Gerbil babies

Deliverance

ok after the petshop idiot gave me two male gerbils that turned out to be a breeding pair. I now have to watch them constantly and their offspring. Fair enough I thought I can deal with the pups.

All was well enough for me until I saw a fairly well developed baby that lasted a week or so, the little chap seemed to be doing well crawling around the cage and all that, that was great I had hope for him.

I looked in the cage the other day and found the little chap half eaten, it was horrible and it stuck in my mind. His little bro is still alive but the image of the little fellla half eaten sticks with me.

I curse that petshop owner he sold me a breeding pair when I asked for two males or females. As a responsible owner I wonder can and should I get my gerbil pair neutered? I don't want to sepearte them.

Can i get one of them neutered?

meoklmrk91

You can to my knowledge as I looked into it for a friend who ended up in the same situation as yourself, they didn't go the nuetering route and now the stack of cages speaks for itself. Find a good small animal clinic in your area and give them a buzz, it is however a tricky procedure as rodents can be hard to anesthetize without over doing it and they are so little, so just make sure that they have experience with it.

SophieSakura

I heard of someone who got their male mouse neutered. Just go to a really good vet who has experience doing it. If you're anywhere near Bray then go to Bairbre O'Malley.

Or you could separate them and if there is a girl baby then that can be friends with the mother or if it's male friends with the dad?

Zapperzy

Please separate them immediately for the time being. As far as i know they will breed again soon after giving birth so the female is probably pregnant again.

Bairbre o malley is your best bet to try, google her name, she's an exotic vet based in bray. Tbh the chances of finding another vet who will do it are slim, most don't even know basic rodent illnesses when presented with a sick hamster/gerbil/rat nevermind how to neuter them. Also it'l only be the male you get neutered so you'll still have to sex the babies right to ensure none of her intact male babies go in with her. If you do find a vet that will neuter female gerbils pm me. :-O

Gremlin

When I was a kid, a school chum gave me two gerbils because his mum wouldn't let him keep them. Like the OP I discovered one day a squirming mound of worm like baby gerbils. Then it started, bits of baby gerbils, baby gerbils floating in the water, and worse, which I wont recount on here.

I found the father was killing them (I assume to get the mother ready for mating again asap). I separated them and a few babies survived. Soon after both gerbils escaped and I never saw them again!

Deliverance

Thanks for replies. I will look into local vets to see what is possible as one tactic. Barring that I will take the other excellent advice from above. If the surviving baby lives then I will check to see what sex it is and place it with same sex parent and isolate the other one for the time being.

The female is most likely expecting another litter, so whatever the outcome there I think I will keep one of the same sex for the other cage. That way I will have two sets of gerbils of the same sex in different cages.

Any surplus from the next litter will go to another home in pairs of same sex or as individuals.

As a sidenote: From what I have seen, this situation is common enough for new gerbil / hamster owners. As such people should be wary when buying paired animals and make sure that they are educated in recognising sex of pairs before they buy them. In my experience so far I find pet shop owners questionable. I'm sure there are good ones out there but tis like anything I guess, check before you buy and know what you are buying.

After all it would be really unpleasant for a small child to see that her cute little pets half eaten babies lying around a cage. Thankfully my own daughter did not witness this but she easily could have. Check before you buy and question the shop owner. Cheers.

piperh

Theres a small animal clinic Smith & Foley in Navan in Meath that used (about 12mnths ago) to do gerbils and guinea pigs don't know if they still do, I know when i took my rabbits in there there were gerbils and gp also being picked up after being done.