Does God have these dilemmas?

[smokingboot]

Profundity gives way to trivia. No, dear LJ, this entry is not going to be about the state of mankind. This is about gerbils. Any parallels are entirely accidental.

I really like these little dudes. As far as I can tell they're pretty happy, and watching them build and play is just too damn comical. They are cute, and they belong together as a mad little community. Right now, I have a logistical problem.

Gerbils are tribble upgrades. If I keep them together, unless I neuter all the boys(expensive) I am going to have thousands. Now, I can separate them by gender into two tanks. However Freakella is pregnant again and this makes for difficulty.

1) Male gerbils are invariably gentle with gerbil pups, their own and others.

2) Female gerbils are not. Adult females sometimes kill the litters of other females, unless they are nursing their own litters.

3) Gerbils are not easy to reintroduce once separated.

So, if I separate boys and girls, and Freakella goes with the girls, will they kill her next litter?

Or I could get the adult males neutered put Le Freak in with them, the pups will be born in safety, and Freak will not get pregnant again. But how then do I introduce Freakella and her little ones to the other tank full of growing gels?

Cyanidemigraine was quite right when he divined my ideal situation. In a perfect world, I would drive to Morocco or somewhere similar, and set them all free in a gerbil appropriate environment. As it is, here they are and I want them to lead happy rodenty existences.

But this is doing my head in. How can anything so small be so complicated? What's wrong with the little bastards? Why can't they all live harmonious sexless lives in little teepees? When I ascend to godhood things are going to change around here...

Comments

[thalinoviel.livejournal.com]

OK.... How about you separate the girls once they are weaned and keep Freakella in with the boys? at least that way you only have one breeding female (as opposed to an exponentially increasing number!) You'd have to repeat this with the next litter once the girl pups are old enough to hold their own.

Perhaps after this litter you could get La Freak neutered? (can you neuter female gerbils, or it is all too small and fiddly?)

The third plan, of course, is to set up a profitable e-business supplying gerbils by overnight courier. I know of a similar business selling aquarium fish...

[evilwillow.livejournal.com]

Oh dear...

I know what I would do :D I would let her keep having babies and then sell them to the petshop when they are big enough - that way you get to keep them when they are cute babies and not end up with hundreds of them. Reputable pet shops will sell them as pets not food.

Try getting in touch with the Animal Medical Centre in Chorlton, Manchester.. they might be able to get you a better cost on neutering, they operated on my mice for not that much really. It might be worth a try.

Hope this helps hun

xxx

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the ideas. Number 1 appealed to me, but now that events have torn my mind apart, I may have to recourse to number 3!

Know anybody who would love and be kind to gerbils and not fire them from mini-siege catapults/turn them into satay skewers/ feed them to passing reptiles or felines?

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your thoughts. Sound advice! I just wish there was some way of guaranteeing they would go to good homes. If there was, I wouldn't mind. As it is, pet shops depress me...in fact, that's what got me into this mess in the first place. God, what am I like!