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.