Pup Pictures!

While we were playing with the pups last night, we snapped a couple of pictures of them. They were so excited to be out of their home to play with us that it was hard to get a good picture. They were to busy running all over us! I apologize for the blurriness, but I just had to show them off. They all have their eyes open now and are just so happy to be exploring everything. They all look alike except for one. He/she has a small white spot of fur on it's nose. It's really adorable. I tried to get a good picture of it. He/she is the one who is running up my arm. There's one pup that's slightly smaller than the rest of them and it is the most active one. He/she is difficult to hold because it wants to jump and run everywhere! We are going to have to spend a lot of time with it to calm it down while being held. They are all doing so good though. I would like to note that all of the pups have been reserved from this litter. There will be one pup that doesn't have a companion to go to a home with, so we are planning on keeping it, regardless of sex, and letting it be part of our next breeding pair when it gets old enough. I already have a male pair of pups reserved from Maddie's second litter, which should be born the first part of January.

Pup w/ white spot on the nose

Update on pups

All of five of the pups are doing great. After a check to see if I could get an idea of their sexes now that they are getting a little bit of fur, it looks like there are definitely more males than females. Of course, I won't know for sure until they are around 5 weeks old. I snapped a quick pic of all five of the pups last night when I cleaned their tank out. I normally don't clean the tank out until they are at least 3 weeks old, but I had a water bottle leak and didn't want them to get cold because they are starting to alligator crawl around the tank now. Right now they are just a light tan color. Their colorpoints won't come in until they get older. They are all healthy and their bellies are always full. Maddie and McGee are doing such a great job. McGee is an awesome dad. Any time the pups start crawling all over the place, he tries his best to get them all in one spot. I have to make sure he has lots of cardboard to chew on all the time to take some of his anxiety away! It's entertaining to watch him try to corral the pups while Maddie just sits there and watches him. She's clearly realized there's no use in trying to get them to stay in one spot until they get sleepy.

Pups have arrived!!

I came home from work yesterday to find 5 pink, wiggly pups in Maddie and McGee's tank! Mom and Dad are doing great so far. They were both in their house most of the evening keeping the pups warm and together. I gave them some special treats, which they each took turns coming out to snack on. They both seem like they will be very doting parents. I'm so excited to have pups again. It has been over 8 months since I've had little ones popcorning around the tank. I can't wait for them to start getting their coloring in good. I wonder how many will have Maddie's light coloring and how many will have McGee's dark, rich coloring. Below are a 2 pictures I snapped real quick with my phone. I didn't want to disturb Mom too much since this is her first litter.

**Please note that I already have 2 boys from this litter reserved for Stephanie T.

Gerbil pups!

I was contacted recently by someone who has a pair of gerbils that were believed to be the same sex, until she was surprised with 3 little pups. She has now separated mom and the girls from dad and the boys. Unfortunately it was too late to prevent a second litter. A couple of weeks ago, the mom had 6 more pups. There are five black and one Dark-eyed honey. Since she is not a breeder and these pups were accidental, I am trying to help her find good homes for them. She won't know the sexes until they are at least five weeks old. She spends alot of time with the babies and they are very friendly. They will hop into your hand and run up your arm when you put it in the tank with them. If you are wanting to get a pair of friendly, healthy gerbils, but don't want to wait for my next litter to be ready(which will be near the end of January) please consider adopting from this adorable litter. You can contact me and I will get in touch with the young lady who has them.

**Please note that I am posting this as a courtesy to the young lady that has the accidental litter. She really wants these pups to go to good homes. She is not a gerbil breeder. I have not actually seen the gerbils in person, but have heard from her as to how friendly and active they are. I have seen pictures of them and they look to be very healthy and bright-eyed.

Update on Split Cage

After just one week in the split cage, we were able to introduce Maddie and McGee! There was never any aggression between them, so we decided to remove the split this weekend. I'm glad to report that everything went smoothly. Once the split was removed, McGee immediately went to Maddie and started grooming her. We watched them for about thirty minutes to make sure everything was going okay, then left them alone to calm down and get to know one another. We went to check on them after about two hours, and was surprised to find them already mating, We should be having beautiful Burmese pups sometime between December 4th and 10th. With this being Maddie's first litter, she will probably have a small litter that will be mostly males. Please email me if you are interested in reserving her pups! I already have a couple of people on my reserve list. We haven't disturbed them to take any pictures of their introduction today, but below are pictures of them during their split cage. As you can see, McGee was trying to groom her through the wire in one of the pictures.

Split cage has begun!

After  a four week quarantine for Fleur de Lis' newest gerbil, Maddie, we created a split cage for her and McGee. It has started off really well. Once McGee realized she was there, he began trying to groom her through the wire. I think this will be an easy split cage. Hopefully we will be able to remove the split after a couple of weeks. Maddie is young, which should help. McGee will be a year old in November. Both of them are rescue gerbils, but both have exceptional personalities. McGee is a solid Burmese gerbil that I got from a rescue in Houma, Louisiana last year while living in Louisiana. Maddie, who is also a solid Burmese, came from a person in Lafayette, Indiana who adopted what she thought was 3 females from someone who had an accidental litter. It turned out one of the "females" was actually a male. I had to keep Maddie in quarantine a little longer to make sure she was not already pregnant from the male she had been housed with. The lady was unsure of her exact age, but she appears to be around 5-6 months old. She is not as dark as McGee in color, but she has a very sweet and inquisitive disposition. McGee is a little neurotic when it comes to items in his tank. He does not like for anything to be messed with or moved, but he is fearless and always quick to come out and greet you when he hears your voice. I know they are going to have beautiful, friendly pups. I took pictures of the beginning of the split cage, but I am having trouble getting them uploaded from my phone. I will try again tomorrow to get them uploaded. We are hoping to have pups sometime in December. 

New Gerbil

Fleur de Lis Gerbils is excited to welcome our newest addition, Maddie, a solid Burmese female. I adopted her from a lady who had an accidental litter. Unfortunately, the lady did not realize that she had her in a tank with another male. She looks to be around 3-4 months old. She is seperated from my other gerbils right now. I always quarantine new gerbils for at least two weeks, but I am going to be keeping her in a seperate room until I know for sure if she is pregnant or not. She is very young and will be raising pups by herself. I don't want to put her in another room with new smells and other gerbils to cause her any undue stress. I had gotten her to be a mate for McGee, but that is going to have to wait for at least a month. Below is a picture of Maddie. She is a real sweetheart. Gerbils don't start showing signs of being pregnant until right before they have the pups, so it may be another week or two before I know for sure. After that has passed, I will be introducing her to McGee. This weekend will mark her second full week with us. She has gained some weight and started relaxing a little. She was a little underweight and looked to be slightly dehydrated when we brought her home. I have her on a food that has 16% protein in it and am giving her small bits of scrambled eggs, Cheerios, slivers of almonds, and celery to help boost her protein intake. If she is pregnant, I want to help her be as healthy as I can before she has the pups. It's going to be hard on her raising them alone.

Long Overdue Update

Hello everyone!

I know I haven't done much on my site in the last few months so I wanted to post an update so everyone would know what is going on here at Fleur de Lis Gerbils!

As of April 2012, I am an official resident of Indianapolis, Indiana! The move went really good for my gerbils. It took them a couple of weeks to adjust to new sights and sounds, but they are doing good now. Sadly, we lost Scamp(Pinky and Jasper's son) to a severe respiratory infection. He is missed very much, but I know he is with his mom over the Rainbow Bridge.

As for my breeding program, unfortunately it is on hold right now. I have been searching for a female to pair with my Burmese male, McGee, for a couple of months now without success. I am wanting to work on colorpoints, so I am trying to find a breeder who has a good quality female available that will produce a variety of colorpoint pups with McGee. As he has gotten older, his color has become alot darker and richer. He is simply gorgeous and I know he will produce beautiful pups!

To everyone who is visiting my site looking for available pups: As soon as I find a suitable female for McGee, I will post on here with an estimate as to when I will be having pups. The female will have to be split caged with McGee, but hopefully that will only take 2-3 weeks.

Please be patient and don't give up on me! I just want to make sure I always have healthy, happy pups available for loving homes.

In parting, I would like to leave you with this photo of the newest family member here at Fleur de Lis. Nope she's not a gerbil, but she does spend alot of time in their room watching them(Plus, like any proud mommy, I like showing her off)! Her name is Sweet Pea and she is a retired racing Greyhound from Iowa that we adopted.

Update on available pups

2 of Bella's boys and 2 of Rosa's girls have been reserved! They will be going to their new homes in a couple of weeks. I know they will be loved and well cared for. I hope their new families enjoy them as much as I have. It has been so much fun watching them grow and learn to do all the gerbil things that their moms and older siblings have taught them.The last couple of days, all the pups have been checking out the water bottles and learning to use them. I sprinkled some plain Cheerios in their tanks and they went crazy. It was like handing a small child a chocolate bar! Unfortunately for Bella's pups, Cheerios are her favorite treat, so they had to share with mom. Rosa was happy to munch on the almond slices I had given her and her older daughter, Daisy, while the pups fought over the Cheerios. It's so cute to watch the pups steal a Cheerio from each other, even though I put plenty for everyone in the tank.

I will be cleaning all 9 of my tanks out this weekend hopefully. I have alot to do, so I may not make it to all 9, but I'm going to try! I will get some updated pictures of Rosa's pups up. I also need to get a good picture of Daisy. I don't have one of her up yet. She's the little Red-eyed Honey that I kept as a companion for Rosa from her's and Jinx's last litter. She has done an excellent job helping mom take care of the pups and she is a really lovely shade of bright orange.

New pictures are up!

This weekend, I got Bella and Millie out for some sand tub time because I really wanted to see Bella's pups. Apparently, she lost 2 of her pups, so she is only left with four. They are still really young and their genders are hard to tell, but I believe there are 3 boys and 1 girl. The remaining four pups are very healthy and active. They were bouncing all over the tank while I was trying to get pictures. I ended up having to pick them up and take individual pictures. The little girl will not be available for adoption. She will be staying with Bella and Millie. The boys can go as a trio or as a pair. If they are reserved as a pair, I will pair up the remaining boy with one of Rosa's boys hopefully. They will be five weeks old next week, so I should definitely know the sexes by next weekend.

Announcement!

Ok I can finally officially announce the news. I will be moving to Indianapolis, IN during the first week in April. That is why I have stopped my breeding program for right now. I don't want to travel that long way with pups or a pregnant mommy. I worry that it would just be too stressful on them. Bella and Rosa's current litters will be the last ones I have here in Louisiana. I have already requested my location to be changed on the America Gerbil Society's breeders page, so hopefully that will be updated soon. I do plan to return to breeding once I am up there and settled in.

In the meantime, I do have the pups from Bella/Milo and Rosa/Jinx to find good homes for before I leave. I am also going to use this downtime to find the Siamese female to pair up with McGee. I have contacted a few breeders near Indianapolis, but haven't had much luck yet. I am still waiting to hear back from one of the breeders. Hopefully I'll get a good response from that one!

New pictures are up!

I now have a picture up of Rosa and Jinx's final litter. There are 3 girls and 3 boys. I am trying to determine if the little Pied pup (picture below) is a Nutmeg or DEH. If it is a Nutmeg, I will be keeping him as a buddy for McGee. Also, I still have the two older girls from their last litter. Please email me if you are interested in any of these pups!

EDIT: It has been confirmed that the little Pied pup is indeed a Nutmeg! I am so excited! I have been hoping Rosa and Jinx would produce one before I had to split them apart. I will be keeping him as a friend for McGee. I do wish he would have been a Solid Nutmeg, but maybe with him, I will be able to produce some solid Nutmegs when I find the right female ;) Now, if I could just find a female, solid Siamese gerbil, my gerbil color wishlist will be complete!




Pied Nutmeg

2 of the Mottled DEH pups









Happy Friday!

Things have been kinda quiet around Fleur de Lis lately. We are all waiting patiently(ok, maybe that's an exaggeration) for the new pups to get their fur and start crawling around. They should be ready for more pictures to be taken by next weekend. I will definitely get the pictures up of Rosa's litter, but Bella may prove to be more difficult. As I said before, I went and purchased her and Millie a 29 gallon tank to be their permanent home with my parents. I thought it would be awesome for her to have all that room to burrow and create tunnels with the 2 daughters that will be with her. I was right. She's having a blast creating intricate tunnels and burrows in almost 2 feet of Aspen and cardboard. Problem is, she's taken her pups down in one of her burrows that's at the very bottom of the tank! Now I can't get to them without destroying all of hers and Millie's hard work, which I just don't have the heart to do. Hopefully they'll start crawling out of there soon so I can get good pics of them. I can see them occasionally when she doesn't have them covered up, and they're still looking very healthy and cute.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share this cute picture of Scamp! He thought he was hiding from me, but I still found him ;)

Pups available

Turns out I will have 2 pups available from Jinx and Rosa's previous litter. They're 2 sweet little girls that I am just not going to have room for in the coming months. Please check my "Available" page for their pictures.

I am also excited to announce that after a thorough check of Rosa's tank, she has had 6 pups in this litter! Looks like all of them will be dark eyed this time. There may be some new colors in there that I haven't seen in the previous litters. Two of the pups seem to have darker skin than the Honey colored ones have always had, so I am excited to see what happens when their fuzz start coming in! Below are pictures of the new pups. The one I am holding in my hand is the darker skinned one.

New arrivals!

I got home from work last night and went to check on Milo and Bella. I heard light squeaking coming from their tank. A quick check revealed 6 little pink pups! I noticed Bella was running from Milo and refusing him, so I scooped her, the new pups, and the only daughter from the previous litter and placed them in a new 29 gallon tank that will be Bella and her daughters' permanent home with my mom. I was a little disappointed that I had misjudged the date of her newest litters arrival, so I wasn't able to set up her new tank like I had planned. As soon as this new litter is up and moving around, I am going to set it up the way I had planned. Bella is a burrower. She loves creating tunnels and burrows all day long, so I chose a 29 gallon tank to be able to give her lots of substrate to dig and tunnel in. I am going to add a couple more wooden huts and some wooden ladders throughout the tank to help give her tunnels some stability. Since she only had one girl in their previous litter, who is a spotted Lilac just like Bella, I will be selecting another girl (hopefully a solid one so there is no identity confusion) to stay with Bella and the older daughter. My mom has chosen the name "Millie" for the daughter. The 2 boys, I have decided, will remain with Milo, so there will be none up for adoption from Milo and Bella until the new litter is weaned and are around 7 weeks old.  I am still working on names for the 2 little boys. One is a Pied Lilac and the other is a Solid Lilac, like Milo. I believe I am going to call the little Pied Lilac "Max". Still working on another "M" name for the other little boy. Any suggestions are welcome! (Below is a quick pic of Bella and Millie's new home)

Now for a quick update on Rosa and Jinx:

I separated Rosa and Jinx this weekend. They had 2 boys and 2 girls. The 2 girls are with Rosa to help her raise her next litter, which I am expecting any day now. Rosa looks like she has swallowed a tennis ball lol. The 2 boys are with Jinx. I may keep them this way permanently, which would leave none from this current litter available for adoption, unless I get a special request. All of their next litter will be available for adoption. I will update as soon as she delivers! I am also working on names for the pups I have with Rosa and Jinx. I tend to like names that go together, so it takes me a couple days to come up with them. I hope to get pictures and names up of my new permanent additions soon! (Below is a pic of a very pregnant Rosa and one of her daughters)

Cute Giveaway on a fellow gerbil blogger's site!

You must go to http://ffnftgerbils.blogspot.com/ and check out the adorable giveaway that she has posted! It would be loved by any gerbil owner out there. I know I am definitely entering in hopes of snagging those adorable knitted gerbils! While you're there, be sure to follow her for updates on all her cute pups ;)

Update on available pups

The four boys from Jasper and Pinky's last litter have gone, in pairs, to great homes today! I know they will be loved and giving lots of attention from their new families.

Jinx and Rosa's litter will be ready for there forever homes by 1/19/2012. In one more week, I will be able to tell the sexes and will get pictures up of what pairs are available for adoption.

Milo and Bella's litter are getting cuter by the day! They will be weaned soon, but I am unsure right how many of them will be available for adoption.

Please see my Breeding Pairs page for more information on the status of available pups and the breeding pairs. I will update my Available page as soon as I sex the pups and divide them in pairs!