REPRODUCTION

Gerbils are sexually mature at the age of about three months. Female gerbils can become mature as sooner if in the presence of an already mature male. Males can mate with mature females as early as 8 weeks. Pairing of mates should be done before this period because fighting often occurs after this age. It is also a good idea if you don't want to breed anymore than you separate the young at now. The female can reproduce from around the age of 3 months and up to the age of 14 or 20 months. Females younger than 3 months can become sexually mature if a male who is sexually mature is present.

In average the female will produce about 7 litters in her life, but you can expect to get more or less than this number. The number of pups per litter is on average 4 to 5 but there can be up to 10 in one litter.

The part of the female's reproductive cycle when she is fertile is called estrus. She will only let the male mate with her at this time. When they do mate it will last for a brief second or two but will be repeated many times for as long as 3 hours.

You will be able to tell when they are mating because you will hear the male thumping. You may hear thumping even when they are not mating. It may be difficult to tell when they are mating, but the first time I observed it, I happened to walk in the room. They usually mate in the evening some time, so this would be the best time to watch for it.

After giving birth the female will usually mate again. This will present no problem because the embryos will stay in a natural suspended animation until the mothers body is ready for another litter. If the cage gets too crowded you don't have to really worry about the gerbils mating because they will take things under control and stop mating. The second litter will usually arrive just after the first one is weaned.

When the female is pregnant and nursing you need to make sure that she has enough protein in her diet. This will ensure that the pups and the mother will remain healthy. Due to the female's being almost always pregnant you will have to do this almost all the time. To give her the extra protein she needs you can give her some meal worms or some small feeder fish you can buy at fish stores. If you don't like this idea you can always give her some dry cat or dog food. This method seems the easyest because most people own either a cat or dog.

You may not always know the female is pregnant if she is only carrying a small litter, so you may be surprised one day when you hear little squeeks comming from the cage. This will usually only happen in younger or older females because usually she will become very big.

The gestation period for a gerbil is around three and a half to four weeks long, as is the weaning age.

Both my litters were born during the morning and lunch hours. Although people say that it usually happens during the day that is not nesissarily true. This may have happened because they live in the basement where there is only artificial light and because of the longer night she may have been tricked as to what time it actually was.