It all started with Pretty Girl, Smokie and Mokie, our first three gerbils. We got them when they were about 2-1/2 and 2 years old, already all old ladies. It was pre-digital camera time, so we don't even have a picture of them! But they were wonderful and that's how it all began. (As it turned out, this watershed event at the 4H Fair continues to reverberate six years later in the form of the second annual Pocket Pet Department at the Middlesex County 4-H Fair).
The First Generation
First Pretty Girl died, then Smokie. When Mokie was left alone, we knew we needed to get some new friends to keep her company. As luck would have it, we ended up attending an American Gerbil Society show. We picked up Sam and Charlie as new friends for Mokie.
Because we were worried about leaving Charlie and Sam in the split cage with Mokie just as our vacation began, we brought them along to our rented condo at Loon Mountain. This led to a funny escapade in which a chipmunk broke into our condo to eat all their gerbil food, depositing much of it in our bed! Sadly, Charlie did not like Mokie at all. On their first intro they started a fight. We separated them before anyone got hurt (but me), but it was clear they would not be friends. Mokie died a few days later, and Charlie and Sam took over as resident gerbils.
Later, Charlie and Sam became the official Gerbil Advice Team for our Shawsheen River Gerbils newsletter, with their own column, Ask Charlie and Sam. Left, they are pictured posing for their official Press Photo.
The Breeding Program
The visit to the AGS show had proven fateful (but not fatal!). We had been bitten by the gerbil-breeding bug. In July, 2003 we adopted Thunderbolt and Pumpkin to be our first breeding pair. All went well until a couple of weeks later, we noticed Thunderbolt had grown boy parts. Ooops! Our breeder offered to take one of them back and supply a girl, but we were in love with them already. No, Thunderbolt and Pumpkin would stay as pets.
The First “Rescue”
It was an ordinary day except for the fact that one of our fish had died. We went to Petco for a new fish. To our surprise, what should be in the store but four adorable five-week old gerbil pups? Our favorite store clerk, a gerbil owner herself, told us that they were a “surprise litter” that had been relinquished that morning. Of course, my girls fell in love immediately with the agouti female Gemma, right. Then the poor little spotted dove boy, Jackpot (left) with the fixed wrist caught their eye. We couldn't take one boy and one girl, of course, so what to do? Take all four! We went out and bought some shelving, and created a gerbil apartment complex in my daughter's bedroom.
It took several months for my husband to recover from this escapade.
The Breeding Program Revisited
Our kind breeder friend offered us a lovely breeding trio to borrow. Trophy (Thunderbolt's brother), Moonda, the female, and a younger male named Furry came to our home. . The idea was that one of the boys would mate with Moonda and all three would leave peacefully. Trophy enjoyed the threesome until something stirred inside him and he decided three was a crowd. (Furry went back to our breeder friend where he got the last laugh on Trophy, fathering probably hundreds of pups with multiple wives, and outliving him.)
However, none of this was on either Trophy or Moonda's minds. They raised seven beautiful litters together, and from their offspring our kennel Shawsheen River Gerbils really got its start. We placed pups all over - with friends, in classrooms, and eventually, built our web site to help find homes for them. We split Trophy up with two sons in June of 2004, and Moonda stayed with two daughters. Over the years we have made up endless stories about Moonda and Trophy's families. We hope to get all these on tape some day. A friend of ours calls the stories "the Lake Woebegone of Gerbils".
Because we were worried about leaving Charlie and Sam in the split cage with Mokie just as our vacation began, we brought them along to our rented condo at Loon Mountain. This led to a funny escapade in which a chipmunk broke into our condo to eat all their gerbil food, depositing much of it in our bed! Sadly, Charlie did not like Mokie at all. On their first intro they started a fight. We separated them before anyone got hurt (but me), but it was clear they would not be friends. Mokie died a few days later, and Charlie and Sam took over as resident gerbils.
The visit to the AGS show had proven fateful (but not fatal!). We had been bitten by the gerbil-breeding bug. In July, 2003 we adopted Thunderbolt and Pumpkin to be our first breeding pair. All went well until a couple of weeks later, we noticed Thunderbolt had grown boy parts. Ooops! Our breeder offered to take one of them back and supply a girl, but we were in love with them already. No, Thunderbolt and Pumpkin would stay as pets.
. The idea was that one of the boys would mate with Moonda and all three would leave peacefully. Trophy enjoyed the threesome until something stirred inside him and he decided three was a crowd. (Furry went back to our breeder friend where he got the last laugh on Trophy, fathering probably hundreds of pups with multiple wives, and outliving him.)