bartomigoshpups

I'm pretty sure Amirite can see while Jay and Elohelle still can't. I picked up Amirite (who likes my hands, btw) and held her near the top of the tank in cupped hands. She cautiously nosed around, putting her paws up on my thumbs, but not going over. She sat in one hand for a little while when I lowered her back into the tank.

I did something similar with Jay, but he started going over my thumbs, so I lowered my hands to be about an inch above the litter in the tank. Sure enough, he tumbled out of my hand a second later. They'll probably all have their eyes open this weekend, though.

I put the little wheel in tonight. Bart & Omigosh are fascinated by it. The pups haven't figured it out yet.

Another day of super active pups. S & I played with them, cupping them in our hands one at a time. Bart was distracted with a tube. Omigosh wanted to dart up my sleeves and out of the tank. Of course, once she was out of the tank she just wanted to burrow into my shirt, not run on my shoulders and back like Bart. I think Amirite's eyes are the most open, of the three. She is not timid, though.

I got some video of 3 very active pups with perhaps an onlooking cat. Bear Cub is fascinated by them all. She's a hunter. Despite being an indoor cat, she's caught & killed birds. Anyway, I'm careful about not leaving the tank open or even without its tank clips.

Jay has some dark and light patches. The tip of his tail is black. It's very cute. I wonder if that means he's DPP. I'll ask L.

I'll have to look up when their eyes are supposed to open. Any day now, I suppose. Then I can clean the tank. Yay! It's kind of smelly.

I think I just watched Omigosh move the nest. This is what happened:

I fed the two parent gerbils. This meant they left the family huddle in the front right corner. The pups promptly woke up and started wrestling. I put my hand in for them to sniff and climb. After a bit of that, they started running around the tank. At first, Omigosh was busy eating. Then she noticed they'd gotten out and ran over to drag them back to the nest, one at a time. But, of course, Elohelle and Jay would not be held by a tissue cage! They broke free again (Amirite was a little tired and content to nap.)

Eventually, Omigosh started dragging them to a different corner--the back left one (opposite from this morning's nest location. Maybe it was because I put more food near there. Maybe the current nest was a little ripe. It was still very cute to see her throw a little fit when a pup ran off. She dashes after them and rolls them around until she can get a grip on either a leg or the base of their tail. They squeak the whole time.

Bart seems to prefer the earlier nest and I think the pups do, too. As I've been writing this, Bart and the two girls have escaped Omigosh's new nest and returned to the first corner. Jay is still in the new one. I don't know how it'll resolve. I'll probably put more toiler tissue in for Omigosh to tear up. She loves building fluffy nests out of that stuff.

Verdict: The TP went on top of the new nest. All the gerbils went back to the old nest. Gerbils are weird.

Maybe Omigosh is working on construction of the new nest while Bart and the pups live in the old one? ... I watch too much HGTV.

Changed the water yesterday. I moved the notepad when creating the blog & forgot to move it back so I don't have some days of notes. Whoops.

The pups are 2 weeks old now, full of color & look like mini-gerbils instead of pink gummi bears. They're still blind but they crawl a lot. They're harder to hold on to--they'll crawl fast out of your hand, so I hold them close to the bedding. Bart's favorite thing to do, when he has the chance, is climb my sleeves and run around on my back as I'm playing with the pups. Omigosh doesn't have the grip or she'd do this, too. They're both sweet. I'm going to call the boy Jay--follow the pattern of Flashes.

RC's cello teacher is moving and has an older girl gerbil who would be stressed by the trip. She asked if I'd take her in instead. I said sure. Since it's an older girl, I can pair her with one of the pups from the second litter--one of the boys.

Elohelle wandered out of the nest just now. Bart brought her back. Both Bart and Omigosh are very attentive--they don't let the pups wander far. Maybe they're just bored and the pups are the only interesting things.

Jay matches Bart well, except for the spots. Very cute.

The three pups:


Clicky for bigger picture.

Top left: Elohelle. Top right: Amirite. Bottom: Oliver. Well, Oliver's butt, anyway.

I changed the water again today, though there was plenty left. Omigosh has dug a deep nest for the pups and now (~6PM) they (Omigosh & Bart) are having a run around the boring tank. I gave them a paper towel tube to destroy. Bart's into it but not Omigosh, right now. Still not sure what to call the blond girl. Maybe Elohelle. Oliver (?) climbed out of the nest after mom, who got interested in the tube. He isn't nursing, just wants to snuggle, I guess.

ETA: I expect that K will rename her girls to whatever she wants. The names Amirite, Elohelle, and Oliver are just placeholders to tell them apart for now.

( Pictures )

I have pics from the last 2 days, but no new notes. Today the pups started crawling out of the nest. Omigosh herded them back. The darkest one has spots like Bart & I think its a girl from a nipple count so I'm going to call her Amirite. The blond one also has a pied collar--it's obvious today. I think she's also a girl but I don't have a good name for her. The middle one is most plain so far but could have a neat color. I think it's a boy, too. No idea what to call him--Oliver, maybe. I got some video of Amirite crawling around the tank. I hope it's steady & cute.

Bart and Omigosh are sharing a nest in the original corner Bart had in exile. All the pups are there. They're squeaking quite a lot. They have ears now, and wiggly legs. They'll probably climb out of the nest soon. They have "fingers" on their paws now, too. This nest is closest to the water bottle. That may be why they moved.

I changed the water again today, before heading out to work.

Bart's back in the main nest today, keeping the pups warm. I'm feeding the gerbils 3x a day, about a tablespoon each time.

Back from work at 6:40 PM. I think Omigosh moved the pups across the tank. All 3 are in a new corner and wiggling, but my hands are cold from outside so I'm leaving them alone.

I held all 3 pups in one hand today while Omigosh and Bart ran around. I can't tell what sex they are but I'm pretty sure we have 2 agouti and one honey. One might be a spotted agouti like Bart. I hope so.

I took some pictures, too. At least the 2 agouti have dark eyes.

Omigosh is back to keeping them warm. Bart has made himself a separate nest in the opposite corner.

The pups are doing well. They're warm to the touch so I'm not worried about setting up a lamp. Omigosh has made a very fluffy nest. Bart has his own fluffy nest in the opposite corner. They were doing their mating dance yesterday and are getting along fine today. Bart checks on the pups when Omigosh leaves the nest.

Omigosh had 3 pups sometime between 7AM and 10:30 this morning. Because I stayed up until 1 to watch for this, I slept in and was only up at 7 temporarily to double check. It happened some time while I was asleep. The 3 pups are pink and wiggly. I think I saw her eating the placenta (or something pinkish) around 10:30. She is sheltering them now. I gave them more food. She runs out ot get it, then runs back to shelter the pups. I gave Bart a roll to gnaw on. Omigosh seems totally preoccupied by the pups.

No pups overnight. Omigosh did some stretches tonight but now she is preoccupied with a new tube. Roommates & I are thinking of starting a number-of-pups pool; mostly my idea. The nest is very fluffy. I took some pictures of them. It's better without the flash on. Picture taking in a glass tank is complicated. The extra light helps.

They both willingly jumped into my hands to be picked up. Bart tries to climb my forearms but can't get a grip. They each got some hand/shoulder time, but it stopped when Bart started nipping.

Omigosh is very plump. I expect her to have the pups this weekend.

I cleaned the tank, scrubbed the water bottle & the wheel, and gave them fresh litter with a handful of the old stuff, on L's suggestions. I also gave them a cardboard tube to destroy and two handfuls of TP to nest with. They're very active and Omigosh's nose looks clear--no eczema.

Bart weights 3oz.
Omigosh weighs a hair under 3oz.

I'm starting this journal to track the birth of Bart and Omigosh's pups. I have a paper journal that I will translate into LJ, and a bunch of pictures to upload and post. I even have some video of the pups' first steps. More to come.

Bart is my boy gerbil--he's a spotted agouti. Omigosh is K's girl gerbil--she's a dark-eyed honey cream. Here's the backstory that I know:

Bart was born around December 2007 - January 2008. I got him in February 2008 as a little pup companion to my gerbil Wally. Wally's dad, Barry, had just died and Wally was lonely. Bart and Wally were introduced with no incidents and were happy gerbil friends for about a year, until Wally passed away in mid January.

Bart needed a new companion. I had gotten all of my gerbils from Shawsheen River Gerbils so I went back for a companion for Bart. Sadly, there was no boy pup to be had for him, but L had a suggestion. She had a couple of gerbil owners with girls who wanted to have pups, and if I was interested, Bart could be a father. He could then stay with his male pups, and the mother with the female pups. This sounded like fun, so I agreed.

This is where K and Omigosh come in. Omigosh is a little over a year old. We each sent out glamour shots of our pets. We compared the two and L described what kind of pups they could have. Here's the breakdown (going through old email and paraphrasing):

Bart is a patched pied agouti and an irregular collar.


Omigosh is a honey cream with dark patches. She's missing her right front paw due to an accident as a pup, but she doesn't let that slow her down! It has earned her a tongue-in-cheek nickname, though: Tripod.


Quote from L about colors: "Color wise, you will surely be able to get black and agouti and spotted varities of each; between them they all have a chance at carrying cb, e and p genes, which could give you a host of other colors. Bart probably carries g which is a relatively rare gene; and he has a decent chance at carrying e, which would give you dark eyed honeys, nutmegs, all those wonderful rich red-tone colors. You may well get lilac and argente, too. And did I mention spots?"

So we put these two in a split cage to get acquainted. L kept them for the first few days while they got to know each other, and I brought them home after that. The plan is as follows:
1. Bart and Omigosh marry and mate at L's house (check)
2. M (Bart's owner--me) brings the two home. (check)
3. The first litter is born! (check)
4. Bart and Omigosh mate again after the first litter is born. (check)
5. Bart and Omigosh coparent the first litter while Omigosh is pregnant with the second. (in this stage now)
6. The pups are weaned enough to be separated from Omigosh before the second litter is born. Any boy pups stay with Bart at M's house, and any girl pups go with Omigosh to K's house.
7. The second litter is born!
8. K keeps one or two girl pups with Omigosh as companions. M debates and probably takes any boy pups from the second litter as her second set of gerbils to keep. L takes the rest of the pups to adopt out and/or keep as a breeding line.

For specifics in this story and more pictures, please see the rest of the journal!