quote:

Originally posted by CJK:
Well, I apologize if my response sounded a bit harsh, but after what I went through with mine, I just can't stand them! And maybe it was because I didn't know what I was doing. Because I didn't.

I bought two cute little gerbils for my kids because the house we rented did not allow regular pets (like dogs or cats), so I thought how cute it would be to have a couple of them. Had no idea what sex they were...pet store people had no idea what sex they were. So just as my luck would have it, I ended up with one of each.

I also had the cute little Habitrail set up for them with the tubes and wheels, etc, etc.

I come home from work one day to discover 4 little babies in the cage. I was thrilled!! Oh how cute they were!! Came home from work 3 days later and they were gone. Totally vanished. Unless they had been beamed up by some alien spaceship, it was pretty easy to figure out that either mom or dad had eaten the babies. Made me sick to my stomach.

I didn't know any better about separating them. Yea, stupid, I know but this was 20 years ago and I had no clue about breeding or even animals in general.

So I just figured that maybe there was something wrong with the babies and that's why it happened.

So a few months later, I come home to another group of babies...this time they did not get eaten. Mom just decided to eat dad instead. Believe me, it was not a pretty sight considering she left his head lying in there for my kids to find!!

So I decided to keep one of the babies because it was our favorite. I gave the others away.

About a month later I came home to find mom...or what used to be mom as there was nothing left of her but her rear end and tail. And her son sitting there beaming up at me! I literally threw up I was so disgusted..That was it for me! I was so repulsed I couldn't even look at him.

I took his ungrateful ass and threw him out my back door right into a snow drift! Yep, I sure did. Now of course that was a knee jerk reaction and once I calmed down I felt really bad and tried to find him but I never did.

But to be honest, I didn't lose much sleep over it. Now if that were to happen today, I am sure I would react much differently..but I don't have to worry about that because you couldn't pay me to have another one..Yuck..ungrateful little brat!!

Julie
www.vonlahrheim.com
Home of versatile German Shorthaired Pointers


Check out my show leads.
http://www.vonlahrheim.com/ShowLeads

quote:

Originally posted by Sheltieluvr:
I never had gerbils but I had hamsters when I was a kid. I got them from a pet store and they told me to get 2 males so I did. We got an awesome home for them with wheels and tubes. Somehow they kept getting out. We would look everywhere for them and would eventually find them and put them back in their cages. One day my mom opened up her bottom desk drawer to it filled with cat food. Here those little suckers would get the cat food in the laundry room and run to my moms office and put it in the desk drawer. Was kind of funny. Later we had gone to wrap a present and my mom had a suitcase that she kept wrapping paper in, it had a little chew area with little hole on the side. Opened the suitcase and every bit was chewed up into shreds. It is funny the things they got into. But one of the males was mean... and one day I came home opened up the cage to pick up the nice one which I held all the time. Picked him up and he was dead, freaked me out and I threw him up into the air and he went behind me and landed on my bed. Remember, I was like 10 so I had no control over my hand with a dead rodent in it.
That is my hamster story, no babies but I am sticking to it.

Julie
www.vonlahrheim.com
Home of versatile German Shorthaired Pointers


Check out my show leads.
http://www.vonlahrheim.com/ShowLeads

quote:

Originally posted by tailwagging:
I LOVED my hamsters!!!!!!!!
They where GOOD loving little guys!!!!!!
I started to raise them when I was 6. I had NO trouble with them. They where kept in separate cages and the female was always taken to the male’s then put back in her own.

Julie
www.vonlahrheim.com
Home of versatile German Shorthaired Pointers


Check out my show leads.
http://www.vonlahrheim.com/ShowLeads