Gerbil care/breeding guide

[Marcia]

Origins

Gerbils are a group of mammals belonging to the order Rodentia - the rodents. There are several different species of gerbils. They are found all over the world, mostly in dry, infertile, sandy steppes in North Africa, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Sri Lanka, India, China and Mongolia. The Mongolian gerbil (meriones unguiculatus) is the best-known species and the most suitable one to be kept as a pet. This is the species we normally keep.

The Mongolian gerbil does not have many natural enemies in its native habitat, though birds of prey and snakes do pose a threat in the wild. To escape from those predators that do exist, the gerbil has an acute sense of hearing and a highly developed jumping ability. This jumping ability, which is also useful when a gerbil is attacked by others of its own kind, stems from its very strong, muscular hind legs. They also use these hind legs to kick sand in the face of terrestrial enemies such as snakes, which is often a very successful tactic in repelling the predator.

Gerbils have a number of characteristics typical of desert animals. Wild gerbils are golden agouti in colour, with a white or off-white belly. At first glance the topcoat appears golden brown ticked with black. In fact the golden agouti colour is made up of hairs which are banded with colour - slate-grey to black at the roots, golden-brown to yellow in the middle, and tipped with black. This colouration is found in many desert-dwelling species as it makes for great camouflage against their sandy environment. The belly and paws on the other hand, which are often in contact with the hot earth, reflect back much of the heat away from the animal due to the white fur. They are economical with their water, urinating very little and producing very dry droppings. They are capable of storing water and fat in their bodies to tide them through difficult times. Fortunately for pet gerbils, humans can provide a constant water supply!

Housing

Gerbils require deep substrate (roughly 6-8 inches) of wood shavings etc to dig. Gerbils live in underground tunnels in the wild and they will make tunnels within a pet environment. For this reason, cages do not make good housing for gerbils. Also cages can cause behavioural problems and physical problems in the gerbil.
Bar chewing is caused by boredom and it quickly becomes a habit that is difficult to stop. This bar chewing can cause discolouration of the fur around the gerbils mouth and if a gerbil gets it's teeth stuck, the teeth will break off when it trys to free itself.
Most cages have a plastic base which is also a no no. Gerbils can and will chew their way through plastic, they may even ingest some plastic which could cause intestinal blockage.
They require wooden toys in their tanks to chew on. This prevents their teeth from growing to long. Also, you can put in toilet roll tubes and other cardboard boxes such as cereal boxes, these will be much appreciated even if they don't last long! One other point to make is on how many gerbils you should have. Gerbils are highly sociable creatures who require company from their own kind. Usually a pair of males or females is good but you could also have a trio. Don't keep more than 3 females together and 4 males together. The more gerbils you have living together increases the risk of de-clanning. This can cause fighting between the gerbils, especially the females who are more territorial.

Feeding

Feeding is very simple. Gerbil food is readily available from most pet shops and is cheap. You can either get a small ceramic bowl and fill it with their gerbil mix or you can scatter their food around. Scatter feeding brings out the natural behaviour in gerbils. It encourages foraging.
As far as treats go, there are plenty available but they shouldn't be given often. Things like peanuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and dried/live mealworms go down a treat but they should be given on a weekly basis and not a daily basis. You can feed certain vegetables and fruit but it isn't nessesary as a gerbils diet consists on mainly seeds, roots and nuts. Make sure though that gerbils do not eat anything toxic such as onions and potatoes. Fresh drinking water must be avilable at all times.

Health and lifespan

Gerbils are hardy little creatures which don't become ill very often. If you provide the right environment, food and care, your gerbil may never get ill. People say that gerbils only live for 2-3 years, this is however incorrect. On average, a gerbils lifespan is between 3-5 years. What i have found is that most pet store gerbils won't survive to reach their 2nd or 3rd birthdays but breeders gerbils will normally exceed this. There are however exceptions to this rule.

Breeding

As with any animal, there are general rules and guidelines to breeding.
Females should not be used for breeding before 5 months of age, they will not be able to cope with the pregnancy. The best age is around 6 months. By this point, the female should be fully grown and fully matured.

When you have decided to breed. You need to look at a healthy male and a healthy female with no problems. Ideally, both parents should have good temprements as aggessive behaviour can be passed down to the offspring.
Once you have chosen your pair, you need to introduce them, sometimes you can achieve this on neutral ground but sometimes, you will need to make a split cage, here's a link on how to do that - Build a Secure Split Tank

Once introduced, the waiting game begins. Females generally come into estrus every 4-6 days. Once in heat, the male will mount the female several times over a few hours. After a successful mating, you will be waiting for roughly 23-28 days for the birth. During this time, you may leave the male in with the female. This is highly recommended especially if it's the females first ever litter. Unlike creatures such as hamsters, gerbil males make wonderful fathers and will help raise the pups. He will keep them warm and return them to the nest should they find their way out.

Females begin to show pregnancy weight gain at around 17-19 days after mating, by the time they reach around 20 days +, they will be very round and pear shaped.
After the birth, the female immediately comes into heat again, the male will mate with the female but this is perfectly fine. Female gerbils can delay their pregnancies when they are already caring for a litter. So instead of having a normal 4 week pregnancy, they will delay it until at least 6 weeks.
The pups are hairless, blind and deaf. The mother will sit on her litter to keep them warm and to feed them. You can check to see if the pups are getting milk by looking at their tummys. A full stomach will show through their skin and it looks like a little white bean.

Average litter sizes are 4-6 pups but you could expect less or more than that.

When the pups reach 5 days of age, fur will start to come through. At 14 days of age, they should be fully furred and you can sex them. Between day 17 and day 19, their eyes and ears should start opening and it's at this time that they start to eat solids. The pups should be fully weaned by 4 weeks of age but they must remain with their parents until 6 weeks of age. Those 2 weeks are vital as they learn all sorts of different behaviours from their parents.

At 6 weeks of age, the pups can now be removed from their parents. At this point, the father needs to be removed. It is not a good idea to allow the pair to back to back breed, this can reduce the females lifespan and cause health problems. You're best to leave the female have a few months to recover from her latest pregnancy.
After you have removed the father and any male pups, you can leave a couple of females in with the mother and they will help to raise her second and final litter.

Never have more than one female in with a male and visa versa. Two females will fight for the right to breed with a male and two males will do the same over a female and they will fight to the death.

It might be worth mentioning that it is a common myth that gerbil pups should not be touched shortly after birth. Gerbils unlike hamsters do not cannibalise their young unless the pups are already dead. Obviously leave the pups and the mother alone for a few hours after the birth but then you can touch them. Place your hand in the tank near the nest, if the mother is fine with your hand being there then you can pick up the pups gently. Do not have them out for too long though as they can quickly die from hypothermia.

If there's anything i've left out, please feel free to comment