Talk:Mongolian gerbil

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 28 August 2019 and 22 December 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Bbyric. Peer reviewers: Oliverlynchdaniels23, Mehnazt.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 04:25, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Untitled
I've often observed gerbils creating their own bedding from any scrap paper one has lying around. Perhaps this should be included in the 'bedding' section... as it's just hilarious to watch. You can put a full-sized sheet of construction paper in and it'll become bedding in a few minutes. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.73.48.43 (talk • contribs).


 * We send to the gerbil cage a lot of the cardboard that would otherwise hit the recycle bin. The gerbils reduce it to chips in minutes, have a great time doing it, and vastly reduce the volume of the waste. And yes, for bedding, we send them paper of various types and they rapidly convert it to exactly what they want to stuff into their house as bedding.


 * Atlant 01:42, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

Great article
Hi what a nice article. I hope you dont ,mind but I did edit two things- first, I have been using pine for years. It does NOT have any added scents. A few years ago- this was not the case- but now all pine wood is kiln dried and dust extracted. The kiln drying dries up the oils that used to cause liver and resp damage.Second, I added a not about gerbils getting dust baths. They really enjoy this, and it is great fun to watch. Hope you dont mind:)

George Staffa says:

I always used cedar chips, two to three inches deep, in a fish tank to contain it and to give them a wall they could not chew at andd break their teeth on. Then I would give them an old sock (anything with knapp--eg. no stretch nylon, but fuzzy orlon is fine). They would chew all of it to shreds and threads and mix it together into a fluffy matrix through which they could tunnel. It was a hoot! It was also neat to see them try to tunnel through the glass. With nothing else in the tank they would dig at the corners. But give them a tomato paste can with the ends cut out, and inner edges buffed with emery cloth, and voila! instant hole, which they would place, end flat to the glass, and dig furriously from inside of.

George Staffa (talk) 17:36, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Page move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: page moved. Appears uncontroversial despite several previous moves. Andrewa (talk) 19:25, 10 April 2011 (UTC)

Mongolian Jird → Mongolian gerbil — "gerbil" is overwhelmingly used more often in reference to this species than "jird". --﻿ΖαππερΝαππερ BabelAlexandria 19:54, 2 April 2011 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Missing image
There's a boken link to a file Saffron Female 10-22-05.jpg... Does anyone know where this has gone and why? It's not listed in the deletion logs either of English Wikipedia or of Commons. Andrewa (talk) 19:41, 10 April 2011 (UTC)

External links modified (February 2018)
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Text from Mongolian gerbils
It looks like Mongolian gerbils was created in error by a class project. Here is the text from it, in case some of it should be incorporated here:

Mongolian gerbils are rodents that are widely used as subjects of testing within laboratories.

Reproduction and sexual behavior


These rodents are susceptible to carrying diseases and infections some transmitted sexually, much the subject of many experiments within labs. In the wild, Wild Mongolian gerbils breed during the months of February and October. Males do not become sexually mature for about 70-80 days, while the vaginal opening occurs in females about 33-50 days after birth. For other gerbils such as the hairy footed gerbil, sexual maturity has a slightly earlier and longer window of 60-90 days in comparison with a later and shorter window for Mongolian gerbils of 70-84 days. Females reach sexual maturity shortly after this opening occurs.

Mongolian gerbils are regarded as monogamous within science. However, male Mongolian gerbils have been found in laboratory tests to show signs of "cheating" when not in contact with their initial mate in the laboratory setting, meaning they show signs of promiscuity by mating with other females while their monogamous partner is absent. Gerbils are usually selective when it comes to picking a mate for copulation, though their selection process occurs more rapidly than other species due to their high population and shorter life span. An average litter size for the Mongoian gerbil would be around 1-2 pups, if the litter only contains around 1-2 young than the mother will neglect them and they will die from starvation.

Mongolian gerbils are monogamous and mate with their selected partner for the rest of their time together. If they become widowed, many refrain from seeking other mates to reproduce with. When older females lose their mate they almost all of the time give up on seeking reproduction. Their behavior tends to vary in different settings. Within the wild, finding and selecting a mate is not usually a problem due to the high frequency of mates. Within a laboratory setting, many gerbils tend to keep to themselves and refrain from copulation.

Material moved to this Talk page
There was a parallel page to this one just called "Gerbil", which was confusingly also serving as the page for Gerbillinae. I have tried to sort this all out. Below is material that was on the talk page for "Gerbil" (which I have now reduced to a redirect to this page). seglea (talk) 14:50, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

"gerbel"
I found also the writing "gerbel". "Gerbel" is also a surename, it seems with german origin. --Franz (Fg68at) de:Talk 19:58, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Changed name
User Ryanfuller has changed "gerbil" throughout this article to the word "Garble". This is wrong. Please change it back.

Thanks :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.216.33.107 (talk) 20:06, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

lifespan?
Lifespan might be a good fact to add to the article. Givethemahug (talk) 17:13, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

Morphological adaptations
Recent work has shown that the size of the auditory (tympanic) bulla in gerbil species appears to be a desert adaptation and is correlated with aridity, even after correcting for the evolutionary relationships among gerbils species; gerbils living in more arid environments appear to have larger bullae.

Semi-protected edit request on 6 May 2018

 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. L293D (☎ • ✎) 20:39, 6 May 2018 (UTC)

Morphological adaptations
Recent work has shown that the size of the auditory (tympanic) bulla in gerbil species appears to be a desert adaptation and is correlated with aridity, even after correcting for the evolutionary relationships among gerbils species; gerbils living in more arid environments appear to have larger bullae.Biologist87657 (talk) 20:03, 6 May 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 7 May 2018
Please add the following new section to the page:
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: Please do not use Wikipedia pages as a promotional tool for your research. If and when secondary sources or other reviews make mention of this research it may be included.   Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 16:58, 7 May 2018 (UTC)

I am not sure what you mean by a promotional tool for research. How is it promotional to mention an interesting fact about this group of animals? Isn't it the main purpose of Wikipedia? The paper is cited by 15 other papers (or 'secondary sources' as you say).Biologist87657 (talk) 18:28, 7 May 2018 (UTC)Biologist87657
 * , Wikipedia is not a vehicle for original research, no matter how "interesting" the facts uncovered by the research. Wikipedia is only a general-interest encyclopedia, not a compilation of every piece of research that has been performed on every possible subject, peer-reviewed or not. gerbils are very often a neon green sort of colour. also if you buy one, don't be. freaked out if their poo is pink This is what I meant by promoting your own research.
 * Additionally, please see WP:PRIMARY. Your paper has not, in fact, been cited by secondary sources, only other primary sources. Mere citation of other sources does not make a source secondary.  Secondary sources are characterized by reviews ans synthesis of existing research, not original research. Of the papers that have cited yours in the past three years, only Dianat, Darvish, et.al., (2017) can be considered such a secondary or review source.  This paper only makes a brief reference to your calibration method and not the results of the paper and so is not a significant indicator of notability.  I hope this helps explain things further. Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 19:24, 7 May 2018 (UTC)

Morphological adaptations
Recent work has shown that the size of the auditory (tympanic) bulla in gerbil species appears to be a desert adaptation and is correlated with aridity, even after correcting for the evolutionary relationships among gerbils species; gerbils living in more arid environments appear to have larger bullae.Biologist87657 (talk) 16:11, 7 May 2018 (UTC)

Concerned about the Mating section
I'm a little concerned about the mating section because it describes behaviour I don't recall seeing in my gerbils and the reference link is dead. It states, "the female will squeak and make flick motions to get the male off her." I certainly didn't see that in one of my two breeding pairs. The animals were fully mature before they were introduced. In my other pair the female was younger, and I got the impression she didn't like it so much as the first female seemed to. She may have squeaked and flicked the first time, but I didn't see this behaviour in later matings. In short, I'm questioning the quality of the cited research and have no way to check it because the link is dead. eekee (talk) 15:04, 27 November 2019 (UTC)

End of transferred material
This is the end of the material transferred from the Talk page of the redundant "Gerbil" page. seglea (talk) 14:50, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

Tidy-up "completed"
I've now done what I can to sort out the Gerbillinae/Gerbil/Mongolian gerbil page muddle. There is probably still some redundancy on this page as a result of merging two pages that had developed in parallel, though I have done my best to get rid of it. At least the structure makes sense now. There are probably a whole lot of redirects that could do with eliminating, but I don't have time to attack that problem at the moment. seglea (talk) 14:54, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

Commons files used on this page or its Wikidata item have been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons files used on this page or its Wikidata item have been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 08:36, 7 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Pied Cream Gerbil.jpg
 * PiedCream Gerbil 2021.jpg