Malthusian Gerbil Nightmare

July 11, 2007 10:02 PM

What do I do with all of these gerbils?

My friend left for Europe for a month and I've offered to help tend to his pets. Several months ago he took over caring for a pair of gerbils, which were thought to be the same sex. About 5 weeks ago they had a litter of pups... there are now 7 gerbils. From what I gather, and from watching the two adults' mating habits, I suspect there is probablly another litter on the way. I've read that gerbils typically begin reproducing at 3 months, so the 5 babies will be having babies of their own soon without intervention. My friend doesn't seem that concerned about any of this, but I want to get the problem under control as soon as possible as I can not turn my back to animals in need. I had a conversation with my friend tonight, who regrets not dealing with this before leaving and is grateful for my willingness to help. Has anyone dealt with a situation like this before? I found out that gerbils are social animals who get lonely and depressed if caged alone, so the most obvious solution of putting them all into separate cages won't work.

posted by jlowen to pets & animals (18 comments total)

Sell them to a constrictor farm?
posted by Roach at 10:06 PM on July 11, 2007

A similar situation happened to my friend, except I believe they were hamsters not gerbils. Reguardless, they definitely went at it like rabbits.

My friend went back to the place he bought the hamsters from and was able to return the babies after they matured a little. I don't know if this is the policy everywhere, but he bought them from a national chain like Petsmart. You definitely want to get this under control, as the gerbils may hurt or kill their young as it becomes more overpoplated.
posted by rancidchickn at 10:11 PM on July 11, 2007

Have you read this? You should be able to tell the gender of the babies, and the mother will probably start weening them naturally soon, so it sounds like a good idea to split them up into male and female. If you really can't tell the difference (it doesn't sound difficult but obviously you want to be sure) I bet a pet store could help for free or for very cheap. They might also be willing to take/or even buy! some of the babies (although your call if you agree or don't agree with pet store practices).
posted by anaelith at 10:14 PM on July 11, 2007

My reaction was the same as Roach's. Know anyone with a pet python?

These are rodents. If you don't watch it, you're going to be knee deep in them.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 10:20 PM on July 11, 2007

Yes, ideally you want social animals to be able to interact freely but this is a short term problem that has a simple short-term solution. Separate them. What are they caged in? If possible, buy a similar cage and place them next to each other so they can see, hear and smell one another but not make with the lovin'. Try to sex the babies (on preview, anaelith linked a good page) and separate them too. They should be old enough now. Depressed they might be but you're going to be a lot more than depressed if they pop out a new litter and start killing the babies because its overcrowded. (Yes, they WILL do that.)

You say he "took over [their] care" so I'm assuming he didn't buy them from a pet shop? If he did purchase them somewhere, I'd second what rancidchickn said and approach the buyer.

Start looking to rehome the babies now and be clear with any potential adopters that you don't know what sex they are. I'd try to get them to separate homes to avoid new owners having the same problem.

And Roach is not far off with the snake suggestion. If you can stomach knowing what would happen to them you may want approach a few local pet shops that sell snakes and ask if they're looking for feeders. It sounds gross but...circle of life and all that.

It's a longshot, but there are some small animal rescues around. You might want to do a search in your home-state and check.
posted by LeeJay at 10:27 PM on July 11, 2007

I refuse to use them as food, snake, smoothie or otherwise. I am tempted by the pet store idea, but the cutest little guy only has three legs. It looks like a congenital defect and not an injury and it doesnt seem to slow him down. Would a pet store take him?
posted by jlowen at 10:29 PM on July 11, 2007

I refuse to use them as food

Understood. I probably couldn't do it either. :)

the cutest little guy only has three legs. It looks like a congenital defect and not an injury and it doesnt seem to slow him down. Would a pet store take him?

You'd probably be better off trying to find a loving home for him. There are a lot of people out there who adore gerbils and other small pets. You could try a pet store but they might not want to go through the trouble of trying to sell a deformed animal. Of course, if you get one who's a sucker for their little fuzzy butts they might take him in.
posted by LeeJay at 10:37 PM on July 11, 2007

Would a pet store take him?

Probably, especially if they also sell snakes. (I'm not joking.)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 11:24 PM on July 11, 2007

Yeah, the pet store will probably sell them for food, especially mister three leg.

There are ferret/rabbit/rodent specialists who will spay/neuter g. pigs. I'm not sure about gerbils though.
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:02 AM on July 12, 2007

We had the same problem when I was young and we ended up taking sixteen hamsters to the pet store. Geez, I hadn't thought that they may use them as food. I assumed they put them in the cages with the rest of the hamsters and sold them.

Just ask the pet store what they would do with them if you're worried. And keep the little guy with three legs. How much work could he be?
posted by gfrobe at 12:31 AM on July 12, 2007

You have to separate them soon! I knew a girl as a child that let hers breed out of control. They lived in horrible overcrowded conditions, which was bad enough, but the worst part was the mutations. Little-Three-Legs is just the beginning.
posted by Locative at 2:01 AM on July 12, 2007

I would be significantly less concerned about taking gerbils to the pet store and having them be used as food than I would be if you were talking about rats or mice. Gerbils are stereotypically pet animals, whereas other rodents tend to be used for food more often.

Is there a small, locally owned pet store in the area? Go there and talk to them. Ask them if they sell gerbils for food, or if their gerbil sales tend to be pets. If the answer is pets, give them to them and let the pet store find them homes. I wouldn't recommend trying to sell them, though. I'd just give them away.
posted by plaingurl at 5:27 AM on July 12, 2007

If you can separate them and hold on to them for a little while, you could post them up on craigslist, make a flyer advertising free gerbils and post it in some elementary schools in the area, etc.
posted by rmless at 5:49 AM on July 12, 2007

Nthing that they will turn into cannibals soon. Separate 'em.
posted by desuetude at 6:31 AM on July 12, 2007

The fun will start when the adults who are NOT the parents (or the dad's, sometimes) chew the heads off the pinkies.

That's always delightful.

But yea, a local petstore will probably pay you about a buck or 2 apiece. I used to sell my "spare" mice when I had my lizard to help offset the cost of keeping the critters.
posted by TomMelee at 7:33 AM on July 12, 2007

I used to breed gerbils as a kid (stupid pet shop sold me a boy/girl pair as girl/girl..) and again as a teenager (same deal) and what we did was always take the dad out of the cage and put him in a different cage by himself when a new litter arrived. This gave mum the chance to feed and wean her litter in peace and when the babies were old enough (weaned, furry, not breeding age) we'd sell them back to the pet shop (or sometimes keep them or give them to my friends).

It's not too hard to reliably sex gerbils (I was always more successful than the pet shops, probably because I gave a shit - every time I've bought gerbils I've got the at least one of the wrong gender) Take the dad out now and put him by himself. When the old babies are weaned (hopefully before the new babies arrive) take out the old babies. At this point they'll be furry and cute and you can take them to the pet shop, keep them, etc, but try and sex them and keep them in single sex groups. Non-littermate boy gerbils don't live happily together in my experience so don't put them in with dad. My old adult male was perfectly happy kept by himself (once he'd fucked the mrs to death) with daily attention and handling.
posted by corvine at 8:03 AM on July 12, 2007

When I was a wee tot, I bred mice for a local pet store. They were always very upfront with me about what the mice were for -- I knew when the mice I was selling them were going to be sold as food and when they would be sold as pets. (How the tiny little me didn't find it terrifying that my baby mice were going to be eaten, I don't know.) Furthermore, at least with my mice, they only wanted very young mice for feeding -- the pet store wanted pinkies for feeding, fuzzies for pets.

You may be able to talk to the manager of a pet store. You may have a chance of finding someone reliable and honest. I'm sure pet stores already have their own suppliers for foods, so I doubt they'll be foaming at the mouth to get their hands on animals to feed to snakes. (Not that I'm suggesting every single pet store manager is upfront and honest, but I wouldn't be surprised if you found one or two who were.)

(Also, nthing separate them. It's so gross when babies get eaten--you don't want to experience that.)
posted by Ms. Saint at 8:18 AM on July 12, 2007

make a flyer advertising free gerbils and post it in some elementary schools in the area

If you want to give them away, giving away unsexed pairs to elementary school students practically insures the production of more gerbils, of which a certain proportion will be killed or fed to snakes.

If you can possibly sex them, put the males in one cage and the females in another, and let your friend deal with them when he returns.
posted by yohko at 9:13 AM on July 12, 2007