Pup maturation.... [Oh help I found pups, page 2]

First 12 hours Look for the white blotch near the middle or off to one side. This is the milk in the belly, and if you see that the pup is being cared for no matter if the parents are running around (dad's chasing mom to breed her).

Almost immediately you should be able to see dark patches for eyes or 'no eyes' aka pink or red eyes. It is VERY RARE that you would get a true eyeless gerbil.

Day 4-5 You MIGHT see some coloration. Mostly all that's showing is skin color that will be under the fur.

Day 7-8 Fuzz day. Downy fine fuzziness starts to happen. No longer bare little squirmys.

Day 10 Major Banner Day. You can check the pup's bellies for nipples or not. If you see the six nipples marching down the stomach, it's a girl. If you're lucky you can mark or otherwise identify them later. This is the easiest way and time to sex your gerbils. Leave pups be until now unless your parents are really laid back. First litters, usually leave be.

Big paddly awkward paws and all, they'll start roaming the tank rather than just hitching a lift by not letting go of the nipple and Mom drags them places. Mom will be consternated and spend much time dumping pups back in the nest.

About day 20 (16-on) eyes open. Some just barely peek, some are wide open. Sometimes one eye will open then the other a few days later. If it's more than a few days you may have to intervene...but if at all possible, leave them be. If the eyes aren't open by 28 days intervene.

Around day 21 they will start to wean. Some have been sampling solid food and licking the parent's teeth to see what they're eating, but. This is when the pups may be stressed from weaning and get a respiratory illness. Not all do.

Day 23-24 is when the waterbottle lessons usually happen. Mom is drying up and they're having to look elsewhere to get something to drink. They will lick at their parent's mouth for moisture, but usually the parent will head for waterbottle, pup will come with, and learn to drink with the parent.

Around day 24-25 you may see pups drinking with a parent or two drinking at once to work the mechanism. Don't worry, a few more days and the pup will be able to drink by itself.

Day 28 is about the earliest you can separate a litter and expect them not to need supplimental feeding. They need to stay with an older gerbil though to be taught gerbil socialization things.

Day 35 is about the time a litter is normally removed. They're old enough to function on their own with litterbuddies, and have learned the socialization skills. They are too young to adopt out yet unless they're going to be paired with an older male (pair of young male pups).

Day 42 Sexual maturity. Age to adopt out. By this time all females have to be removed from any older male's company. IF they are with littermates with no older gerbil, first heat will probably not happen for up to 4 more weeks.

Day 56 (8 weeks) All females must be separated from litterbrothers by this time just to be safe. Usually separating them at 6 weeks, this is the absolute you can eek it, period. Some boys learn what to do by seven weeks and have bred in heat females (sisters and mother). This is also about the latest that one MIGHT be able to get by with a direct intro with scent masking tricks. Usually defer at this time to split caging.

Pup sexing

Easiest at 10 days. It's quite easy to see the nipples or lack thereof. With same color litters or multiples of the same color, it might be hard to mark or remember who's who. For older ones, flip them onto their back. Tail lifting may identify a boy as a girl. The flipping onto the back, especially in about 5 week old boys, seems to cause the gonads to 'pop right out' in front of you. What you thought was a girl is revealed to be a boy....

IF in doubt, count it as a male and put in with the boys. If it's one girl in with the boys you get one preggers. If it's one boy in with the girls, they're all preggers.

There are three sexes: Male, Female, and Oops.

This page is not done, this is where some pictures go. I decided to post it anyway and continue working on it anyway.

If a pup looks wrinkled, shriveled, and/or blue/bluegrey/bruised dark ... this is not good. A pup that's not getting enough to eat will look dried out and shrivelly, not mostly plump and a few wrinkles and that here and there. THIS LOOKS LIKE THE PUP'S SKIN IS TWO SIZES TOO LARGE. The dark coloration is 'cold'. If a female is not producing enough milk this will show up in 1-4 days. By 4-5 days if mom is not being stimulated enough to produce milk, she will be drying up and the pups will be destroyed at this point. If you start to see any signs of the wrinkling you can either foster more pups to the mom, foster her pups to another mom, or try to foster some pinkie mice to her. The pinkie mice may not work. If you foster other pups to her, take at least two so that if they're not the exact same age as the ones this mother has they will still have someone to grow up with. It just seems to work better that way.

If for example you have two mothers within a few days and one is being a good mom other than she's drying up because she only has 1-3 pups and you have another mom with 5-8 pups, then take two from the larger litter and get the smaller litter mom to take them. Try to leave the 'donor mom' with at least four. If the larger litter is only about 5-6 and the smaller one is a single, you might just take the single away and let the larger litter mom raise it. The mom with the small litter will get over it quickly.

If you have a poor mom (she's had trouble with more than one litter) you might end her breeding and remove any pups she has to foster mom to finish raising.

Stepping in with KMR to suppliment or foster a litter is a careful balance. If the female is not being stimulated to produce enough milk, foster feeding can cause the pups to nurse less and hasten her drying up. Stepping in to foster feed any pup under 10 days, it's literally impossible to raise them if they are younger than that. The older they are (over 10 days) the better chance of success. If at ALL POSSIBLE, foster pups to another lactating female. It will be much easier. (see in other parts of this website, I had an emergency foster and 9 days difference in litters (all put on the older litter's mom) at 6.5 days mom savaged her six pups. Two didn't make it, but the other four did. It took confining her with the younger ones a few times a day for 45 min to an hour to let them get a chance to nurse uninterrupted. The older litter was removed at 24 days with their father to have him continue their care and teach them how to be gerbils and mom continued to raise the younger ones to 29 days.)

If a mom savages her pups (starts killing them, or bites them up, or chews off tails and limbs) (before or after 20 days old) you will have to remove them. Either they will have to be fostered, or hand raised, or otherwise cared for. If a female does it once, it may be to some serious stress; and next time she will probably be a good mother (especially if she was very young with her first litter). If a female does it twice and no outstanding good reason, stop breeding her. If a female has done it more than twice, she needs to stop breeding. If a female destroys a pup or two before 4-5 days old it is probably a birth defect or the pup was touched and the smell changed. If it's up to about the time they are furred and eyes open, it is usually because of smell change. Someone reported shoving a log in a fireplace then touching a 21 day old and having the mother killing it within half an hour.

Some mothers will let you handle their pups at birth, most should be left alone to 10 days old first. One should always be very careful about smells and anything and any animal in a tank or cage with pups. If you touch one, touch them all including the parents. If you have to suppliment feed one, give everyone a drop so they all smell the same.

Tater my older breeder female, was very persnickety her first litter. I was handling her pups at 10 days on every twelve hours to take pictures. After each session (including picking up both parents at the end) I would bribe her with a favorite treat, cheerios. Second litter, she was more laid back. Third litter, I started handling at 6 days, and she'd leave HIM to clean up pups while she scarfed her cheerios. By the time she got done with 3-4 cheerios, he'd have cleaned the pups and they smelled ok again....