The birds and the bees and the gerbils...

For several days, Logan has been complaining that one of his gerbils has been getting fat and lazy.  Since we can't even tell three of them apart I just assumed he was imagining things.

This afternoon, Jack came running to me saying there were babies in the cage and I laughed.  We can't have babies.  We have four male gerbils.  We call them "the dudes."  But he seemed serious and rather excited.  And then Logan came in squawking about something about the gerbils so I ran to the boys' room.  I bust into the room so fast that the gerbils all went into hiding and sure enough, I was able to see two little pink squirming beings in the bottom of their nest.  So cute and ugly all at the same time.

After some quick research I learned that the gerbils will mate again within 8 hours of the pups being born.  And though it's best leave papa to help mama raise the kids, separating them is the only way to ensure that mama won't have another litter next month...and the next month...and the next month.  So we pulled out the three "dudes" and put them in a makeshift 2nd home.  Only then did I notice that one of them was anatomically different than the other two.  Ummm...guess we just have two "dudes."

Mama, AKA Lightening Bolt, and her sister, Zuzu, seem to be caring for the babies fairly well.  After a trip to the pet store, Thunder and Storm have a new bachelor pad.

Jack and Logan were very confused as to why the males and females had to be separated.  They didn't realize that it took one of each to make babies  We've had a few interesting discussions today...

Scott just mentioned to me that he may have found an egg sack in the fish tank...heaven help us!