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When breeding gerbils there are many ethical quandaries you must make decisions on. Above all else, you should always keep in mind the quality of life of your gerbils.
Your gerbils should always have access to fresh water, quality food, a clean environment, and medical attention when needed. A single pair of gerbils will have a low demand on your time and money. When you are breeding gerbils you will be increasing your population size. You must be able to care for all of your gerbils the same way you would care for just the single pair. You must provide all the same things without cutting corners. This can be taxing on your time and wallet. Especially when your gerbils get sick, develop cancer, get mites, or other problems where one or more gerbils may need to see the vet.
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One of the most important things about breeding is choosing healthy friendly parents. Pups will pick up on their parent’s attitudes towards their caretakers. Breeding an aggressive shy gerbil, will require more work on your end to make sure that the pups do not also become shy and aggressive.
When choosing parents they should always be outgoing, friendly, and inquisitive. They should never be outwardly hostile towards their tank mates or towards you. They should come out and greet you when you open their cage and never run and hide.
Gerbil parents to be should also have a clean bill of health. They should not be “allergic” to beddings, previously contracted an upper respiratory infection, or suffered from other ailments requiring antibiotics. They should also be cancer free. They should also not have any birth defects such as a kinked tail, fixed wrists, missing eyes or other maladies. It has not been determined if such birth defects are caused by genetics or if they are congenital abnormalities caused by influences in the prenatal environment. It is safe to assume that such defects are probably combination of the two.
It is sometimes difficult to understand, but if your gerbil has a predisposition to a particular illness or disorder, they could easily pass these sensitivities on to their children.
Different people will have different ideas about how safe and unsafe it is to inbreed. Inbreeding is the act of crossing an individual with another member of their family (ie. parents, siblings, cousins). Breeding within the immediate family is generally not ideal. However their are benefits of breeding cousins, second cousins, and great aunts/uncles with eachother. This is usually referred to as line breeding, and is a less severe form of inbreeding.
Inbreeding does cause recessive traits to occur more frequently. These traits may be positive or negative, but often it is the negative ones that are more dehabiliating. When inbreeding or line breeding it is especially important to make sure that your gerbils are very healthy.
There are many views on the practice of culling or euthanizing new born pups. There are some good reasons for it, and there are some bad reasons for it. This is analogous to the prolife: prochoice debate in politics. This is a decision you will need to make for yourself. Most fancy rodent societies usually do not have an official ruling on culling litters, simply because there are strong arguments for both sides. Do what you believe is right, and do not feel ashamed or guilty for the choices you make. When culling pups it should be done as humanely and painlessly as possible. However, though they might turn a blind eye at culling a pinkie, they will not tolerate the euthanasia of healthy adults.
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