Anyone keeps gerbils?

Singapore
December 22, 2006 12:22pm CST
Hey everyone, I have a lilac coloured gerbil girl. Anyone else keeps gerbils here?
4 responses
skittles46
@skittles46 (388)
• United States
9 Jan 07
I keep gerbils, to my husband's great chagrin. Currently I have a breeding pair of "regular" colored ones, a 9 week old female, a brand new baby who is now 6 days old, and a lilac ruby eyed male, paired with a cream ruby eyed female, but they won't be producing babies for a little while, as they are only 6 weeks old or so.
starcrazy
@starcrazy (137)
• Singapore
10 Jan 07
Oh that's really cute. I never go to breeding gerbils as I think it's kinda time consuming. And I don't think I can handle that many of them in my hands. I used to breed hamsters though as a hobby. Breeding gerbils is kind complicated as their genetics are harder to understand.
starcrazy
@starcrazy (137)
• Singapore
12 Jan 07
Oh I see. I used to breed Syrians too. They are just too adorable. Housing them by themselves is actually good for me as a breeder. I get to control when they are gonna breed and I can choose which 2 to breed when the female's on heat. I tried reading up on gerbil genetics, but oh my... it's just too much information =)
skittles46
@skittles46 (388)
• United States
12 Jan 07
The gerbil genetics are a little harder to understand, but not really much. To be honest I'm an "amateur" breeder, and mix any pair I think would make for interesting and different mixes. I don't keep up with the genetics on them, at least at this point. I bred hamsters for a time too, but only syrians, and got tired of having to have seperate cages for each one I wanted to keep or needed to keep past weaning.
1 person likes this
eight888
@eight888 (1)
• Philippines
9 Jan 08
i have two gerbils both male coz' i dont want to breed them... they said that female are the more dominant ones thats why i kept males... i like them coz they dont stink a lot coz they urinate less than a hamster...
AngelBunnY
@AngelBunnY (8)
•
25 Mar 08
yeah ive two female gerbils
timelesstreasures
@timelesstreasures (292)
• United States
23 Dec 06
I used to have gerbils but they all made babies so we had to get rid of them.
crystallis
@crystallis (87)
•
22 Dec 06
Never had gerbils before.. I had hamsters once.. are they the same?
starcrazy
@starcrazy (137)
• Singapore
22 Dec 06
I think they are relatively the same as in the upkeep, food and all that. Just that they look and behave differently. Gerbils live longer than hamsters, I think they live about 4 years.