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!