Gerbil Litter Three

This is a page following the development of the third litter to be born here, the mother was Roma, Nutmeg daughter to Siena from our first litter. Roma was bred at around 7 months old, so she was a fully grown, mature female at the time.

This litter was born around midnight on 24th April 2005.

Roma's first litter consisted of three DEH and one Nutmeg, two males and two females. The two males were given to a very loving and friendly family and are now called Flapjack and Gingerbread. Roma actually weaned this litter very young, mainly because she only delayed the birth of the second litter until 29 days, so she weaned them around 5-7 days before she gave birth to the second litter. At first we couldn't understand what she was doing, and then it became quite apparant that she was pregnant and going to give birth soon. What Roma would do is hide out in the wooden log bridge and kept the pups away from her for a day or two, by this time they got the picture that she wasn't allowing them to nurse anymore.

I kept Dakota and the male sons in as long as possible and would only remove them when I went to sleep at night, this was because I was waiting to see how many pups she had in the second litter and to make sure I had enough, otherwise I would have left Dakota in and allowed a third litter - which in the end I feel I would have removed Dakota anyway because Roma was having issues with the pups moving around the tank, she was quite stressed and did not like them not being near her or being unable to see what they're doing or where they are.

Strange really because Roma actually helped Siena raise her second litter, so I am guessing that being a good or bad mother is not a learned behaviour because I would expect Roma to be a perfect mother just like Siena was.

And onto the photos: