|
Post by spiritualtramp on Aug 20, 2009 19:40:17 GMT -5
Hello all My student, doodlelover, is planning on starting a gerbil colony to help feed her ferret Zeke. As I don't keep a colony, or feed gerbils in general, we had some questions. How large would she need to keep a colony, how many breeding pairs, etc to feed her ferret Zeke? He'd be getting raw and/or kibbles as well, for variety. Here's her switch thread, for those curious, and thanks for any insight offered! holisticferret.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=newbie&action=display&thread=3320
|
|
Emilee
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 240
|
Post by Emilee on Aug 20, 2009 20:47:03 GMT -5
Ahhh, gerbils used to be my ferrets!!! Here's some good places for gerbil info! You HAVE to introduce them correctly or else they will just kill each other. agsgerbils.org/Learn/Gerbil_Care_Handbook/adopt.php#splitagsgerbils.org/Learn/Gerbil_Care_Handbook/breeding.php#breedingwww.gerbilbreeding.com/index.htmwww.abcgerbils.com/mybreeding.htmlAlso- if you have females that you are not breeding, NEVER EVER keep them in groups of more than 3. Even a group of three is unstable and you'll have a gerbil war. Males are very peaceful but no more than 8 or it gets ugly. 5 gallons minimum per gerbil- about a 20-30 gallon would be fine for breeding though. Don't bother with cages they like deep bedding and chew chew chew plastic. Bin cages are cheaper and work just as well as long as you modify the cover and put wire mesh. Give mom lots of things to chew and rip up to make a nest. I don't know how a colony would work without a gigantic tank, but I think it would just be easier to have several pairs in different tanks, it works a lot easier and will be easier to keep track of what babies came from who to prevent them from being too inbred. Also the fact that there are squabbles going on in the colonies could lead to many deaths after awhile. The colony and tank has to be HUGE enough for them to get their own personal space and a good pecking order. The litters should be far enough apart for the males that aren't dad to be removed from the tank- they are pretty immature and can actually hurt the mom while she's giving birth. The daughters will actually help mom, though, so keeping two or three in there they might help her out. Dad might make his own nest and put some babies in his, but as long as mom or a daughter runs over and puts them back in the nest regularly nothing to worry about. When you're ready to stop breeding them you can either split them up and feed, or if you want to rehome them or something always keep a daughter with mom and a son with dad so they don't get lonely. Most of this stuff is just pointless information- sometimes I forget that these gerbils will be FED to another animal, not raised to make healthy gerbs.
|
|
Emilee
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 240
|
Post by Emilee on Aug 20, 2009 21:17:14 GMT -5
Some info I found for colonies: "By now you might be thinking: Do I have to have a breeding PAIR? Some people, especially those who have read gerbil books or have bred mice int he past, wonder if you can't keep a harem (multiple females with one male) and breed that way. The smart answer? NO. Some people have done this with success but more often the other females will fight with each other, steal and/or kill babies, or only one might breed. I imagine you don't want to find out the hard way which path your gerbils will choose. You also might wonder if you can't have a colony set up, with a couple males and a couple females. Again, no, because fights over breeding and territory rights (especially amongst females) are very likely to occur, as would cannibalism of litters. Also, you would likely need a large tank to keep them comfortably in. This might confuse you, because "don't gerbils breed in colonies in the wild?" Well, yes they do. But, only one female will breed. The other females in the colony are all her daughters from previous litters, that do not become sexually mature until 6 months old because their mother surpresses their growth. Once they do become mature enough to breed, one of two things will happen. 1. the mother will chase the female off, which in captivity isn't possible so the female will likely be injured or perhaps killed; or 2. the young female will chase off (kill, in captivity) her mother in order to be dominant. And also remember that in the wild gerbils live to at most 8-12 months of age so we probably don't want to mimick their natural environment too closely! Now, if for some reason you want 2 or more males in with a female, that will work. They might fight, but it's not as certain as with multiple females. All the males will breed the female. So, you will never know who the father of a given litter is, which is why I don't favor this setup." www.geocities.com/heartland/plains/9792/how2breed.html *about 1/4 of the page down*
|
|