Okay, so I'm like breeding my gerbils. Lexi my girl who is a "pied black", her hubbie Fred (very creative I know) is a "dove". That is basically a fancy way of saying Lexi is black and white and Fred is gray. I can't wait for Lexi's pups to arrive. (pups are baby gerbils if you didn't know that). They will be SO cute!! I'm a first time breeder and I just can't wait! I JUST LOVE GERBILS AND CAN'T WAIT TO SPREAD THE FURRY BUNDLE OF JOY TO ALL MY FRIENDS. ON MY SITE THERE ARE FACTS AND INFO. AND GERBILISH STUFF. LOL. Okay by the little unicorn cursor you could probably guess I'm a girl. I'm 14 years old and I'm in Middle School. I'm a hyper, dumb blonde who just LOVES socializing. GUESS WHAT? YOU HAVE QUESTIONS AND I HAVE THE ANSWER!! CONTACT ME AT gerbilish@yahoo.com This site you are now viewing was created by Holly Hedge on Febuary 15, 2005 It's always been a dream of mine to be used in a bibliography. (not sure why though) I know gerbils are great, but gerbil breeding is not for everyone. I mean taking care of my gerbils takes a lot of time out of my social life and homework time. But thats what has to be done. Right know she's just pregnant and I'm stressed, about making her happy, giving her enough to do, and making sure is getting enough vitamins, protien and all that stuff so she won't eat her kids. But it's all worth it, I love to play with my rodents and it's great knowing that their happy and enjoying life!! Next, you have to have a good idea about what your doing, I've been researching "genetics" for about 2 years now and there is still so much more to learn. So don't breed unless you feel comfortable with genetics and feel like you understand. K? Good. I also advise you know lots about gerbils and have had pairs that you didn't breed and just had the for compainions. (this will help you understand, recognize gerbil body language, and learn about things they love and enjoy, and things they just can't stand. Ok now that you have thought about if your ready for breeding you have to choose a breeding pair. How do you this you ask? Well here are some MORE(sorry more thinking) things to think about? 1. Are the gerbils healthy? Theres a paragraph on health go look if you need to 2. Are they from different families? (If not you may end up w/ birth defects and thats not good) 3. Would they have cute babies? ( I mean come on, you want your pair to have CUTE babies don't you?) 4. Why do you want to breed gerbils? If it's for any reason other than for the love gerbils, this may not be the right hobby for you. 5. Where will the babies go once old enough to leave the nest and venture out into this great, vast world? (please don't say pet-store) 6. Do you have the time and money to care for these animals. Caging and feeding these animals will get expensive and you need to cage the weened ones somewhere. Playing and socializing the young will take a lot of time, do you have the time? Well if you got good answers and reasons 4 the list above go on and read the next paragraph abouthow to introduce your breesing couple to each other. YEAH! We're on a roll now! Okay so lets say you bought your 2 gerbils. Betty is your girl and Bob is your boy. (once again more creative names) Okay got it? What i did was take a giant tubberware container ( 16 inches wide 26 inches long) and drilled holes on the top and through the sides. By sides i mean just below the handles. I split the cage in half 13 inches on each side with wire mesh that can be found at the Home Depot. No bigger gaps than 1/2 inch or they may bite each other through it! (thats not good) Also make sure the gerbils can not climb under or above the wire. Then put clean pine bedding on both sides, put Bob on the right side and Betty on the left. Every morning when you wake up put Bob and Betty on opposite sides. They will run around the cage smelling the other gerbil. And then before you go to bed switch their sides again. Do this for about a week. If they are ready to be introduced I hear they will sleep next to the wire together. (how cute) or they won't run around smelling. But for me Lexi (not sure how she did it) got over to the other side and spent the night on Fred's side. OMG, i was so glad they were ready to be introduced or that could've ended up bad. SO GOOD LUCK! HEALTH: How to tell if your gerbil is healthy??? 1) Make sure there are no eye boogers/ discharge whatever you want to call it. 2) Fur is soft and shiney 3) There are no lumps on the gerbils skin This could be a tumor, or cancer best to take vet if lump occurs 4) Ears and nose are also clean of discharge (or boogers) I usually just clean the booger situation with a Q-Tip tipped in warm water. DO NOT CLEAN OUT THE EARS LIKE THOUGH. Then clean out the cage. 5) No obsessive scratching That could mean mites (not good) (little bugs). If so, clean in, out and around the cage. TREATS: There's not much more that can make your gerbils trust like a good treat. But be warned there are many things that are bad for your gerbil. Like chocolate (basically any sugar), peanuts, pastra and rice, some forms of lettuce ( I stay away from lettuce all together) spinach, salted fruits and veggies, toxicated weeds (like onces sprayed with weed-be-gone and stuff like that) But many things are also good for your rodent like carrots, apples, non-salted raisins ans sunflower seeds, a LITTLE plain yogurt, even a LITTLE bit of cooked potato. Make sure to wash and dry the fruits and veggies. Dandilions can be yummy as well. Enjoy watching your gerbils play and experiment with new foods. INTRODUCING BOB AND BETTY: Okay now that Bob and Betty have been switching sides for about a week it's time for them to meet. How do yiu do this? Well this is what I did. I picked up Betty in one hand and picked up Bob in the other. I let them stiff each other. That seemed to go well, so I let them run around arms. That went good to, so I have this gerbil play corner, a plave they can run and fav so much fun it hurts, I put them in there. They justed kinda stiffed each other and went to go play. I did this for about a day, picking up, sniffing, playing. And it work. Lexi jumped sides and spent the entire next day in Fred's side. Thats just my style. HOW TO TELL IF THEIR FIGHTING OR NOT GETTING ALONG: They will either be squeaking, thumbing the foot and rollign in a mad ball of fury. IF THIS HAPPENS, WEARING BIG THICK GARDENER GLOVES SEPERATE THE TWO. OR THEY WILL MOST LIKELY FIGHT TO DEATH. Or one will be very closley following the other. Like stalkerish. If they get along remove the wire mesh and watch them mingle. If they sleep in the nest or sit together in the food everything should be good. But watch them close just in case. OKAY WELL THAT'S ABOUT AS MUCH AS I CAN DO RIGHT DO RIGHT NOW. E-MAIL ME YOUR QUESTIONS AND TELL ME ABOUT YOUR GERBILS. I'LL UPDATE YOU ON MINE! PLEASE SIGN THE GUEST BOOK; RATE ME; AND GIVE ME IDEAS! THANX! THE ONE AND ONLY **HOLLY**

Intro. About Me Things to think about before Breeding MORE to think about SPLIT CAGE