pet store and see if there is special food &/or supplements for a pregnant gerbil though.

Answer 5

plenty of clean towels and hot water..

Answer 6

Get a yellow cage for the babies! Much safer than blue or pink!

Answer 7

don't play with her because you don't want to mess anything up and after she gives birth, separate the babies from the parents because otherwise the parents will eat the babies! scary!

Answer 8

Some things you should do as soon as you realize your hamster is expecting:

If she's not already in her own cage, give her her own cage.

Try to handle her as little as possible.

Make sure she knows how to use a water bottle. Baby hamsters can drown in water dishes.

Give her fresh veggies as treats.

Give her one piece of dry dog food a day (she will need the protein).

Keep her cage clean as you right before she seems like she can't get any fatter - she is most likely about to give birth and will not let you clean the cage afterwards.

She may be more prone to bite than usual. Make sure anyone who gets near her knows that.

Ask friends and family or local pet stores now about homes for the babies.

Answer 9

Setup: Monogamous pairs

Number of pups per litter: 3-6

Length of (non-nursing) gestation: 24-27 days

Length of (nursing) gestation: 28-50 days

Frequency of litters: every 4-6 weeks

Number of litters per lifetime: 7+

Number of total pups: 30+

A breeding pair (as with any pair of gerbils) will require at least a 10 gallon tank to breed in. More space is, of course, always welcome ;) I recommend you stick to aquariums rather than cages or plastic Habitrail-type setups for a couple of reasons. First of all a cage is likely to be drafty, which might harm pups that are born when it's chilly out. Also there is a chance they could be kicked out of the bars or otherwise hurt on them. As for the plastic habitats, these I've found make it difficult to get ahold of the young pups, therefore making them harder to tame, but if you're already using one it will probably do.

I would also like to warn people about the dangers of pine and cedar bedding. Cedar is bad for ALL gerbils, regardless of age, but my own experiences have led me to believe that pine is also largely responsible for respiratory problems (fatal) in young pups. Read my pine article for more info.

When you're breeding (or owning gerbils for that matter) there are some basic things you ought to have around. You'll want at least polysporin or neosporin (a topical antibiotic) for sore noses and cuts, and tetracyclene (available from your vet in Europe, and sold as Ornacyclene for birds in the US) for respiratory problems or to prevent infection. I would also recommend, just to keep things neat, getting a couple of shelves. This is nice if you have 2 or 3 tanks and then miscellaneous things (such as food "bins" and bags of bedding) regarding gerbils all in one room. The best shelves, IMO, are called "5 tiered basic shelving units" that you can find at WalMart or Bed, Bath, & Beyond and other home warehouse stores. They're cheap ($20 for 5 levels of shelves), lightweight, easy to construct, and the perfect size for 10 gallon tanks.

I wouldn't use commercial bedding (such as "Sleep Stuff", etc.) because it is quite possible that a baby will get tangled up in the fibers and die, or else have its limbs badly severed. Sorry to be so graphic but it's true. The same goes for cloth. Just give gerbils tissues if you want them to have a soft nest. Cardboard also works.

Babies usually arrive in the early morning hours although they can be born any time of the day. After each baby the mom will eat the afterbirth (placenta) so if you happen to witness the event, to not become alarmed if you see her eating something. The male usually retreats during the first 24-72 hours of the litter's life, but will eventually be welcomed back into the nest. The mom will go into heat usually the evening after the birth. This is normal, and it will not distract her from her maternal duties. She and the male will mate, and in between she will tend to the babies. The embryos for the next litter will not implant until the current litter is several weeks old so don't worry that the mother will get exhausted.

The babies are born deaf, blind, and hairless. If you check out any of my litters you can watch the development of babies day-by-day. If you want to know if mom is feeding them or not, wait a couple hours after the birth and then peek at the babies. Fed babies will have a white substance (milk) in their bellies that you can see through their skin. When they're born you can immediately tell what color their eyes are. Black eyed colors will have dark eye splotches, and pink eyes will have no visible splotches. In a day or two, dark furred colors such as agouti and black will have darkly pigmented skin, and pink eyed colors will be bright pink still. If you have a pup with bright pink skin, dark eyes, and dark points of skin resembling a siamese pattern, you have an ee or e(f)e(f) pup (dark eyed honey, nutmeg, schimmel, or champagne).

The first question that will probably come to mind is "When can I hold them?" Many people think you can't hold gerbils until their eyes are open or else the mom will eat them. Not true. (although I learned firsthand at school, that this IS true with hamsters...) If your gerbil mom is comfortable with your presence (as almost any properly looked after pet gerbil will be) she will likely not mind at all. At school I cleaned the cage of a mother gerbil (who wasn't very familiar with me at all and had only been at school about 2 weeks) and her 8 two day old babies and nothing bad came of it.

Of course, until they have hair there's not much reason to touch them anyway. But if you need to move a pup because it's too far from the nest, etc. then you'll want to know. You should probably wait a week to clean the cage, unless it's absolutely necessary, just because the mom's don't like having their nests destroyed and will spend a good 45min reconstructing it while her babies grow chilly. But if you absolutely must, try to conserve a goo

Answer 10

Go mate with a different Gerbil. She's busy.

Answer 11

ask somebody that works at a vet office or a pet store, they will tell you what to do

Answer 12

Leave her be, she will know what to do. Increase her food slightly aswell and increase it even more when she is lactating.

Good luck grandma to be :D

Answer 13

Fret. Smoke a cigar. Chew your nails?

Answer 14

start saving your money.  think about how much money you'll have to spend on them.  you'll have to hire a baby sitter.  don't forget the formulas.  they're expensive.  then you have to put them through school, up to and including gerbil college.  that's not cheap.  or what happens when the females want to get married.  you'll have to pay for their weddings.

Answer 15

Be sure that you take everything out of the cage like the wheel, or any other toys because the gerbil's babies could get messed up and hurt while the mother is working out, and if you do want to breed but you don't know how to get started first get some fresh food that's not very hard, like try getting some good veggie tables like lettuce,carrot,or cabbage or you could serve your gerbil some fruit like apple,banana,cucumber,or even some Cheerios for your gerbil! dip the Cheerios inside plain yogurt and serve it to your gerbil then get it some fresh water to feed on be sure to freshen the water each day, then try to find a good mate for your cute gerbil so that they can start breeding so once you get the male gerbil, be sure to get some other cages for the extra gerbils you're going to have, keep some towels close by once your gerbil is pregnant, you'll know because she will become i fat,and she will usually be eating more, or drinking more the only way you can know is when you hold her,her stomach slightly brushes your hand and it feels like she has a sack of potatoes inside her stomach, don't feel for the babies because this could hurt the babies and could kill them, when you are breeding them get a tank so that she won't hurt her stomach between the wires a place where you could find good cages will be pets mart or something and you could connect cages together for all the extra gerbils you are going to have, and sometimes when the mother is pregnant her stomach will be pear shaped and she'll be making a big nest if you only get one gerbil and it's a girl or boy get more boy gerbils to make with the girls! when your gerbil has the babies, don't touch them or don't pay any attention to the babies because the mother will  say "Oh, I am getting payed attention to more and I really hate that" so she'll eat the babies or sometimes she'll just eat them because they are stressing her out, don't take the father out of the cage unless he starts hurting the gerbils you have to be 100% sure that you need to take him out because of that.So when the babies are born, wait at least a week and after a week has passed, you can carry and love the cute little babies.If you want to stop the breeding, then take out all the males and separate them. I hope everything turns out okay!