Dana and Fox

You've stumbled upon the page of Dana and Fox, two of my many, wonderful gerbils. Dana is an ultra-dark siamese, and her mate Fox is a pink-eyed-white. They were "married" on January 24th, 1998. They're not truly Danis, but they do have ties to the Dani Clan. You see, Dana's brother is Sherlock, and ultra-dark siamese male belonging to Mindy. Sherlock is the mate of Mystery, one of Phoebe and Ciaran's pups from their first litter. So . . . in a twisted sort of way, they ARE related! = )

Dana is actually Dana "Kelly" Fox, Kelly being the last name I've given to most of the gerbils I've gotten from Kelly (see Riven). She looks identical to Dana I (the Dana Katherine this page is in memory of), except she has no swelling on her tail!!! Most thankfully.

Dana has such a cutie face!

Dana Kelly was born in Wisconsin on the 1st of December, 1997. She is an ultra-dark siamese. Here are pictures of Dana's parents (Niblet and Gizmo). I expected her to end up looking as dark as her parents, but she's SOOOO much lighter! Than the picture, at least. Probably has something to do with the fact that Dana isn't what we think she is after all . . . she's my enigmatic colorpoint . . . my mystery girl . . . the spice of my life, LOL, and a darling to boot! She's ma girl . . .

Niblet & Gizmo

(the picture was taken by Kelly and scanned by Julian Barker)

A pretty li'l colorpoint gal

Her mate, Fox, is a pink eyed white. His parents are a dark tailed white and a PEW. He was bred by my good friend Kelly Christenson, in Wisconsin, as was Dana. He came along with his brother, Xavier (owned by Mindy), Dana #1 (may she rest in peace), and then a dark-eyed honey female (also for Mindy). Fox's first meeting with Dana II came when I attempted to introduce them in a split tank. I was going to take it slowly just to be safe, but after only a few minutes (I guess, I wasn't in the room) he leapt over the barrier and into her side of the tank! The two seemed to be doing fine, though Dana was a bit shy! Now they're as close as a couple can be.

Fox was born on October 16th, 1997. He has a brother who is living with Mindy, whose name is Xavier.

Fox is one undeniably cute fellow!

Fox and Dana are the sweetest couple. They are always in their tank, grooming each other, or sleeping together. It's enough to make my heart melt = ) They both have wonderful temperaments. Both of them perch on top of their jar waiting for me to take them out whenever I walk by. What sweet gerbies!! They're such an adorable pair = )

Sweet couple!

These two used to have a plastic wheel in their tank. I knew they were going to destroy it eventually, but what good was it if it didn't even get used? So, they used it for a couple of months, and it got chewed really well and also, it got noisy. It became rather loose and began to rub up against the side of the tank during the night no matter WHAT I did, so I replaced it with a lovely banna-yellow wheel which they loved once they found out that it was *not* a good idea to try to both use it at once = )

Where IS that wheel?

Dana & Fox became parents for the first time on June 28th, 1998, to a single pup, a white named Emily. Sadly Emily died early the next morning, despite being fostered to another litter of 2 (that was 4 days old and doing great) = ( I can only assume something was wrong with her. However 29 days later Dana gave birth to THREE pups! = ) Katina, Meteo, and Fortuna. See their page. Dana & Fox are such goofy parents. At 3 weeks old Dana STILL thought that she could tackle the pups & drag them back to the nest! What a crazy!

Of Genetics & Babies

Dana's genes are: aaP*c^bc^hEE** and Fox's genes are: aappc^hc^hEEGG. They ought to have DTW, ultra-dark siamese, and possibly some PEW and "red eyed siamese" (just like PEW but c(b)). I THINK!!! = ) Dana has a 2 in 3 chance of being Pp so they'll be mostly whites, probably. But she could be PP, we'll see.

The Dani genetic page will tell you the percentages and such = )

Some Dana & Fox updates! = )

Dana is due: ?

10/22/98 The little surpriser is at it again! She had twins this morning. Best I can figure, they mated 9/26 when I was at my friend's house.

7/26/98 Yay! Dana had triplets!

6/28/98 WHOAH! It seems Dana was pregnant and I didn't know it! They'd mated on June 2nd but I figured they'd just mate again. They went 25 days but that has happened before. But on day 26 I came home and discovered one baby!! Which proves they can have babies. I just wish they'd have more! Now I'm eagerly awaiting July 26th to see if it'll happen again.

5/4/98 Guesswhat, no babies! Heh. No surprise there. Anyway I'm pretty sure Fox is PEW and what Dana probably is is an ultra-dark siamese . .. aaP*c(b)c(h)E(s)EGg. And one of her brothers is Pp so she might be too = ) Oh fun, lots of white!

3/27/98 Okay, I gotta quit this. As soon as I update their page saying how long it's been, they always mate again. As far as I'm concerned, they ain't having any, and I won't say a thing til they do ;)

3/26/98 It's been 11 days, so that's 2 weeks left. OOOPS forgot! She isn't having any = ) Heh heh I'm so clever.

3/16/98 Euhhhh . . . due April 9th. All right! From now on we'll assume Dana's NOT going to have babies. Then we can be very happy when she does = )

3/3/98 - Ummm . . . 4th time's the charm?? 25 more days . . .

2/27/98 - DOH! ::getting deja vu:: Babies are now due March 22nd . . . 23 more days!

2/21/98 - Okay, okay, so it's been about 6 days so far. In about 10 more days I'll probably be able to tell if we're really expecting here. I know for sure I'm not saying ANYTHING till I see some serious tummy bulge . . . or maybe not till I see babies = )

2/16/98 - DOH! Ridiculous little critters they are. It is soooo like the little tricksters to go sixteen whole days before mating again . . new due date: March 12th. Pfffp. 24 more days!

2/11/98 - 13 more days! Dana's now 12 days pregnant. I'm almost ready to say that this litter is ON = ) Though, that still remains to be seen, I suppose.

2/7/98 - Well, it's been about 8 days, that means only 17 days left! Dana is doing quite well. Maybe it's me, but it seems as if her belly might be getting rounder. She just isn't as sleek and slim as I'd expect her to be. Well, I guess that's good, then!

1/30/98 - Hmm it's getting loud over here! Dana is due on the 24th of February! I hope all goes well--she is on the young side. Since I know her mother takes great care of her babies, I'm not *too* worried, since generally mothers that totally botch things come from mothers that totally botch things . . . well I guess we'll see. She may not even be pregnant for all I know! = ) Note to self: never say "she may not even be pregnant for all I know!" because for once in your life you will be right.

Here's the genealogy for Dana and Fox's offspring, when they have their first litter: