I came across an interesting way to tell if your gerbils are male or female. According to this journal article "Effects of gonadectomy in infancy and adulthood on handedness in male and female Mongolian gerbils." By Clark MM, Santamaria BT, Robertson RK,and Galef BG Jr, in Behav Neurosci 1998 Aug;112(4):1026-9, When resting, Female gerbils will put a certian paw down and hold up the other paw. They also stated that males do the opposite. Which paw does your female hold up? Enter it into the poll.
3/23/00 On the Gerbil Mailing List, The following discussion took place regarding the fat and protein content of foods.
"g. m." wrote:
I use a Home made gerbil food using Kaytee Wild bird food. Mixed with dry dog food and Breakfast cereal.
Birdseed -
Crude protein (min)...10.0%
Crude fat (min)...5.0%
Crude Fiber (max)...12.0%
Moisture (max)...12.0%
Purina kibbles and chunks -
Crude protein (min)...21.0%
Crude fat (min)...8.0%
Crude fiber (max)...4.0%
Moisture (max)...14.0%
Cherrios -
Protein - 4.0g
Fat - 2.3g
Fiber- 2.2g
Moisture - not given
"g. m." wrote:
Rick - The Cherrio's serving size is 30g =1 cup.
The three items have different figures do you average them to get a percentage? I didn't measure how much of each I use, but its mostly birdseed. An approximation would be - One cup = 3/4 birdseed, 1/4 dry dog food, and two table spoons of cereal. Below I've included ingredients in case you can use them.
The birdseed contains millet, milo, sunflower, cracked corn, wheat, ground corn, salt, calcium carbonate, vitamin A palmitate, Vitamin D supplement.
The dry dog food contains ground yellow corn, ground wheat, soybean meal, beef and bone meal, corn gluten meal, beef tallow preserved with BHA and mixed tocopherols (source of vitamin E), sugar,water, sorbitol, salt, dried whey, calcium carbonate, phosphoric acid, animal digest, sorbic acid(a preservative)L-lysine, calcium propionate (a preservative), dicalcium phosphate, choline chloride, DL - methionine, glyceryl monostearate, zinc oxide, vitamin supplements (E, A, B-12, D-3) ferrous sulfate, added color, niacin, manganese sulfate, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, biotin, thiamine mononitrate, garlic oil, copper sulfate,pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, menadione sodium bisulfite complex(sourc of vitamin K activity), calcium iodate.
Does the Cheerios box specify what the serving size is? (Should be at the top of the nutritional information table.) Rick
-- Rick responded --Yes, you'd have to figure the percentage of each food and multiply it by the individual food's protein and fat percentages, to get the fat and protein percentages for your mix.
Bird seed = 10% protein, 5% fat
Dog food = 21% protein, 8% fat
Cheerios = 13% protein, 8% fat (approx.)
Your mixture contains about 75% bird seed, 25% dog food, and a little cereal (not enough to really change the protein and fat percentages in your mix too much).
So: 75% of your mix is 10% protein and 5% fat
�����25% of your mix is 21% protein and 8% fat
Therefore: (.75*10)+(.25*21)=(7.5)+(5.25)=12.75% protein
������������(.75*5)+(.25*8)=(3.75)+(2)=5.75% fat
Your couple of tablespoons of cereal would bring the protein and fat up just a little, so your mix is about 13% protein and 6% fat (which is just about perfect for non-breeding gerbils).
If you didn't follow that, let me know and I'll clarify.
Regards,
Rick
September 16, 2000. Today when I went to give the boys a treat, I noticed a little blood on the side of the tank.This can only mean one thing fighting or chasing was occuring.After watching them for a while I concluded that Nimbus and Tangerine were fighting with Oreo2 and Spotty. Oreo2 and Spotty were sitting on their wheel and everytime they jumped off, they were chased back on. Oreo2 and Spotty were then removed for their safety and a solid wooden divider was constructed to separate them from each other. Now Tangerine and Nimbus are paired together and The Two Black pieds Oreo2 and Spotty are together. The boys were a little over two years old and they may have had a falling out due to dominance issues.
11/25/00 Spotty and Oreo2 have been in their own tank for two months and are plump again. Everyone is now in groups of two, therefore they all have tubes and boxes again to explore.
2/24/01 - All my gerbils are now over Two years old. 3/8/01 Spotty passed away. He was almost 3 years old. 3/10/01 Today I went to Petland Discounts to look at the gerbils and noticed a injured young female with scabs on her rump. So I asked the manager, if I can have her for a reduced price because she was injured. He said yes and sold her to me for $4.99. I'm not sure if she is a Argente or Red fox pied gerbil. She was in a tank with two larger Agoutis and may have been injured when they tried to drive her away. When I came home, I placed her into a small container with Oreo2 to prevent chasing behaviors. Hopefully, they will get along. So far they've been Ok for about two hours. Her name is Patty. 3/11/01 Patty and Oreo2 are getting along, Oreo2 has accepted her. 3/17/01 Last night, Patty mated with Creamy2
and Oreo2. I might have babies again in 24 days or so.
She was presenting herself to Oreo2 and he wasn't
responding, so I put her into a box with Creamy2 and
they mated. Afterwards, I returned her to her tank
then Oreo2 became interested and mated. April 12, 2001-Yesterday I checked on
my Gerbils, Patty had 4 babies. Sadly they were very
small and dead. Hopefully, her next litter will
survive. One was grayish the others were pink. No
fuzz, they probably died very soon after birth. :o(
June 16,2001 - I just bought two baby female gerbils, In an effort to prevent my gerbil family line from dying off. They are about 4 or 5 weeks old and are a Argente and a PEW/DTW? The White one is living with Oreo2 because Patty died as a result of fighting with Oreo2. The Argente is going to live with Nimbus who is at work because Tangerine also died. At home lives Creamy(3yrs)his son(almost 3yrs) and Oreo2 (almost 3yrs) with un-named PEW or DTW. Nimbus was placed with two baby nutmegs a male and a female. The male was placed with Patty but she didn't accept him, so he was placed into a carrying case with Nimbus and the nutmeg sister. They all got along and were bought to work. Several days later the nutmeg female died. She probably didn't have enough antibodies. I will rehome the nutmeg male, with a baby from the first litter if all goes well.
July 1, 2001 Nimbus passed away. Therefore plans have changed.The Nutmeg male won't be rehomed. The Argente and the Nutmeg are together and have produced a litter on August 15,2001. August 30,2001 - Oreo2 (3yrs old) and the PEW (Snow) mated this evening. I then placed Snow into a carring case with Little Creamy to mate, because he is younger than Oreo2. They mated for about a hour. Afterwards, I returned them to their own tanks. Oreo2 then mated again with Snow.
September 12,2001 - Snow and Oreo2 mated today, therefore the mating on August 30,2001 didn't take.
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