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On the day of the birth, you will notice the mother's sides look like their is a bunch of little aliens inside.
Those babies are getting excited to join the outside world and so are kicking up a storm! Hopefully in a few hours, you will celebrate the birth of the new little pinkies!
Day of Delivery
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1) Quiescense: Birth is proceeded by a period of lessened activity. If you see your gerbil resting fairly quietly and building a nest, rather than the usual mayhem of cardboard chewing, the day of birth may be upon you.
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2) Labour: Some gerbils have very obvious contractions such as in the picture to the left (Valerie).
Other gerbils will not. I could only tell my gerbil was in labour by a chattering motion she made with her teeth, indicating that she was in a bit of pain.
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3) Delivery of the pup: After about 15 minutes, or 10-20 contractions, the first pup should be born. The mother will reach down between her legs and pull the baby out.
The newborn will be a purplish-red immediately after delivery.
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4) Grooming the newborn: As soon as the pup is born, the mother licks all over it's body to stimulate its blood flow and breathing. This turns the baby a healthy pink.
The mother spends most of her time grooming the babies between contractions.
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5) Resting: Between contractions, the mother rests to conserve energy. Only occasionally does she get up for a stretch or to mate with the male.
Leaving the older pups in the tank allows them to keep the pups warm during those times.
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6) Delivery of the placenta: About 15 minutes after the first pup is born, the placenta is delivered.
The mother then eats the placenta (see pic to left), both to conserve the nutrients and prevent predators from catching the scent of blood.
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Delivery of the placenta is followed by another period of rest and the next pup should be born in about 15 minutes. The whole process continues in a cycle until all the pups have been born.
If there is a period of over 3 hours between pups, or your gerbil has been having contractions for over three hours without delivering, this is an EMERGENCY.
The pup is not coming out the natural way and a veterinarian may be able to remove the pup.
As yet, I don't think any vets perform caesarian sections on gerbils, but they can do perineal massage with a local anaesthetic or administer oxytocin to get the pup out.
Leaving Dad in the tank
You should never remove the male from the tank before the birth, unless you want to stop breeding. The father of the litter will not harm the growing pups and actually helps Mom a lot with the care-taking duties.
The father will groom the pups, keep them warm and occasionally help bring strayed pups back to the nest. Raising the pups is much harder for the female gerbil if you remove the male.
Please do not remove him unless it is absolutely necessary.
The night of the birth, the father of the pups will leave the mother alone for the most part. He will however, mate with her during the birth at intervals. The male will sleep in a seperate nest for about 24 hours after the birth. If you have left the older pups in the tank, they will spend the first night with Dad.
Leaving the older pups in the tank
I usually rehomed my pups at 6 weeks and so this left them in the tank with Mom and Dad during the birth and first week of development of the newborns.
I recommend leaving the older pups in the tank for this extra week because they will be better parents themselves if they are destined to be breeders.
Also, the older pups, especially the females, help keep the newborns warm in the first week, often babysitting when mom wants to go forage or chew cardboard.
During the birth however, the older pups can be both a help and a burden.
The female pups usually help to groom the newborns and keep the nest warm when the parents are mating or mom is taking a break.
You can see in the photo to the right, that one of the older pups is washing one of the newborns.
The male pups, however, can be a bit of a nuisance. In the litters I've had, I've found that all the pups are usually respectful of the effort their mom is making.
A few times, however, the boys were engaged in an all out "play and wrestle".
In the pic to the right, they got dangerously close to Mom while she was giving birth. I imagine that this rough-and-tumble would be quite annoying to the birthing gerbil.
Overall, however, keeping the older pups in the tank is very helpful to Mom, both during the birth and in the first week of development.
If this site is not working properly, or you have questions, mail me at mongolian_gerbils@yahoo.ca
Breeding light colourpoint agouti, dove, argente cream, black, agouti, pieds and much more!!
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