Will mother gerbil be able to care for 7 Babies?

Question

when the pet store accidentally gave me a male and female instead of 2 females, they agreed to take the babies my couple was sure to make, at 5 weeks of age. and i would love to care for gerbil babies. so the female finally had her babies, and she had seven of them. the mother built a huge nest. and has plenty of room for them, but there are so many. im scared she cant give milk to seven babies.

i have read that they can have up to eight babies, but i cant find it on the internet in clear words that they can easily care for that many.

if you know that the mother can do it please tell me.

Answer 1

She will manage.  If some gerbils can handle eight then she will cope with seven.  If for any reason she thinks she can't then she will humanly kill the weakest (it is sad but natural), I doubt this will happen though if she has all the food, bedding and peice and quiet she needs.  Baby gerbils would be almost impossible to hand-rear so they must stay with the mother.  

I think in your situation It would be best to keep at least on of each s*x from the litter and then get another cage so the once they are old enough you can put the male(s) in one cage with the dad and the female(s) in another with the mum.  Then there will be no more babies and nobody will get lonely.  

Answer 2

yes my gerbil mother had 7 babies not to long ago so i think so.

Answer 3

Yes, if she's ready to take care of that many, she'll be able to.

Just let her do what she needs to do. Good luck!