Why gerbils eat their babies

However, you need to keep the newborn gerbils with their mom until old enough to care for themselves which is six weeks at least. Giving gerbils up for adoption at a shelter is an easy process, most shelters accept gerbils and all you have to do is call make sure they do take them and drop them off. It is also best to give the gerbil babies to the shelter as soon as they are old enough to be separated from their moms.

Gerbils have a fairly short lifespan, so most families looking to adopt gerbils will prefer younger ones. In case there are no animal shelters that accept gerbils near you the best option is to give them to pet stores. One of the benefits of giving the baby gerbils to a friend or a family member is that you get to see them occasionally when you visit.

Some of us make the most of every occasion, even an unwanted litter of gerbils could be a chance to make some money to reinvest on the ones you keep. It is also irresponsible to release new species to an unknown environment, sometimes they could just die but sometimes they could take over and kill the entire ecosystem of the area and it happens a lot in various areas around the world. The sleeping habits of gerbils have always been subject to debate, and that's mostly related….

Table of Contents. Related Posts. Can gerbils eat almonds? One variety can kill your gerbil Almonds are the delicious edible seeds of the Prunus dulcis tree known as the almond tree,…. Well to be honest — they rarely eat their own babies — and if they do — there is usually a good reason for it. Gerbil mums may kill their own pups; they may chew bits off their live pups; some pups may just die of natural causes and the mother eats them afterwards. Finally, not all gerbils are equal.

Not all gerbils are given the same opportunities as other gerbils and so the results are never going to be the same in every instance. Some gerbils just have it much better than others — nature as well as nurture. So what would be perfect? She would be paired up with and living happily with one single unrelated healthy adult male gerbil — who will spend time with here and show her affection. They would be living in a simple, clean tank with plenty of nutritious food, fresh water, and a spattering of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Well, a whole host of things affect whether a gerbil family are able to produce and raise young — just like with all mammals. It might have all the attributes explained above — but still you lose the pups and your gerbils may eat their young. Ill health of the mother during pregnancy — if the mother is unable to host a full litter to term for whatever reason — she may well have pups that have not developed properly.

Ill health of the pup at any time — If one or more of the pups gets ill or is born with a serious health issue, it may well not be able to feed properly or convert the food it is getting into body weight for growth. As it weakens, the mothers may eat their young or it may die naturally. You may have noticed that gerbils sleep together. But gerbils can even sleep together in a big pile. They enjoy spending time together, and doing so builds group bonds, which are beneficial to all.

Gerbils can make a variety of noises, from squeaks to chirps. Gerbils have to sleep a lot because they are highly active, and expend a lot of energy. Baby gerbils and elderly gerbils tend to sleep more than young adults.

In a gerbil litter, there is often one baby that is less well developed than the others. But when one baby is born smaller than the rest, it will grow to be smaller, too. They can take its food and deprive it of access to its mother. This is sad for the owner, but all gerbils and animals are driven by eating and keeping resources for themselves.

The runt will likely grow up to be too weak to survive anyway. This might seem sad, but it makes sense for wild animals. If it spends time raising underdeveloped pups, these may never grow into healthy adults. Pregnancy and taking care of young is stressful enough on your gerbil. Things can get even worse if the mother is ill during this time. If a gerbil is ill, she:.

This issue is compounded by creating milk and then by the potential second litter on the way. Stress does strange things to animals, including people. It makes animals behave strangely, in ways that may seem irrational or even wrong. It does the same to gerbils and can make them eat their young.

Gerbils can be stressed out by:. You can remedy most of these kinds of stress. Do so as soon as you can. But stress you can fix. Gerbils can fight and kill each other during declanning. Declanning is where the gerbil group, or clan, splits apart. In the wild, one or some of the group would head off to start their own clan. Gerbils are surprisingly aggressive and can kill each other during these fights. Gerbil young are a frequent cause of these fights. It would rather be the one having young and passing on its genes.

So, it may attack the young and kill one or more of them. This is a frequent occurrence in big gerbil groups. This means it may not have been the mother gerbil that killed its young.