Santiago, Squeaky and Tallinn

No, don't ask... Please... Just don't.

I didn't want to keep the name squeaky, as well it sounds like a child named the gerbil. Can you imagine if we ever show him? The winning gerbil is... Squeaky... Hmph.
Well his name comes from when he was younger he'd squeak and click, which was odd as it wasn't a respiratory infection (I took him to the vet to be sure it wasn't) he has now grown out of it and no longer squeaks at us. It's not a scared squeaking because he'll even do it when in the tank, atleast it's not the normal squeaking you might hear coming from your gerbs. Anyway... It came to the time to name the gerbs, and just like with Saffie one of the female pups, we knew we wouldn't be able to stop calling him squeaky and so here we are.

With a Gerbil called squeaky :/

*Not impressed*

Anyway, let's move onwards and upwards!

These three are the males from Siena and Dakota's second litter, they are now in the big wide world on their own with no adults to help direct them... I did think about removing Dakota from his quartet and putting him with them so he could teach them some gerbil manners and behaviour etc. I wish I had now actually, to be honest. But they do seem to be doing fine, the male nutmegs are currently beginning to moult into their much darker adult coat. I wish they'd stay their lovely deep orange actually, as it is very nice... Not that their adult coat isn't... It's one of those things where you want what you can't have.

Santiago - Red Eyed Honey - Genetics are: AaCCeeGGpp. Santi, or Santa (I can just see the photos at christmas now!) is a sweet little red eyed honey, as he is still young I can't see much of a personality, although he does seem to be the most active and is normally the one I'll see roaming around their tank. He, just like the other two does like to come onto my hand and climb up my arm, and I would probably say that he is indeed normally the first one to come out.

Squeaky - Nutmeg - Genetics are: aaCCeeGGPp. Squeaky... He's the smallest of the three, infact he's the smallest of the lot and I did think that perhaps I should keep him in with Siena a little longer, but at around 5 weeks old he grew enough to the point where I did find it difficult to distinguish between him and Tallinn. Both he and Tallinn used to fall asleep in my hands if I picked them up before they'd woken up, it was so cute... Although I wish they'd still do it now ;) It's a shame Gerbils aren't really like that...

Talinn - Nutmeg - Genetics are: aaCCeeGGPp. Tallinn is the bigger of the two Nutmegs and is currently beginning to moult, at first I didn't think either Nutmegs would have good colour, but I can tell now that Tallinn has a very dark nose like his older brother Obikwelu does. Hopefully he will be a lovely dark colour and perhaps even be good to show in the future.

December 2004

An update on the boys, they are really beginning to show their personalities now… And I’m sorry to say but they are very annoying.

*laughing

It’s not like they’re mean Gerbils, it’s just because they are constantly harassing me whenever I let them out to play. It just makes playtime that little bit more stressful, in relation to when I let, say Siena out, although she might be a very excitable and active gerbil I can allow her to come out and I know she won’t harass me, she’ll just run around, climb on me occasionally and generally do her own thing…

I know you’re just looking at me like I’m a madwoman now, but honestly! Gerbils DO have different personalities!

Honest!

December 2006

Tallinn had a scent gland tumour removed on November 25th, just a couple of weeks after York had his done. I noticed literally a week after that York had his that Tallinn did too, it was still only small when it was removed but I didn't like to wait for it to get large and increase the chances of it growing as quickly as York's did.

He too has recovered well and the fur is growing back well and the scar is looking very good. I'm still yet to have a gerbil chew at their stitches... *touch wood*

However this does mean that I will likely discontinue this breeding line now that I've had one gerbil die at 18 months and another get a scent gland tumour at 2 1/4. Not that I had any plans to breed soon, but it's still wise to stop the line here or out-cross to totally unrelated lines and hope they do not have histories of tumours!