Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is anyone breeding gerbils as feeders? Are they tough to breed? Cost prohibitive? They seem so perfect as being between mice and rats in size, yet I hear no one talk about breeding them as feeders.

Help me understand.

Thanks.

most people don't breed gerbils because mice and rats are much easier to breed and care for.
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0.1 Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 ball python (felix)
1.1 feral cats (Fuzzy, and Bear; it used to be fuzzy, wuzzy, bear)

I decided to breed gerbils since I have some picky/non feeder WC ball pythons. I was told they often will eat a gerbil but turn down rats and mice. First I bought 1.2 gerbils, then found that is a bad ratio... they need to be in a 1.1 ratio from everything I read online. I bought a second male, and now have two colonies of 1.1 gerbils. They are in 10 gallon aquariums with four inches of dirt as substrate (to be changed once every 6 months). I give them constantly things to chew on and mostly just leave them be. I got them in the very first week of January. Romeo and Juliet (one of the pairs) had seven babies about five days ago. Ophelia (who is with Hamlet of course) is looking like she'll have babies any day. They have a 24 day gestation, and will breed directly after giving birth, but often don't give birth again until after the babies have weaned (five or six weeks)

Since they won't be switched around to house with other gerbils, the males don't breed multiple females, and they have small litters and only seven or eight litters a year, they aren't really well designed for breeding like we breed rats and mice. They are cute though.
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~Sasheena

And to add. That I don't bother with dirt and they are fine with just whatever. Though they tend to shred EVERYTHING to a fine fluff.

One thing to add. Once you start feeding gerbils some snakes get 'hooked' on them and won't switch to rats etc. or only after a lot of hassle and scenting. That is why I only have them for my WC BPs as a last resort sort of thing too. They really don't reproduce as well as mice rats or even hamsters.

>>I decided to breed gerbils since I have some picky/non feeder WC ball pythons. I was told they often will eat a gerbil but turn down rats and mice. First I bought 1.2 gerbils, then found that is a bad ratio... they need to be in a 1.1 ratio from everything I read online. I bought a second male, and now have two colonies of 1.1 gerbils. They are in 10 gallon aquariums with four inches of dirt as substrate (to be changed once every 6 months). I give them constantly things to chew on and mostly just leave them be. I got them in the very first week of January. Romeo and Juliet (one of the pairs) had seven babies about five days ago. Ophelia (who is with Hamlet of course) is looking like she'll have babies any day. They have a 24 day gestation, and will breed directly after giving birth, but often don't give birth again until after the babies have weaned (five or six weeks)
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>>Since they won't be switched around to house with other gerbils, the males don't breed multiple females, and they have small litters and only seven or eight litters a year, they aren't really well designed for breeding like we breed rats and mice. They are cute though.
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>>~Sasheena
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

I breed gerbils extensively.. or did until my cats got into my enclosures and killed most of them.. (I still haven't figured out how they managed it) but they are much easier to care for than either rats or mice.. they smell much less...their food needs are less...and their water needs are much less than any rat or mouse. However.. the largest gerbil litter I've ever had in 10 years of breeding, has been 8 and thats unusual. I had been trying to keep her and her daughters to see if I could slowly increase litter sizes through selective breeding but now they all got killed.. anyway... If they could give birth to 8 everytime I'd say they'd be worth it.. despite the 6 weeks in between litters... but they don't.. most yield 4 or 5 every litter. The other downside is amount of time it takes to reach full growth.. 3 months with rats... 6 months with gerbils since they're much longer lived. They get to weaned sizes in 3 weeks.. but it takes them another 5 months to get to proper breedable sizes.
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
2.2 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 1 het Blizzard (Lilith) and 1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
1 Gerbil
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Sahara and Hercules)

I have to agree, they DO smell less, drink water at a much much reduced rate.

I guess I was pretty lucky. It only took two months from purchase before I got my first litters, and Ophelia presented me with a nice litter of six yesterday, Juliet a litter of 7, didn't realize those litters were nearing the maximum litter size. Of course Juliet and Ophelia are both sisters, guess they have a "large litter" gene or genes working on them

Actually I like the gerbils in certain ways... They just "exist" I don't change their cages, I feed them whenever I clean mouse cages, check their water bottle and add water to it every week to week and a half. I'm thinking too, with their dirt tunnels, they'll probably do better overall in the summer when, despite my best efforts, I can never keep the temperature below 85 degrees in the mouse house.
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~Sasheena

I love the gerbils. They're just so easy to take care of.. and as long as you keep them in pairs Or family groups. You can raise up the pups and let them breed back to the father for 1 generation or so if you want to have a colony. Only problem is the inbreeding issues are bigger with Gerbils since the entire American Population of Gerbils stemmed from 12 animals brought into the US from Mongolia, there's VERY little agressions problems and very little cannabilizing of litters. As a matter of fact.. I have never had any of my gerbils eat their pups. And they are the perfect size for some of the smaller boids and pythons and colubrids to take. They're even the perfect size for my Savannah Monitor to take... I'm going to be buying all new stock here in a few months to restart my project. Still going to try for maximum litter size if I can get a female that produces well and large litters.
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
2.2 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 1 het Blizzard (Lilith) and 1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
1 Gerbil
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Sahara and Hercules)