Reptile & Amphibian Forums

will gerbils reproduce better if you put a divider in a 20L, giving each male/female pair its own side vs keeping a colony?

I find that keeping them in pairs long term produces way more than any other way. Sometimes when I have a half dozen raise ups in one tray I do find babies and I'm surprised.

Often when keeping 1.2 as a breeding group, the babies will be killed. So I just works out better to keep all your groups as pairs.

Some pairs are not very high producers and some will kill their babies. Just feed off those adults and try some new raise ups.

Keep the pairs that consistently produce well. I just cleaned mine and found a tray with the two parents, 3 big sub adults, 3 hoppers, and 5 pinks. That is the kind of production to look for. Keep pairs like that going and feed off the ones that rarely produce, or produce little.

But keep them in pairs.

By the way, I just keep them in a rack like mice or rats with food in the hopper. No special treatment whatsoever. Gerbils coming out my ears.

Hope this is helpful.

>>will gerbils reproduce better if you put a divider in a 20L, giving each male/female pair its own side vs keeping a colony?

Pairs are the way to go. Normally only one female per tub will produce anyway so you are just wasting your other females.
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John Vandegrift

I'm trying to find the cheapest way to use what I already have without really spending anymore. Is a separate cage necessary or will just separating the gerbil pairs be enough? If you split /partitioned tanks, will they still breed the same as a pair or have reproduction rates similar to colonies?

I believe the partions should work just fine. As long as the breeding pairs are separated there should be no cross killing.