Feb 1, 2010 by admin.

That’s right, I now have a Blue gerbil here at Rebecca Ward gerbilry.  At the Mid-Atlantic show, I picked up a blue gerbil and a blue carrier gerbil.  Red, White and Blue is a third generation blue and her daughter, Bobbin, is a dilute carrier.  At this time, I do not intend to breed either one.  I just want to enjoy them, but I may breed blues in the future.

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Feb 1, 2010 by admin.

Peanut has surprised me!  What I thought were going to be DEHs and Lt. DEHs were instead schimmels!  When it came time for her three DEH (well, two DEH and one Lt. DEH) to molt, they completely changed their spots - well, they lost their spots and turned into schimmels. 

Schimmels are very rare in the gerbil world.  When word got out that I had schimmels, I got a lot of attention at the recent Mid-Atlantic show.  New blood in the schimmel line is very desirable.  I have let one of the male schimmels go to Moonstone gerbils, and have kept the other two boys for myself, but I do plan to breed some more schimmels.

The schimmel pups will only be going to AGS breeders at this time.  I may let some schimmel carriers go as pet gerbils however.

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Nov 2, 2009 by admin.

Time got away from me.  One of Peanut’s pups died, so there are only 6 left, but they are fiesty little sweeties, that is for sure.  I hope to take pictures of a video tonight.  It looks like 2 black females, 2 nutmeg females, 1 nutmeg male and one DEH female.  I intend to keep the DEH with Peanut for her last litter and put the nutmeg male with Mikey.  So, there are just the four available for adoption.

Honeysuckle has also given me a litter - finally!  Two pups only, I believe I have both yellow fox spot, but one may be a red fox spot.  They have only just opened their eyes, so catching them to get a good look now is nearly impossible.  :)  I haven’t decided if this is theend for this couple.  If so, then I won’t be adopting out either of these pups, as they will stay with their same gender parents (at 7-10 day check, it appeared that I had one of each, with the more mottled one being the female).  I will of course check again at 4 weeks when testicles start to become more apparent.

In sadder news, SandDrifter, the only pup I still had from my original litter, passed away on the 30th.  He was nearly 3.  He left his brother (from the next litter), Reggie.  By coincidence, his sister Mira (same litter), lost Annie (also same litter), just a few months ago.  I have put them in a split screen.  As these two are about 2.5 (a little older), I am fairly sure that there will be no pregnancies.  Especially since Mira suffers from ovarians cysts every 6 months or so.  So far, we have been lucky that they have ruptured on their own with no invasive intervention on my part.  They have been together since Saturday.  I may do a trial run this afternoon when I get home from work.

If I retire Peanut & Mikey as well as Honeysuckle & Nihls, then I will be looking to start the colorpoint portion of my gerbilry, as I will have enough gerbils that can give me DEH/Lt DEH/yellow foxes/red foxes.  I am also interested in pursuing DEW (like polar foxes and DTW), but I am not sure that I can handle three strains at once. I have one other breeding pair together right now, Bambi & Annabelle.  He is a Polar Fox (maybe a CP Polar Fox) and she is a yellow fox spot.  They can give me all the foxes and DEH type pups I would need and are a blend of my two original lines.

My colorpoint line would start with Pennie, a beautiful burmese from Florida (very unrelated to either line that I have).  I am not sure who would be her mate at this point. I would like a burmese from northern stock- maybe from the January Mid-Atlantic show. Meaning that this line would have to wait a bit to start.

My DEW line would start with Pearl, a polar fox from a local pet store (I know, but she was just gorgeous), so I need to be careful with whom I mate her.  My thought is that I will put her with Flower, my silver nutmeg (from Lauren/Vincent line).

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Oct 7, 2009 by admin.

It looks like I have 2 solid Blacks (min to no white), 2 DEH, 1 Nutmeg, and 1 Lt DEH.  I am not 100% sure of the Lt. DEH, but it looks lighter than the other two. I am uploading some pictures to the site.  Now that I have batteries again, I have been taking some pictures.  :)  I have made a few guesses at genders on the pups.  I will upload that tomorrow.

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Oct 1, 2009 by admin.

I buy batteries in packs of 32 and I have rechargeable batteries as well, but the one time I need batteries right this minute, there are NO batteries to be found that have any charge to them.  I want to take pictures of these pups, and there is no way to do so.  Well, I may be able to go down and get my cell phone, but the pictures on the cell are just not really all that good.  I am very frustrated.

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Sep 30, 2009 by admin.

Even though I didn’t see any this morning when I left, there are 7 dark eyed pups in the nest now.  Well, one is slightly not in the nest, because she ran out of the nest and it was hanging from her and got dragged out a bit.  One already looks like it will have darker skin than the others, so I am guessing one black.  The rest all sort of look the same right now.  I will try to get some pictures up later tonight.

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Sep 30, 2009 by admin.

but I am not a patient person.  I checked on Peanut again this morning before I left for work, truly expecting to see at least one or two squiggling pink bodies in the nest.  Again, I was disappointed.  She had the audacity to be sleeping in the nest, Mikey on top of her, no pups to be seen.  They heard me come in, and they both hopped up and out of the nest, so I am sure there were no pups in there.  She is still looking huge.

I remember my pregnancies.  The last three weeks or so, I felt like I was as big as a house, and that there was no reason that the baby couldn’t just come right then, but the doctor assured me that the longer the baby stayed inside, the better off he or she would be, and that with my gestational diabetes, the baby would most likely come early, so there was no chance I would go beyond my due date.  In fact, I would be induced if the baby didn’t come on time.

So, I know in my heart that the puppies will come when they are finished “cooking”; it is just hard for me to wait.  But their health and safety is the most important thing here.

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Sep 29, 2009 by admin.

I really thought by now that there would be puppies.  Peanut is still getting bigger, but just in the hips, so it is a pregnancy.  She can’t hold out much longer.  It has got to be this weekend.  Poor thing, she can’t find a comfortable position for more than a few minutes.  I am hoping for a large litter because I have a few older gerbils that are without partners, so I want to be able to put a pair of new pups with each of them.  If not, then I will start putting them together in sunset pairs.

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Sep 23, 2009 by admin.

I stopped at the pet store tonight to pick up a few things that I needed - some food, mineral wheels, alfalfa, dust baths, wheels, etc.  When I got here, my first thought was to check on Peanut and Mikey.  She is feeling and looking larger to me than she was yesterday.  I suppose I could be just imagining it because I want another litter from her, but I don’t think that is the case.

 I went ahead and changed her tank tonight and put her on corn cob and CareFresh.  I removed the dustbath and the hut.  I added the mineral wheel and refilled her food.  I gave her some timothy and marigold petals.  Of course, she and Mikey are now spending a lot of energy “fixing” what I broke.  lol

 I also checked on Honeysuckle.  She doesn’t look or feel any bigger.  :(  But, Annabelle may be just a bit bigger.  Regardless, I gave them each a mineral wheel, and I will change Annabelle and Bambi’s tank tomorrow. 

I have a lot of things to get done tonight, so I am trying to do just what is necessary.  I am not sure how much time Peanut has, so her tank had to be done.  Annabelle, if she is pregnant, has at least 3 days, so I have time with her.  Honeysuckle, if she is pregnant, has over a week, because she isn’t showing.

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Sep 21, 2009 by admin.

Last night, I returned from a weekend retreat.  It was a reunion for facilitators in my prior field of employment.  I had a lot of friends I hoped I would see, but while the retreat is physically refreshing, it is emotionally draining, so I wasn’t really up to writing a blog last night.  I did, however, check on all my gerbils and filled their food bowls while my husband did his job (water bottles).  When I got to Peanut’s tank (the last tank before the quarantined tanks), I saw that Peanut was lying in a very unusual position.  I called out her name, and she turned her head, a bit, but not that much. Concerned that she was ill, I immediately opened her tank and picked her up.

Well, she felt very different when I lifted her than she had on Friday.  There is just a different center of gravity that a female gerbil has when she is pregnant (well, at least in that last week or so).  She isn’t looking particularly big (or wasn’t last night, and she was sleeping in the house this morning), but I will be checking on her this evening as soon as I get home.

Her last litter was born on July 24, so it has certainly been long enough for her to deliver.  Actually, it is a little longer than I anticipated.

On the other hand, I also picked up Honeysuckle (who had delivered before Peanut did last time) and she is NOT feeling that change in center of gravity at all to me.  I am starting to wonder whether either she or Nihls is sterile now.  She is really too young to have gone through the change, but Nihls is not a young gerbil.  However, males tend to remain fertile right to the end.  I am going to give them a little longer.  If nothing happens, I will probably separate them and attempt to put her with a younger male.  If she still doesn’t produce, I will need to decide what the next step is for her.

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