The following section is to provide information on:
1. Breeding. A brief on the things you should know and think about before you breed.
2. How long have you owned Gerbils for?
3. What will I need?
4. Temprament? Colour? Genetics?
5. Where do I get my Gerbils?
6. How do I find out of there are any breeders near me?
7. Breeding scenarios?
8. How long should the female be bred for?
Also, we have a page on the moulting process of a Nutmeg, and how to distinguish this colour from a Dark Eyed Honey. Often these two colours are mixed up when the Gerbil is young, hopefully a development page will help show you the differences by comparing the two colours next to eachother.
Please click the link to the right to go to this page: Nutmeg
Breeding
If you have decided to take the plunge into breeding gerbils, you need to first find out as much information as you can. You should also have some plans in mind, realise what gerbil breeding is all about and realise that it IS a hobby and that if you're wanting to make a quick wad of money, you're in the wrong place!
You will be lucky to make any kind of money from breeding, when you think that each Gerbil costs a couple of pounds, you've had to raise them for the last 6 weeks, that's way more on food and bedding than what each Gerbil is being sold for. Unless of course you plan on taking the cheap route and jeopardising the health of your Gerbils... In which case, shame on you.
All responsible breeders will have a breeding plan, with their aims written down. What colours they are aiming for, and how to produce those colours and better those colours.
How long have you owned gerbils for?
If you've only owned them a couple of weeks or months, then I would advise you to seriously reconsider what you are doing, take your time and gain a few months' more experience with keeping Gerbils first and then consider breeding. As cheap and 'disposable' gerbils might be, there is a lot to learn about them before you start breeding them! I personally wouldn't and didn't consider breeding for a good while, I'd had gerbils well over two and a half years before I got a breeding pair and I am still learning.
Breeding, really shouldn't be a spur of the moment decision, it is a commitment and how commited are you? You also need to sort out what will happen to any pups? Will they be kept by you, or will you be adopting them out to people. If you are going to give all the pups away then what's the point in you breeding in the first place?
What will I need?
You will need to have two spare tanks, one for male pups to live in and the other for the female pups to live in, you will need to seperate once they are 6 weeks old. Some good methods of advertising your pups is through your own personal website, ads in the local newspaper, fliers in local vets or pet shops. I would not advise that you kart your pups of to petshops, as you don't know who they will be sold to, or how they will be tret in the shop, if possible ask if you can put a poster up in their shop so that customers come directly to you. That way they can also see the parents and how you bring their gerbils up.
Temprament? Colour? Genetics?
Right, so you've now decided that you definitely are wanting to breed and that you have enough experience, you now need to think about what colours you would like to breed. To do this, you really need to learn gerbil genetics, and so I advise you to make a trip to the Genetics section of this website. If you want to just breed and don't really have any colour in mind, then that's fine but you do still need to find two tame Gerbils.
Gerbils that have loads of recessives are likely to have their coat colour ruined, so don't go for a rainbow litter, as the colours are likely to be ruined. Try to breed as pure as possible, this way their coat colour will be just as the standards call... Recessives have a dramatic effect on coat colour, for example... If you are wanting a beautiful DEH, or an Argente Golden, DO NOT breed it to be carrying recessive 'g', as the 'g' will give the coat a blue tint! This is NOT what you want. However, some recessives can also work the other way, and by certain colours carrying certain recessives they can have a much more beautiful, rich colouring. For example a Golden Agouti carrying 'e' will give the agouti a beautiful orange tint to it and therefore it is much more likely to do well in shows.
Also, once you have Gerbils with good size and type, you can begin selecting for colour. With each generation begin picking animals that have the deepest/richest colouring, with good selection you can end up with beautifully coloured Gerbils, which again are likely to do well in shows. For example, my next generation I'll be breeding my darkest Nutmeg with one of his Nieces - which ever has the best colour and size etc. This is to produce nicely coloured gerbils, which will hopefully do well in shows and earning me a good reputation as a resoncible breeder. (All my gerbils are already friendly and have good size and no health problems so far... The oldest from my breeding lines are now over a year old)
Where do I get my Gerbils?
First it is very important, where you get your gerbils from. Try not to be tempted by Pet Shop Gerbils, as you do not know where they have come from or if they had any problems when they were small. For example your gerbil could have had a respiratory infection when young which it recovered from. Now, you should not breed from a Gerbil which suffered from this as it is more likley to pass on to its pups too. Remember, you are breeding for HEALTH as well as the most TAME animal.
Second I would say you need to have some kind of breeding plan, ask yourself why you are breeding, what you are breeding for what are your aims? Why exactly are you breeding? And then you move onto a plan of action, where to start?
You should get in touch with breeders, they are your best source of information, they should have everything you need to know about the gerbils you are about to buy, if they don't then try another breeder!
Next is your plan, you should breed for tameness in the animal first and foremost. Picking a Gerbil because it has a good coat but bites is not a good idea as it will pass these traits on to any pups.
1. Type - Is the Gerbil happy to be held, does it bite?
2. Health - Is the Gerbil bright, alert? Does it have a good shiny coat?
3. Coat Colour - Is the coat of a good quality? Does it meet standards? If not you need to consider how to breed the perfect coat down the generations.
So once you know what colour you are aiming for, and you have tame, healthy and friendly Gerbils you are ready to go.
How do I find out of there are any breeders near me?
Well, you can try looking on the NGS website for any local breeders, or there is a Gerbil forum in my links page, where a lot of breeders go on and you can ask them if they know of any breeders. If it happens that you are out of the way of any breeders then there is also the possability of a Gerbil show. This has its advantage as there will be a number of breeders there, rather than just the one as well as being a fun day out and you get to see a lot of different Gerbil species and meet some new people.
I still strongly advise you NOT to buy breeding Gerbils from a pet shop, so if you can't travel far because you don't have a car or you don't drive, try asking if someone will give you a lift... In the UK, there are Gerbil shows all over including Wales (for Scotland you will have to go to a Fur and Feather show) I don't drive, but I do try my hardest to go to shows... I am lucky enough to have two right on my doorstep though. So far I have travelled to Manchester for some gerbils and to Coventry, Manchester is only 30 miles away but Coventry is a good 2 hours away each way!
Breeding scenarios?
In captivity it is best to have a mating pair, rather than two or more females and one male or more as the dominant female will bully the subordinate female, or the pregnancy could end in disaster. If you have two females together and wish to have a litter, but don't want to split the pair up this could be a dangerous situation as if it happens to be the subordinate female who becomes pregnant, the dominant female will bully the subordinate or may kill the pups once they are born, therefore it is always best to have an opposite sex couple, where the male can help with the pups.
You could attempt to find a new friend for the single female left, though this is often difficult and it would be best if you tried the split-cage method. This is where you split the cage into two using a divider, usually chicken wire, you alternately change each gerbil over into the other half every few hours or so. This way the Gerbils get to know eachother's smell without having any fights, which could be fatal. It is also often best that the two Gerbils, when meeting for the first time, are introduced on neutral grounds, for example the bath tub or somewhere similar. This way neither has their scent already there or any terratory. On average, to introduce two unfamiliar females, it can take weeks, sometimes 4 or more before they accept eachother, where as with a male it can be within minutes that he will accept either a female or a young male pup.
How long should the female be bred for?
I don't believe a Gerbil should have any more than 2 or 3 litters, with each litter being bred for a goal. Once you have the Gerbils you need from the pairing then they should be split, with the female with daughters and male with sons. It can't be good for any animals to be permenantly pregnant for its whole life, not only will it be stressful for the female but it will also put such a strain on her body, she is unlikely to live much longer than 1 1/2 to 2 years old.
There's no need to keep a female with her partner all her life, she will be just as happy with some daughters and he will be just as happy with some sons. I don't believe in breeding for the sake of breeding, and this is why I only have 2 to 3 litters from any one female - depending on litter size. Each litter is planned and most pups accounted for before they are even born, I have the intention of keeping each and every pup - unless someone wishes to have some for their own breeding etc. There's no point in breeding if you are going to give every single pup away, without keeping a single one. If you are going to do this, then I would advise rescuing some gerbils instead of breeding for no reason. If you have no intention of bettering the gerbil pet community, by chosing only the healthiest, strongest and friendliest gerbils to breed from then I'd advise you to seriously re-think what you're doing... You are not helping your reputation in any way, and most likely people will recognise what you're doing as wrong and they WILL talk to others.