[Rhasputin]

I have some gerbils, that I call 'rescue' gerbils, but it's really more of a 'really nice favor' gerbils.

Someone I knew, was moving to New Zealand, and needed to get rid of their mice, and gerbils. I was glad to take the mice, but the gerbils were more like, adorable baggage that came with the mice.
I've had them for a while now, and I have been trying to sell them, to people I'm comfortable with. I've only managed to get four of the gerbils sold.

I still have two boys, one is lilac, and i guess the other is 'broken lilac' in mouse terms, but I really know little or nothing about gerbil terms.

I also have a pair of black and white gerbils that are a very happily 'married' couple. They breed every few months, and have always had healthy happy babies. They are the parents of the two males. They currently have three babies, a black and white, a spotty black and white, and a spotty lilac.
I really should look up the technical terms for these colours.
These guys have produced all sorts of babies, from spotted blacks, solid blacks, solid whites, colour points, lilac... all sorts.

Anyways. I'd like to try to find these guys homes during the PA show, so I figure I'll list them here so that they might get some extra attention! I just don't have time to keep up with them, and my mice, and they're taking up space in my mouse room.

ALL GERBILS ARE VERY FRIENDLY! I have never been bitten a single time by any of these gerbils. They love to be held and played with. The two boys, have been housed together since they were born, so if you wanted them both, they get along quite well actually.

I'd like to try to get $20 for the breeding pair, and all three babies if I could. They're really sweet, and all of the babies are happy, healthy, and running around. They are about two weeks old, and will be about three+ weeks old once I get them to the show.

And as for the two boys?
$5 if you take the pair.
Or $5 individually.

Please let me know if you're interested in these guys!

EDIT: The ones I were calling broken blacks are apparently refered to as 'Spotted blacks'. The breeding pair, looks a lot like variegated mice, very scattered spotting. Two of their babies, the spotted lilac (possibly dove) and a spotted black, look that way too. One of their babies has the very clean looking markings. Black coat, with the white collar and head spot.

The boys are lilac, and spotted lilac, as far as I can tell.

Mom:

Dad:

Babies:

Boys:

 

[Cait]

I'm not a gerbil fan but the 'variegated' lookalikes are attractive animals Free bump for them!

 

[Rhasputin]

I'd love to keep them as pets. But I hear that it's bad to separate a breeding pair, because they breed for life. So I don't want to take the adults apart from one another. At the same time, I don't have room to house any more gerbils!

I love the little solid black and white baby. He/she is a real cutesy patootsy.

 

[windyhill]

Pretty

Theres 3 types of spot patterns: spotted,pied & mottled.

The one baby with the white on the head and neck is pied,the rest look mottled.
(Spotted gerbils actually only have a small white spot on the forehead and sometimes a little white on the neck)

The 2 boys are lilac, so pretty! (Lilac and blue are my favorite colors in gerbils)

 

[tanzaniterose]

Hey,
Just to let you know that you can separate the two breeding adults, it's somewhat stressful for the male as he's basically losing the best privilege he could ever get and that's being able to breed, but you can split them and keep them with their same-sex offspring without them 'dying of heartbreak'! :roll: It's better to split them up anyway after a couple of litters as you won't believe what the strain of constantly popping out and raising litters is doing to the mum, and her lifespan may end up being shortened from this. I'm sure this rings true in every species.

Regarding the spotting, tbh the mum looks like an extreme white which is believed to be a semi-lethal spotting gene, but if you're not seeing any pure-white offspring from the two parents (which die within a few days to weeks due to megacolon), it's unlikely and she's most likely dominant spot, which is the safe spotting gene as any offspring with two doses of Sp are reabsorbed in the womb and replaced with a viable embryo. Neither mum or dad can be classed as mottled, spotted etc as their markings are irregular so they are both lumped in with either patched (which in a nutshell is the category for anything but a clean spot, collar and blaze, etcetc) or with 'extreme white' which is typically linked to the semi-lethal spotting.

In the offspring however, you have a fantastic little collar and blaze pup, very unusual to see one with such clean markings despite being from such high-white parents and sibs. The other two pups would generally be called mottled by most, but due to having thick white collars & blazes, rather than having an even mix of coloured and white hair peppered throughout the coat, again they should basically be classed as patched.

It's hard to work out what markings the Sp lilac has but it looks like he has a thin blaze that's possibly broken on the nose and perhaps a collar? So although he's got the makings of collar & blaze, he looks patched but it's difficult to be sure. And the other lilac is ...a lilac!

Sorry for the ramble... but I hope this helped. :lol:

 

[Rhasputin]

They have had -one- mostly white baby, with one black spot, that did die. I wonder if megacolon was the cause. Hmn.

Other than that single baby though, they have had several litters all with no problems.

Thanks for all of the information!

 

[tanzaniterose]

No problem, it seems that I have the wombles today, I'm glad it helped you though.

Was the black spot on the pup that died on its rump by any chance?

 

[Rhasputin]

It was! Gasp! :O

 

[tanzaniterose]

Oh dear lol, we typically call those 'rumpblacks' although the colour pigment on the rump obviously varies! You can see a couple of examples here. You can also read more on this gene here.
Out of curiousity, how long did it live?, and you've just had the one out of how many litters?

 

[Rhasputin]

It lived uhmmmm . . . at least 2 months, possibly a bit more. Maybe as long as three months.
I've had two litters here, and there was only that one. And before I had them, I don't know how many litter they'd had. At least another 2 or three.

 

[tanzaniterose]

Thanks! That's quite a while for it to have lived!
(I'll stop rambling on your thread now! at least you have a bit more info to tell potential buyers )