Adair & Danziger

Adair and Danziger are a black and agouti pair that I got from Mindy. Their mommy was a nutmeg, Madaline, and their daddy was an ivory cream, Meeshu. That makes them AaPpCCEeGg and aaPpCCEeGg which gives them GREAT potential for baby colors! Their mommy and daddy were both very sweet-tempered gerbils and a cute couple, hopefully their kids are the same! They were born around February 21st (I just recently checked my calendar and found this out so it might still say the 28th in some places = ) So far they have 6 babies!

Li'l Adair!

Adair is a little black female, with the most adorable white splotches on her paws and a stripe down her throat. At the moment she's the jumpier of the 2, but since I got them when they were 6 weeks old I'm sure they'll warm up to me easily! What I've learned to do is start *right* away with socializing new gerbils. Even if they're socialized to their breeder (Mindy in this case) doesn't mean they'll be all soppy right away. You have to give it time and patience. With A&D, my technique is to put my hand in the tank (they're little so they don't nip yet) and just let them walk all over it. I don't try to lift them up, because that might be too scarey. If they walk all over my hand without being snatched up, they figure it's pretty safe, and pretty soon will be all over me = )

Actually they're both very sweet and are already quite used to me nosing around. They skitter around when I try to pick them up, but I have few gerbils that don't. But once I get them in my hands they seem quite calm = )

'Dair and the plastic thingie

I've begun to call Adair "'Dair'". It's funny, because when I see her, I'll go "Hey, 'Dair!" which sounds like "hey there!". Well, I thought it was funny. They have this weird looking little plastic house thingie with tubes in it, that my sister bought for Grace & Lucy as part of a larger set. Well, the thing is nearly impossible to put together, so she took half of it and gave it to Grace and Lucy, and took the other half and let me borrow it = ) It's such a neat thing, and Adair loves to climb up inside it. What a neat thing! Too bad they'll eventually destroy it, and it was $15!

Wee little Danz = )

Danziger (who I will probably end up calling "Danz" all the time because the name's a bit cumbersome = ) is a little agouti male, who's very sweet tempered, but he can sure thump if he gets startled! He's my first agouti in a *long* time--since Chandler died on August 20th, 1996 (or since Splotch died in October of 1997 but she was pied). He's a very beautiful little boy. I know some of you with agoutis probably find them "coarse and common" because there are so many, but I think agouti is a beautful color, once you're deprived of it for awhile! Danz in particular is a beauty. Because he's Ee his coat is a lot yellower (is that a word?) than other agoutis, which tend to have a lot of black ticking. His ticking is more subdued, making him more of a golden hue.

What mischief are they up to?

Agouti man!

Their father, an ivory cream named Meeshu, was the son of Mindy's original breeding pair, a grey agouti named Kerry and an ruby eyed white named D'arcey. The funny thing is, Mindy had NO idea how rare those colors were. She wasn't on the internet then, or if she was she hadn't thought to look them up, or just hadn't realized they were so rare in the USA. Those two had grey agouti and ivory cream (and slate and REW?? I'm not sure). Mindy kept Meeshu from those two, because she found out it was possible to get polar fox from his kids, if he was bred to something ee (like Madaline, the nutmeg she later got from Kelly). She also kept Yoshinabu, a grey agouti male, and Collie, a slate female. I think she said something about Collie being the daughter of D'arcey and one of D'arcey's sons but I'm not sure = ) She didn't write it all down at the time so she got confused, I guess.

Adair verrrrry pregnant ;)

Adair & Danziger's first litter was born on September 21st, 1998! There were six adorable babies. Their webpage is here. It was immediately apparent that 4 had dark eyes and 2 had pink eyes. In time it became obvious that their first litter consisted of two agoutis, two ruby eyed whites, a polar fox or silver nutmeg (!!!) and ummm one I'm still baffled by = ) They're GREAT parents and are very patient with me when I mess with their pups.

6 little puppies

News for the happy couple!

Adair is due: ?

9/21/98 - Adair had pups today!!

9/15/98 - Adair is due in 6 days and getting ROUND!

8/28/98 - They mated again yesterday! FINALLY! Sheesh.

8/24/98 - Where have the babies gone!!! = (

8/9/98 - No babies yet! = (

7/6/98 - There might be Danziger babies on the way!!

6/16/98 - No babies yet! ::waiting::

4/25/98 - Well they're about 8 1/2 weeks old, so it can't be *too* much longer. Hopefully I'll have a litter from them by July or August.

Of genetics & babies

Their babies will be black, agouti, argente, lilac, DEH, red fox, yellow fox, nutmeg, grey agouti, slate, REW, ivory cream, polar fox, silver nutmeg, apricot, and white. I'm very excited! Percentages should be on the genetics page