| |
| Author |
Message |
deborahbroadus
Moderator
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 6677
Location: Baltimore, MD
|
 Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 3:34 pm Post subject: Gerbils! |
 |
My two gerbils finally had a litter! I left them alone not disturbing their cage except to give them food and water and they built a small den out of the shredded Aspen and 2 months later...lo and behold!!! I have a lot of little gerbits 
Soon it will be dessert time!! 
|
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
|
|
|
RonCrawford
Site Admin
Joined: 04 May 2006
Posts: 2006
Location: Pottsville, PA (USA)
|
| Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:12 pm Post subject: |
|
I've heard that Gerbils can be very aggressive so be careful when you offer them as food (if you're feeding live).
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Jordan700
Joined: 29 May 2006
Posts: 1048
Location: Petaluma, California
|
| Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:19 pm Post subject: |
|
The darn things wil eat each other also.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
deborahbroadus
Moderator
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 6677
Location: Baltimore, MD
|
| Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 9:15 pm Post subject: |
|
OH MAN! Eat each other?  I'll NEVER have the colony I plan!
I don' feed live Ron, I gas em that way they are always the perfect temperature.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
deborahbroadus
Moderator
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 6677
Location: Baltimore, MD
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 12:30 pm Post subject: |
|
| deborahbroadus wrote: | OH MAN! Eat each other? I'll NEVER have the colony I plan!
I don' feed live Ron, I gas em that way they are always the perfect temperature. |
I mean I don't feed them live. lol I need to start proofing these things. I do feed them live now on occasion to my wild caught, most of the time I prefer to feed them a "flavored" rat. The rats are not agressive on the whole..and are not full grown.
They do fight each other a LOT. If they are separated and later (a month or two) put back together.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
deborahbroadus
Moderator
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 6677
Location: Baltimore, MD
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2007 12:21 pm Post subject: |
|
This is their third litter:
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Herphero
Joined: 07 Nov 2007
Posts: 137
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 4:10 am Post subject: |
|
can full grown gerbils be fed to adult Ball pythons or should rat be the way to go? I was thinking about setting up somthing in my parents garage, Ive raised gerbils before and i think they would be more fun than those creepy albino rodents.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
deborahbroadus
Moderator
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 6677
Location: Baltimore, MD
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 9:03 am Post subject: |
|
There is an internet war going on regarding the live/pk/ft strategy. This question is a loaded gun and I don't want to pull the trigger and have it backfire on me
That said, different people have differing opinions, but but you didn't ask me which is best live or f/t or pk, so I am going to address the question that you did ask: Yes, it actually is possible to feed full grown gerbils; they are actually smaller than full grown rats. Some people caution against feeding gerbils as a steady diet, because it can lead to a preference and gerbils are expensive (if brought) compared to rats.
Then again; if you don't like the albino rats, breeding them out is always an option. I originally started with a lot of albino females and black males; I now have mostly brown, grey, and tan rats (except when I infuse the bloodline with more albino rats).
Things that I have learned from my experience:
They won't breed if their cage is cleaned too often (we destroy their nests).
They stink as bad as rats.
They are more jumpy and skitterish
Whether you feed full grown gerbils or rats (not full grown) is up to you. They are both acceptable foods for BPs.
Hope this helped. 
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
MikeandSlick
Joined: 07 Aug 2007
Posts: 234
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 11:30 am Post subject: |
|
I used to have gerbils, not as feeder breeders, just as pets. I didn't want any litters so the lady at the store assured me I was getting 2 females. But they went ahead and had some sex anyways and proved that lady wrong. The pups were pretty cute though.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Herphero
Joined: 07 Nov 2007
Posts: 137
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 1:33 pm Post subject: |
|
What is the easiest to care for, Which is the easiest breeder. Does it take longer for a gerbil to grow full size than a rat to get medium size? Are Gerbils better colony than rats (as far as fighting, territorial issues, cannibalism)I think my mom would be much more at ease if she knew cute lil gerbils were in our garage rather than RATS. heh. And why would ball pythons have a preference of rodent, dont they all taste the same? (Heh lots of questions, just trying to make up my mind)
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
deborahbroadus
Moderator
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 6677
Location: Baltimore, MD
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 2:15 pm Post subject: |
|
| Herphero wrote: | | What is the easiest to care for, Which is the easiest breeder. Does it take longer for a gerbil to grow full size than a rat to get medium size? Are Gerbils better colony than rats (as far as fighting, territorial issues, cannibalism)I think my mom would be much more at ease if she knew cute lil gerbils were in our garage rather than RATS. heh. And why would ball pythons have a preference of rodent, dont they all taste the same? (Heh lots of questions, just trying to make up my mind) |
Generally rats are easier to breed. Because rats are bigger overall, gerbils remail small compared to rats. A full grown gerbil is generally smaller than a small rat.
IMO and from my experience when you get your starter stock, the gerbils will be the most fussy and fight a lot and eat each other more than rats; that's why I only got two to start out, but later as I got more cages, I put the offspring in those.
Rats don't generally do this, because they are community animals, (unless they are hungry or malnourished). Buck, Ron and some other members may have different experiences. What I have come to believe is that if they are socialized (used to humans and some what spoiled) they are easier to handle and have less bad habits.
My experience to date with those rats that I have raised myself and bred is that..my own line of rats and gerbils.. do not generally eat each other. If a rat or gerbil dies, the rest usually leave the body alone (they are over-fed anyway )
**Rats are cute too! (did I just say that???  )
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Buck_99
Moderator
Joined: 03 Nov 2006
Posts: 1307
Location: Midlothian, VA
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 3:05 pm Post subject: |
|
| Herphero wrote: | | What is the easiest to care for, Which is the easiest breeder. Does it take longer for a gerbil to grow full size than a rat to get medium size? Are Gerbils better colony than rats (as far as fighting, territorial issues, cannibalism)I think my mom would be much more at ease if she knew cute lil gerbils were in our garage rather than RATS. heh. And why would ball pythons have a preference of rodent, dont they all taste the same? (Heh lots of questions, just trying to make up my mind) |
I can't speak for gerbils, but I'm breeding my own rats, and all I can say is...
H - E - L - P !!!!
Ok, so first of all, litters come in all sizes, but the average seems to be 12. Then they grow like weeds, and in just a few weeks you've got smalls on your hands. What is it, Deb, like three to five weeks? By "small" I'm talking Rodentpro.com standards, but I swear mine reach those weights faster than Rodentpro says they do. And you have to watch for just the right day when they're totally weaned to remove them from the same cage as mommy rat, because if you don't, junior's gonna mature faster than you can say Jack Robinson and get mommy pregnant again! But suppose you separate them in time, kick back and think, Wow, I did it! I have smalls!
A week later they're mediums and you're thinking, uh oh. Now you have to separate them from each other or you already have more on the way! Sounds like a bonus at first, but it isn't. I think it's best to keep the bloodlines somewhat clean to avoid congenital defects, as well as just plain keep the population growth under your control. But good luck keeping track of which rat is which other rat's sister, cousin, mother, grandmother, niece, aunt, etc.
Second, after babies are born, daddy rat likes to be a helper and take care of the kids too, and it's adorable, you really can't help but admire the teamwork, but don't let that win you over. You've got a 5-day window where you can let the happy family be, then you have to get daddy rat the heck out of there or he'll get mommy rat pregnant again! Found this out the hard way. Amazingly, she pulled it off, both litters did great, but it's taxing on her because suddenly she's gone from eating for just 13 (herself plus her litter) to eating for 24 (herself, plus her litter, plus the next litter inside her). Way uncool!
Third, they tell you you should have something like 5 breeding females per snake you intend to feed. Baloney! I think I heard it backwards, but it ends up more like one freezer per 5 breeding females. It's nuts. My freezer is totally full with rats, partly because I had some old Rodentpro.com surplus on hand before I started. I was certain that I wouldn't be breeding enough rodents to feed all 9 of my snakes (that was the number at the time, now it's 11), because I only had 4 female rats, which was 41 females short according to the calculation I was given. Should have done the math myself, but nooo, I had to go be in a rush!
So at any given time I only have no more than four breeding females, and I feed as many of the young as I can straight to the snakes, i.e., without the stop-over at the freezer. I pre-kill, of course, but my snakes can't keep up, and a bunch of rats go to the gas chamber and then the freezer. If I'm lucky mommy rat eats her young, but...I'm just kidding. They will eat their young if you don't ensure they get the right nutrients (thanks for the cat food idea, Deb), but I'd rather control my rat population the old fashion way: not let them be born to begin with. Should be easily accomplished, but see below for why I'm stuck in a situation where I feel I have to produce.
Finally, if you're like me and into smaller snakes (just BP's and GTP's...no burms, retics, or anacondas for me, thank you very much...though I respect folks who can keep those), then your breeding females finally get just too darn big for the snakes to eat. What do you do with those when they finally keel over or just plain take up space that would be better used for smalls that are in queue to be consumed? Wrap 'em up and toss 'em in the garbage? Bury them in the backyard? I'm having trouble locating locals who are interested in purchasing rats. Shoot, I'm having trouble finding people interested in just taking them off my hands!
So I've got 2 litters going right now and a third that's probably popping out as we speak. After that I'm going to try for two females on a staggered schedule. For the time being I always have to keep some action going because I have a finicky young green who digs the weanling rats instead of the mice she's supposed to be eating, and likes 'em to be squirming in the forceps. Once she kicks that habit and takes frozen, I should be able scale back the operations and live off the freezer for awhile, but then again, I've got another green who made the transition to F/T and now she's giving me trouble again with rats in general. Eventually I could see her back on pre-killed (still-twitching) weaned rats scented with mice.
"Go to a pet store and buy feeders for her, Buck! That way you can stop producing new ones for awhile until the freezer is depleted." Yeah, great idea...if the only pet store in the area that I trusted hadn't gone out of business. Why that guy had to go and have a mid-life crisis right when I was getting into the hobby, I'll never know, but hey: at least I got his chondros dirt cheap. But I go to the other pet stores and I just don't think they have the rodents' (and my snakes') health at heart.
So, back to your original questions regarding gerbils vs. rats: I don't know which are faster to breed and get to size. The info's on the internet and I probably could have pulled some links down faster than I wrote this, but apparently I had to air out some issues. I recommend Google, searching for breeding info about each individually, then doing a comparison. Or maybe Deb can provide answers.
All I can say, though, is rats breed and grow very, very fast. And if you go this route, then don't let the calm before the storm throw you off. Once upon a time I was thinking, Am I doing something wrong? Why aren't the females getting pregnant? Wow, those were the days! [sung to the opening theme from "All in the Family"]...They were hiding their pregnancies from me! THERE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE BIG, FULL-LOOKING BELLIES! I CHECKED! WHERE WERE THE BIG, FULL-LOOKING BELLIES?
The worst part of all:
Taking care of the prey takes more time than taking care of the snakes. You have to clean the cages more often because they stink.
Good luck!
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
NickMyers03
Moderator
Joined: 12 Dec 2006
Posts: 1893
Location: fredericksburg va
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 3:38 pm Post subject: |
|
Great Post Buck...thats why i dont breed rats. i have 17 currently ( soon to be ALOT more) and there is no way its worth it right now for me
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ZePythonLover
Joined: 08 Nov 2007
Posts: 95
Location: Houston, TX
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:06 pm Post subject: |
|
I fed Lestat a gerbil last week for a treat.. They're significantly smaller than rats... but bigger than mice. He took it down gladly and is looking like he just downed an entire thanksgiving dinner 
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
deborahbroadus
Moderator
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 6677
Location: Baltimore, MD
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:37 pm Post subject: |
|
| Herphero wrote: | | What is the easiest to care for, Which is the easiest breeder. Does it take longer for a gerbil to grow full size than a rat to get medium size? Are Gerbils better colony than rats (as far as fighting, territorial issues, cannibalism)I think my mom would be much more at ease if she knew cute lil gerbils were in our garage rather than RATS. heh. And why would ball pythons have a preference of rodent, dont they all taste the same? (Heh lots of questions, just trying to make up my mind) |
| Quote: | | So, back to your original questions regarding gerbils vs. rats: I don't know which are faster to breed and get to size. The info's on the internet and I probably could have pulled some links down faster than I wrote this, but apparently I had to air out some issues. I recommend Google, searching for breeding info about each individually, then doing a comparison. Or maybe Deb can provide answers. |
Easiest to care for is Gerbils (they don't like to be bothered much).
Easiest breeders are rats, as Buck can attest.
It does from my experience take longer for a gerbil to get fullsize compared to a rat's medium size.
Rats are better in colonies than gerbils (from my experience..they kill each other a lot (males). Have to take the males out...Rat males will share the females.
According to the snakes behavior they don't taste the same (some will take a gerbil more readily than a rat).
Hope this helped..and as always different people have different experiences..so maybe the rest of the gang can chime in?
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
Ball
Pythons for Sale
Ron's
Ball Python Blog
FAQ
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Search
Register
Log in