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Babiesssssssss!

Minimallow

Wise Old Thumper
We got a mum who had just given birth into our gerbil rehome about a week ago. Thought you might like to share these gorgeous pics :) Unfortunately she was brought to us in this little wire cage but due to having only had the babies the previous day we couldnt risk moving her. We are hoping to move her as soon as we can into a bit more suitable housing.

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I am hoping that at least one of the babies are male so i can try and bond with Damien - the gerbil who came from watford
 
Gosh, actually how big ar ethe little babies?! How did mum fit them all in?! :shock: she's tiny!
 
Awwww is he called Damien now?! That would be lovely!! :love: :love: :D


I decided to call him Damien as it means "to tame" Turns out hes a bit of a Tasmanian devil once he had settled in. He would run from one end of the tank to the other specifically to sink his teeth into human flesh !! Im retaming him using thick gloves and hes coming along great. He does seem happy but im hoping he wil accept a friend :)
Funnily enough i havent had much interest in him. Cant think why ........lol
 
Gosh, actually how big ar ethe little babies?! How did mum fit them all in?! :shock: she's tiny!

The babies are about an inch long now. they grow so quickly! Mum is quite on the small side. Shes only about 8 months and its her second litter in a row :( She must have only been around 5 months when she gave birth to the first lot so she wouldnt really have properly finished growing and maturing herself :( Whoever eventually adopts the mum is going to be very lucky!
 
we had accidental babies when our girl turned out to be a boy :shock: From what I remember, like bunnies you shouldn't really touch the babies or move them for the first few weeks as she might turn on them. We had to get poor little squeak de squeeked so to speak. Micro surgery but he pulled through!
 
Aw bless her poor little love.
So Damien really did have a taste for human flesh then?!! Ha ha and he was all butter wouldnt melt on the way to you :lol: aw bless him. So how do you go about training him then? Do you think it's cos he was kept in that tiny cage and all big human hands meant was his space invaded?
 
we had accidental babies when our girl turned out to be a boy :shock: From what I remember, like bunnies you shouldn't really touch the babies or move them for the first few weeks as she might turn on them. We had to get poor little squeak de squeeked so to speak. Micro surgery but he pulled through!


Yes its best to leave them alone when they are in their more vulnerable state although it really depends on the mother. Unfortunately its a bit of a battle at the moment as mum is getting very stressed out in the tiny cage and is more or less continually cage chewing so am having a talk with the gerbil gurus to decide what to do :) Luckily Star is fine with human hands in the cage and is a really good mum :)
 
Aw bless her poor little love.
So Damien really did have a taste for human flesh then?!! Ha ha and he was all butter wouldnt melt on the way to you :lol: aw bless him. So how do you go about training him then? Do you think it's cos he was kept in that tiny cage and all big human hands meant was his space invaded?


Oh yessssssss a BIG taste for flesh lol. I know - he was all nice and sweet the first few days - AND THEN THE DEMON EMERGED!!

I think you are possibly right about the reasons as to why he's like that. Although the fact that his mother chewed off his little paws etc could have been down to hiim probably being inbred - or that she just wasnt a good mother. So could be any of those reasons also affecting his personality. Its more the movement in the cage he hated - if you kept still he wasnt TOO bad but as soon as you move he would latch on. And it was certainly no warning bite - he meant business! So it makes me think hes maybe been teased a bit - the chasing hands business. Either that or he may just be territorial. I do quite love the mad little thing :)
To retrain him we start off with thick gardening gloves and just move the bedding a little and let him sniff them. Then start moving them. When he lunges we just keep the gloves in there and stop moving. Thatway he learns the behaviour doesnt really get him what he wants and should stop. I also put food on the gloves and let him sit on them and eat it to associate them with nice things as obviously hands are very scary to him. It has worked with the gloves now but im not quite brave enough to bare my skin to him yet lol!
 
When i had my gerbils they told me they were all female turns out they were 2 female 1 male:shock: I ended up with 30:shock:,I loved watching them grow though,i had to spilt the two mums up as the cages wernt big enough but when i tried to re introduce them they nearly killed each other:(
 
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