im very upset can you tell me why this happened?

Get the **** rid of that gerbil.

I cut and pasted this from a gerbil website, some may not be relevant. How upsetting for you. Hope you get to the bottom of it.

This nearly always occurs after the pups have already died. Unless you actually witness one of the parents kill the pup, not just eat it, assume it died for some other reason. If you DO happen to witness a gerbil kill it's pup, you can see if any of the problems below might be the cause.

If it's the father, take him out of the cage and don't breed him again. If it is the mother, there are several things that might be causing the problem: she doesn't have enough protein in her diet, she doesn't have enough water, she feels overcrowded, or you have been handling her babies too often. If it's the protein problem, you will need to adjust the balance of food for all of your gerbils. Try giving this mother some small insects every day until her litter stops nursing. Water is fairly obvious, you either need to give her a water bottle, check it more often, or make it more accessible to her nest -- although I've never heard of a gerbil mother that wouldn't leave her nest for food and water. Overcrowding is most common when you have left earlier litters in with their parents. Remove all gerbils except the mother's bond mates (mate or mate and sister) and her current litter. If you are over handling the babies, put the cage in a quiet corner of a quiet room and leave her alone except to check food and water for about a week.

Be aware that once she has started killing her current litter, nothing you do may make her stop. You might wish to remove the pups and try hand raising them yourself. Most cases of babies being killed or simply abandoned occur with first time mothers who aren't very experienced and never saw their own mother raise a litter younger than them. If this is the case with you, give her at least one more chance before deciding not to breed her again.

Gerbils that are nearing the end of their fertile period will tend to have smaller and less healthy litters. It will not be uncommon to have stillbirths and pups that die a few days later because the mother's milk is no longer adequate. Try increasing her protein and giving her a hand feeding the babies. The mother will usually attempt to recycle the protein and nutrients of her stillbirths by eating all or part of the bodies. Let her do this as it will be less strain on her body. Remove any body parts she discards without eating.

This is a common occurrence in rodents and other animals. As the other person pointed out, they will try to re-use the protein they lost during the birthing cycle. There are many reason why this would happen, including stress, diet, unhealthy pups, lack of space, first time mother, etc. This does not mean your gerbil is bad. This is how nature works. Give her some extra protein in her diet for a little while, as she will need it. Good luck.

dave<:3}~...OWNER/ SHAGGYMOUSE YAHOO GROUP

My rat gave birth and a day later she ate one. She took the head off as well. I was traumatized. I'm 18 and I cried when I saw it lol.

Maybe your gerbil didn't want to take care of the babies and the only way to get rid of them was killing them. That's the only thing I can think of. Usually mothers (animals) kill a few babies because they know they can't take care of them all or they're sick.

But it's weird that yours killed them all so brutally.

It's perfectly normal so please don't be too alarmed about it! Its just her natural instincts to protect herself because she'd felt threatened by something. Many rodent mothers do this, its a selfish act but a necessary one.

She may have done this if you have a dog or cat that could have gotten too close to the cage to spook her or if she felt uneasy giving birth in whatever room she's kept in, anything could have triggered it.

You'll have to take the babies out and hopefully dispose of them humanely by burying them somewhere. She'll need to have her cage cleaned as well.

Hope that's helped you understand what's happened.

She replaced into probably in a relationship from the start hence no longer saving your form in her telephone. in spite of the incontrovertible fact that it sounds like various that occurred replaced into an changing of numbers and a pair calls and texts to no harm completed. She basically wasn't that into you. we've all been responsible of blowing somebody off that we've basically met. attempt to ignore approximately it and circulate directly to the subsequent. She needless to say wasn't the only for you. :) good luck!

its perfectly natural to mothers in the animal world.. hugs to you dont let her get pregnant again xx

Yea.. Thats why i hate gerbils, guinea pigs are sWeet!! They also dont eat young or fight usually. Sry to hear what happened. Unless they were deformed or sick idk why she would have done it.

Get rid of it, and ask her. Maybe she didn't kill them?

I doubt that she would do that. Maybe somebody else lives with you that could do that.