- What to do while you're away on vacation
- Why gerbil pups are different colors
- Older letters to Pippi
Hello Pippi,
Can I leave a gerbil with a big bowl of gerbil food for five days? If not, what can I do for vacation? - D.L.
Dear D.L.,
Gerbils are a good pet because if you go on a short vacation, we are usually OK while you're gone.
Make sure that you leave us plenty of food so we don't get hungry, and make sure that our water bottle is full before you leave.
Even though we can do OK for several days on our own, we like it better if someone checks in on us. If you have a friend or neighbor who can either babysit your gerbils or who can stop at your house to check on them, that would be best. That way, someone can call you if there's a problem.
Before you leave for vacation, give us several toilet paper tubes to keep us busy. Also, make sure the lid to our tank is on tight so we can't escape.
Your friend,
- Pippi
Dear Pippi,
Why can a gerbil mother be brown and her gerbil kids be different colors other than brown? - A.L.
Dear A.L.,
Thanks for writing to me! I'm going to let my friend Nellie answer your question, because she was a baby gerbil just a few months ago. She even has baby photos of herself and her family.
This is Nellie. Gerbil babies are called pups, and gerbil parents can have pups of many colors. For example, to the right, you can see a photo of me with my brothers and sisters. I'm the cute black one with the white spots. :)
My mother looked like Pippi, except with spots, and my father had silver fur. You may have learned about genes in school. You inherit genes from your parents, and they tell things like which color your eyes will be or what color of hair you will have. Your mother may have brown hair, but you may have blond hair. It is similar for gerbils.
Gerbils have six basic pairs of genes. The first is the A
or a
gene. We get one from our mother and one from our father. If we have even one A
gene, our belly will be white, like Pippi's. But if our mother gives us an a
gene, and our father also gives us an a
gene, our belly will be the same color as the rest of our fur. Isn't that neat?
If we have one or two P
genes, we have black eyes. (Both Pippi and I have black eyes.) If both of our parents give us a p
gene, we have red eyes.
We also have a pair of genes that tell how light our fur is, a pair of genes that help to tell what color our fur will be, a pair of genes that can turn our fur gray (even if we aren't old!), and a gene that tells if we will have spots. I have the gene that gives me spots. :)
If you or your parents want to learn more about gerbil colors, you can see the AGS (American Gerbil Society) Color Strips, the Gerbil Info Page's Colour Genetics, or things-that-squeaks' Explanation Of Genetics.
Your friends,
- Pippi & Nellie
Click the Ask A Question button below to send Pippi & Nellie your own gerbil question. Or click the Read Letters button to read older letters from Pippi & Nellie.
