|
How
to differentiate males and females
Here you'll see how to see
the differences between males and females at different age. You may have
problems at first to set them apart but with practice you'll see that it's not
so hard to do.
It's pretty easy to see the
difference when you spend some time looking! The main criteria is the distance
between the anus and the urinary organ. This distance will be longer in males
and shorter in females. With adult animals, it's pretty obvious. And in
addition, the testicles are easily visible.
But with babies, it's a little bit trickier. Between 2 weeks and 1 mount,
we could think that they are all females so much the distance between the two
elements is small.
Here
are two gerbils around 2 months old. The difference is clearly visible. Female
on the right and male on the left.
In
younger gerbils, it's more difficult. It may seems obvious in pictures, but
you'll see, they move alot to this age. They are 3 weeks old. Female
on the right and male on the left.
There
is also the nipples technique. You must do the observation when the gerbil is 10
days old. Later, it's too late. Yes, you can touch the babies to this age, but
be careful, there are fast like rockets! In females, there will be small dots, on
each side of the belly and in the underarm. 8 to be precise. These are the
nipples. Males don't have those dots. When the female gets older, the fur covers
up everything and it's almost impossible to see them unless she have babies...
Males won't have the dots, but the sent gland area will be bigger.
On
the left, a babie girl and on the right, a banie boy.
|
