# Fat-tailed Gerbils :)



## Goth-Gurl (Mar 31, 2010)

Hey Everyone  

Recently I got two fat-tailed gerbils (3rd March).. I was told they were both male and I didn't think to check...they were very nibby and untame when I got them ( they were almost 5 months and where not previously handled) . One of the gerbils was more aggressive than the other but I just thought it was untame. 

On sunday.. the aggressive gerbil was even more aggressive and my gerbils kept on fighting. I was soo confused :S then at 11:50pm they were fighting very very bad soo I went to investigate and I saw babies 

The aggressive gerbil was in fact female and pregnant.. hahaha  I was soo shocked. I removed the male because she was randomly attacking him even though he was no where near the nest. She had 3 babies.

One of the babies wasn't in the nest on Monday morning sooo I think It died  There are two babies  they are healthy and she is doing well.

I just wondered if anyone had any advice for me? 
this is my first time breeding


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## Shell195 (May 31, 2007)

Duprasi are solitary animals and should be kept alone as adults.
What diet are you feeding them?

I am hoping my girl is pregnant after putting her and the male together for a week. 
Duprasi rock:flrt:


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## Goth-Gurl (Mar 31, 2010)

*Fat Tailed Gerbies *

Most websites I have read tell me that fat-tailed gerbils should be kept alone.. but at my college where I study animal management.. we have two female fat-tailed gerbils that live happily together and never fight 
Some breeders tell me that same-sex gerbils from the same litter can be housed happily together. 

I just feed them on hamster/gerbil mix, with fresh veg sometimes. Someone told me to feed my nursing female lots of fruit and veg, mealworms and soft cheese. I tried the cheese she didn't eat it :S hahaha ... she eats the veg and she ate the mealworms


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## x Sarah x (Nov 16, 2007)

Ones i worked with were kept in two groups, group of 4 females and a group of 3 males, never had a problem.

If raised together i don't see why they can't be happy in social groups.

However separating was the responsible thing to do in your case as they were opposite sexes and would have carried on reproducing over and over.


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## Goth-Gurl (Mar 31, 2010)

*My Fat Tailed Gerbies *

 they can be housed like Mongolian gerbies.. the only difference is that the females are aggressive to the male while pregnant or with litter... the male would never actually harm the babies. In my case, my male gerbils was just falling asleep and she was attacking him. 

I managed to get a quick piccie of my gerbils babies. They are 2 days old in this pic, but they are 4 days old now.  They are just pink hairless blobs at this stage ( sorry the photo is abit blurry )










I hope that one of the babies is female and one is male.. then my gerbils wont have to be alone.


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## Twiglet (May 6, 2009)

Goth-Gurl said:


> Most websites I have read tell me that fat-tailed gerbils should be kept alone.. but at my college where I study animal management.. we have two female fat-tailed gerbils that live happily together and never fight
> Some breeders tell me that same-sex gerbils from the same litter can be housed happily together.



I've kept quite a few over the years and most should be kept very very seperately and only introduced briefly for breeding purposes. The college I went to also kept them together for a while... eventuall the started fighting and had to be seperated. Unfortunately 90% of duprasi are mean tempered and aggressive to their own kind as you've found out. As I found out, colleges are often 'wrong' in the way they keep things. I'd go with your researched findings in future... you obviously tried to do the right thing by doing some reading so go you! You live and learn. 
I've even found that 1:1 pairs can be very nasty to eachother, just look at the males' tail after mating introductions... it'll be covered in bruises. I took on a pair years ago that had apparently been living together happily. Th previous owner clearly wasn't the insomniac I am and so wouldnt have witnessed the late night bouts of war. Bloody duprasi! Gotta love 'em...

I found the males needed an increase of protien during pregnancy and rearing. I mixed up egg food (either EMP or CeeDee) with some lactol milk powder for mum and babies. This really helped. I found them nigh on impossible to hand rear too but then I'd only ever tried with weak, rejected babies so I'm sure it can be done. 

You did the right thing by seperating them. Personally, I'd be disinclined to reintroduce them


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## Goth-Gurl (Mar 31, 2010)

*Fat tailed gerbils*

I won't reintroduce them now that I know they are female and male.. but if one of the babies is female then I'm going to see how she gets along living with her mom. 

Haha.. I never saw my gerbils mate. I worked out that when I got them , she would have already been 5 days pregnant.. because I've heard it only takes 19 days for them to be born. 

Did you go to one of the Myerscough colleges? I study animal management there.
What is egg food?


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