signs of heat?

[Abbey]

what are the signs of heat in a female? :o

normally I wouldn't need to know as I would keep them together 24/7 but this breeding pair will be separated and I need to know when to let them mate..

they already mate when put together, but I want to keep the male with his brother, so I want to pop him in whenever she's in heat.. and then out again when the deed is done..

until she gets pregnant ;)

[Jakamoko]

They will only mate when the female is in heat.

[Abbey]

you sure? my old breeding pairs used to mate all the time..

[TTGerbils]

With some females, it's hard to tell when they're in heat. Others exhibit some subtle signs--twitching or pulling of the skin on the back, soft thumping (quite different from a "danger" thump), or sometimes crouching and looking slightly puffy and miserable.

You aren't afraid that the brother will take offense when the male you want to breed comes home smelling like girl?

[Abbey]

nah, he's been great, not a bother, even after his bro has spent a few hours with his mate :)

i'm doing the same with him as well anyways lol :D
he has himself a mate too.

[MonoOmoi]

I don't know if it's an option, but if you can't tell when they're in heat maybe you could just put the male in for a couple hours each day and hope they'll do it when the time is right? I don't really have much experience with telling when females are in heat, though, because I usually keep the pair together. Good luck, whatever you do!

[Jakamoko]

My gerbils have only ever mated when the female is in heat and each time it took. Perhaps your other pairs weren't so fertile and so it took different attempts in order for the female to get pregnant? I guess most people don't write about their findings because it's not really something we try to observe too closely...

I don't know how you can tell if she's pregnant or not, it's just a waiting game now. Unless you want to keep trying her with the male over the next few days or so and if they don't mate, then assume she's pregnant.

With my female pairs I can usually tell when they're in heat as they often mount eachother, raise their bums and sometimes thump their feet. In my breeding pairs, usually the way I know is that they mate ;)

[Abbey]

well i'v been putting them together for a couple of hours each day anyways, so they'll still be familiar with each other when she does go in heat, and so she'd be more likely to mate.

so far so good anyways :)