Latest on Gerbs! PHOTOS!

[Die Fledermaus]

Here are some of my young gerbs. Note the nutmegs with their molt line on their foreheads!

The pretty grayish one I think is a sapphire.

More on all of them later.

[Andrea]

Siamese, Nutsmegs and blacks it looks like.
I just have 1 Bermese left, Civic, but I just call him 'Gerbil' LOL... because he's the only one.

I didn't know you had so many?
Are they males or females?

[Die Fledermaus]

Oh yea, the points are darkening. Siamese.

Genetics is so interesting.

They are all females. For certain. In the 20 gallon the recently deceased Totara used to have.
It is so easy sexing gerbs.

Long ago when a nutmeg first started molting I thought it was some kind of Siamese of a different color! Those photos are still up on RR.

More on them later.

The deaths were awful. But they opened some space.

It is 82 degrees with tolerable humidity. That means this room is likely 85 or 86. I will tuen off the a/c and open the windows, owing to the electric bills.

[Andrea]

How many are there?
Females are very prone to de-clanning once maturity sets in. So be prepared to have to seperate into pairs. My female clan (8) lives happily together for 4 or 6 months b4 I started having problems.

[Die Fledermaus]

Eight. Female declanning I will watch for. One fight and the we go to ten gallon tanks, or they do!

[Die Fledermaus]

I took photos of the males - all black with one apparent nutmeg. Photos later.

[Die Fledermaus]

The guys. All the blacks huddled for some reason. I think the other is a nutmeg.

[Andrea]

I like Nutmeg, I had a couple, my photo there is Solara my pied nutmeg i had. I believe she also had the nutmeg lightened gene. She was from a male i brought up from Washington State to Cheam Gerbils breeding program, Gumba. Beacuse of him I was able to get my DEH, Malibu. DEH's are my FAVORITE coloured gerbil, and spotted burmese & Spotted blacks LOL
Too many nice gerbil colours.

What kind of bedding are you useing?

[Die Fledermaus]

Aspen. And it was replaced right after these photos. That was why I took the photos, when stuff was being removed for cleaning.

[Andrea]

I love the smell of aspen, but it's so expencive here. I ended up buying the HUGE bag of corncob bedding 1/8inch. It's like close to 40lbs LOL. It lasted me a while when I had a dozen tanks, now I have 3 I think the bag is like $20. I have carefresh to, but I only use it to mix in for the gerbil for digging, and then a handful for bedding for Bruce & Issy.

I always take pictures of my rabbits b4 i clean... so there is poop everywhere LOL. And they looooove to poop.

[Die Fledermaus]

The GPs did the most of that, and never a litter pan. So it was all over. It caused other problems, too. But now they are all gone. Maybe after Summer. Ever have GPs? More poop than rabbits, and they usually get it inn the pan. Plus, rabbit poops are harder and round - neater.

It seemed corncob was more expensive, and aspen the least expensive. I forget the sizes and costs, and I am not getting up to look. Later.

We should take photos right before we clean!

[Andrea]

I fostered 3 Male GP's temporarily, and OMG they were sooooo messy! poop flying out of the cage in all directions. I found their urine smelled bad, and after then decided GP's were not the pet for me.

I'll have to take clean critter cage pictures one day LOL

[Die Fledermaus]

That never happened to me. Wonder if they were ill. Neither the urine smelled nor poop flew. Some produced more than others. It just sat at the bottom of the cage in the bedding. It had to be cleaned every five days or so. Ophelia was as messy as two. But I miss them.

[Hamsters82]

I am late, but those are some nice photos of your gerbils.

[Die Fledermaus]

Thanks. Just gives you an idea of what there is, and of the vagaries of genetics.

The nutmegs of course are fully molted now.