I have had many gerbils as pets over the last 8 years. I always kept a group of males and a group of females. I do not have pictures of anyone but Galilee, the dark eyed honey (sooty fawn) male above. He lived with Squirt, a solid WT agouti that was the runt of his litter. Galilee died at about 3 years of age after developing a huge infection on his scent gland on his belly. Squirt then lived with his son Butternut, another DEH that only lived about a year. Next Squirt lived with Barley, another DEH gerbil from a litter I had reared for an animal shelter. When Squirt died, probably approaching 5 years of age, I picked up one of his brothers from the shelter, Wheat another DEH. Later I added Rye, a solid WT agouti.
The girls started out with Amber and Hazel, two solid WT agoutis. Amber was the sweetest and calmest gerbil ever but one day was scared by a loud crash from my basement and lept from my hand to her death on a hard wood floor. Because I didn't want Hazel to be sad and lonely, I bred her to Squirt, keeping Tabatha and Annabell, two solid nutmegs. Hazel and her daughters did not live as long as Squirt, probably because they were rather high strung and not so trusting of me.
After all the girls passed away, I got Rye and his sister Quartz as a Christmas gift from my cousin. Rye was happily accepted by my other boys, but I did not have any girls for poor Quartz. She was a particularly freakish gerbil so I decided it was necessary for her to have cagemates. I bought two solid blacks, Opal an Onyx to keep her company.
Rye and Barley died sometime in 2000 and Wheat had to live alone for nearly a year before he passed away, too. He was a very trusting boy ever since I nursed him back from breaking his leg (this happened after he was severely frightened by one of my dogs). Quartz developed an ear problem and couldn't stand straight or walk properly for about half of her life. She was still quite happy and outlived Opal. Opal became distended and probably had an abdominal tumor. She died about 5 months after the onset of this. Quartz and Onyx lived happily together until about the end of 2002 when Quartz took a sudden turn for the worse. Within two days of her death, Onyx also passed away.
My favorite of all my gerbil buddies was Squirt. It impressed me how accepting he was of all his little friends, and he had a special love for babies. I wish I would have known at that time that he could have helped raise his offspring. Pokey and Squirt got a long quite well and Pokey would let Squirt ride on his back and dig through his fur.
Now I do not have any gerbils at my home. Caring for and raising gerbils at work fulfills my urges. Now my focus is Wesley, Flurry and Mist--a beautiful group of wonderful parents. |
