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.