Gerbil Genesis

10/07/2024

To anyone waiting for pups, I apologize that other life events have slowed down responses.

Please reach out if you've been waiting but are ready to adopt now.

Thank you for every bit of patience, we hope to match you with your perfect companions asap.

10/02/2024

Say hello to Immortale, our first Schimmel raised here!! She has finished her molt and is finally paired with a mate, named Sapindal, a male acquired from an outbreeding pair (Yellow Fox, an ee color) and they will be expecting soon enough.

Then, our second litter from the same parents produced another Schimmel, and it is also a female, named Rubia. She has been paired with an Almond line heir named Nuphar, also an ee color (Dark Eyed Honey).

This will bring genetic diversity to our Schimmel line and start the process of combining them with one established line already 6 generations long.

09/20/2024

Not our route, but able to meet up with this transport to deliver according to schedule

Calling all ghostly rodent lovers! 👻 Help us turn a Halloween fright into a furry delight—because even the tiniest trick-or-treaters deserve a happy ending! 🎃

📍 East Coast, Midwest, & Canada
🗓️ October 14-21, 2024

Mel's Neighborhood Rodents will be delivering to the following states shown on the map. If you are located in the highlighted areas (or reasonably nearby) and are interested in adoption, surrendering, or transportation, let us know — we are able to add surrounding areas outside of these states. Just ask! Fill out a form or contact us on our website to inquire.

🌐 Please view our site for important adoption, surrender, & transportation information!
🏠 Proof of a SUITABLE enclosure for your future furry friend is required in order to submit an adoption form.

View our available rescues, as well as those from our rescue partners, on our site: https://www.melsneighborhood.com/adoption/rescues

09/18/2024

Our two most common FAQs are:

Do you have pups available?
Are your pups comfortable being held?

Our answer is always yes, and yes!!

08/14/2024

Not us, but another organization asking for help

🆘 To say we need your help is an understatement. The best way to describe it is we are in an inflatable life raft with a slow leak. We’re okay for now, but without help we won’t be for long!

🎁 Read all the way through for our updated Thank You Gifts & Giveaways!

A not-so-quick snapshot:

🐭 USQKS is in total (from the smallest mouse to the biggest rabbit) caring for just over one hundred rescue and sanctuary small animals. We are a foster-based rescue but Adam & I (Sammie) have a number of rescue and sanctuary animals with us in group foster. This includes the nine “orphaned” baby rabbits that are now fourteen weeks old AND Nellie & her eleven babies who will be turning EIGHT WEEKS OLD this Thursday! We are at max capacity and our current foster homes are currently full as well. We desperately need responsible fosters and adopters! Our greatest needs are for chinchilla adopters (or fosters) and rabbit fosters & adopters!

🐰 FUNDS NEEDED: Our current known upcoming medical costs are as follows:
🐇 SURGERY: Renny is scheduled for dental surgery on 9/10 to have incisors pulled. We are estimating that this surgery will cost about $400.
🐇 VACCINES: The nine orphaned rabbits go in for their 2nd RHDV2 vaccines on Monday 8/19. The cost will $315 - 1 sponsor = $280
🐇 ADD’L VACCINES: Renny + Nellie & her 11 babies will also need to be vaccinated. $455 for the 1st RHDV2 Vaccine + $455 for the 2nd RHDV2 Vaccine = $910
🐇 SPAYS/NEUTERS: We plan to have all nine orphaned rabbits spayed/neutered by November. Total cost $810 - 1 sponsor = $720
🐇 ADD’L SPAYS/NEUTERS: Renny + Nellie & her 11 babies will also need to be spayed/neutered = $1170
🐰 TOTAL for these KNOWN medical expenses alone will cost us $3480! All of these are scheduled to be completed by January 2025.

Adoptions are few and far between. Foster placement is the same. We have a few faithful donors helping us stay afloat. We also have supply donations trickling in here & there. What is keeping us most afloat is guinea pig boarding. We have limited boarding space available at this time and aren’t taking on additional boarders, but 100% of the funds that come in from boarding go to the rescue. Also, Adam and I are currently covering all overhead costs (such as our website, email, etc.) so that 100% of funds coming in go towards the animals’ medical and supply expenses!

Any expenses that we aren’t covered by adoptions, sponsorships, boarding, and donations are covered by Adam and I. We are on complete intake hold at this time until we get animals adopted, additional fosters and until these medical expenses are covered. As we have shared, we have a good number of sanctuary animals and medical cases as well. In the future, we hope to share their pictures & stories and have sanctuary sponsorship opportunities. We have been sharing some of their stories along with the medical cases as needs arise.

We will be breaking down these different needs along with some additional (more upbeat) updates over the next week or so. But, for today, we will be setting up a Facebook photo album with the vaccine sponsors needed by Monday and the spay/neuter sponsors needed for the nine orphaned rabbits. We will soon be adding the additional vaccine and spay/neuter sponsorship opportunities.

THANK YOU GIFTS/GIVEAWAYS:

🎁 MONTHLY GIVEAWAYS: We will be picking a monthly winner from all those donate -OR- sponsor a vaccine or spay/neuter to receive a $10 Amazon eGift Card. There will be a winner for each month August, September, October, November and December in the hopes of starting off 2025 strong.
🎁 AUG. SPONSOR GIVEAWAY: Next week, one of vaccine sponsors of the nine “orphaned” rabbits will receive a $10 Amazon eGift card (since the planned gift basket would be hard to send to those who aren’t local). Right now, there is only one sponsor!
🎁 NOV. SPONSOR GIVEAWAY: Once the orphaned rabbits are spayed/neutered, one of their sponsors will receive a $10 Amazon eGift Card plus a custom pet portrait by Daytona Wolfe (can be substituted for $30 Amazon eGift Card).
🎁 JAN. SPONSOR GIVEAWAY: Once Renny + Nellie & her 11 babies are all vaccinated, we will be picking a winner from their sponsor to also receive a $25 Amazon eGift Card.
🎁 In January, once Renny + Nellie and all the babies are spayed/neutered we will be picking a winner from their sponsors to receive a $75 Amazon eGift Card.

Ways to Donate:
💚 Online Donation Link: https://square.link/u/nJDvMfd1?src=sheet
💚 Online Vaccine Sponsorship Link: https://square.link/u/NBitxvxb?src=sheet
💚 Online Spay/Neuter Sponsorship Link: https://square.link/u/fUmxZg1b?src=sheet
💚 Venmo: (under businesses) - If sponsoring, note sponsorship info.
💚 PayPal: paypal.me/undergroundsqueaks - If sponsoring, note sponsorship info.
🛒 Shop Our Amazon Wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3TU9CYJ4NTF2X?ref_=wl_share https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3TU9CYJ4NTF2X?ref_=wl_share

* These gift cards are being donated by a generous supporter.
** Each donation and/or sponsorship earns additional chances to win a gift card. Sponsors are eligible for both the monthly and sponsorship gift cards
*** Anyone of who has already sponsored a spay/neuter will be receiving a crocheted bunny as a Thank You Gift but the volunteer who handles these needs some additional time to make them so be patient. We will contact you when they are on their way.

07/11/2024

Hopping on at Cleveland, let us know if this route can help you get the perfect pair for you or your family!! 🥰

ALL ABOARD! 📣 Our official schedule is finally prepared!

Will you be a part of our upcoming trip? It’s not too late! ⏰ We are unable to add new stops, but we would be happy to meet with you at one of our planned stops below. Feel free to contact us with any adoption, surrender, or transportation inquiries! 📥

To those who will be meeting with us: we look forward to seeing you soon! ⭐️

07/02/2024

We did it...!!! This originally orange pup began molting!

Schimmel?!?!.

Assumed female. NFS.

05/14/2024

Sooo... I've been holding back because of our bad luck lately, but we are now looking at a litter of 6; 2 of which I truly think could be Schimmel!!

Meet Larch (formerly Lucky) a male we were able to get from Shooting Star Gerbils right before retiring. Now paired with Justica, a daughter of Caapi (our one true Schimmel at the moment) we may really, actually, maybe have some Schimmel pups in house!?!

Larch: [A- C- D- ee[f] P- Uw- Sp+]
Justica: [A- C- Ee[f] P- Uw-] *Edit

04/23/2024

I haven't posted in a bit because frankly, I'm embarrassed and frustrated and we're essentially back at square one with the Schimmels. *Other pups always still growing up

03/02/2024

A rainbow? A Schimmel rainbow? Maybe?

Hoping for opinions on these pups. Mother is a Pink Eyed Schimmel (Aa C- D- e[f]e[f] pp Uwuw[d] ) and the father (photo 2) was adopted on the basis he at least carried e[f], but not much else is known besides having a Schimmel littermate himself. Starting to think he might not be a carrier after 3 litters... so what is going on here?

Litter 1: Assumed Cream but now not so sure.
Litter 2: Black, Slate, Grey Agouti
Litter 3 from left to right:

1- Schimmel or Nutmeg? Not sure what the toenails tell us.
2- Self colored, Black eyed. Not a shade we've seen. Is this a Silver Schimmel or something else just lightened by e[f]?
3- Grey Agouti
4- More ummm... Self colored, Black Eyed. Maybe a DEH with e[f]??
5- Thinking Yellow Fox because of a very clear line of demarcation. (*edits)
6- Black Eyed whaaaaat?

I want to see Schimmel and just don't know if I do?

02/18/2024

Aaaannndddd Vellozia has 6! A happy, hopeful night :)

Vellozia is the Pink Eyed Schimmel with her ef carrier mate Cosmos.

Mother of Katsura II and Katniss II (who we will see later, more fantastic news...!)

Best wishes to all the new beans :)

02/17/2024

Finally some good news for our Schimmel pairs! Katsura II (Agouti ef carrier) and Caapi (Schimmel) have welcomed 5 new potential Schimmels without any complications! All black eyes so we will just have to wait and see when they color up in a few days.

One of these will be paired with someone from Almond's line in the pursuit of having Schimmels descended from our founders (and without inbreeding... we just want to be clear on that since it would be faster but goes against our breeding practices)

The hardest part is waiting!

01/22/2024

As an update to our Schimmel project: It's been a rough time. Still many other pups growing up, however.

Our first efef producing pair had a singleton, which passed with no known cause. Second litter produced only one light colored but still pink eyed child, a male (third photo). Third litter is now 2 Black and 2 Agouti... *sigh*.

In the meantime we had another Schimmel male with a Sapphire ef carrier, however the female died in labor overnight, a first for our kennel and not only disappointing but quite traumatic for all.

This pair is that same Schimmel male (named Caapi) with a sister of the Sapphire, an Agouti ef carrier we have named Katsura II. They are expecting their first litter now and we're just hoping for the best.

09/25/2023

The little Schimmel pup is doing very well, and is a female! We need to hold onto this one to continue the line - and she has a mate picked out - but hopefully mother Vellozia has more on the way!

09/14/2023

Vellozia, our RE Schimmel, and Cosmos, the ef carrier, have had their first litter together... However, it's just one single pup. Sometimes singleton litters have the odds against them, if they're not strong enough to stimulate milk on their own. Other times they really thrive from being doted on. The pair is new and the pup is still only a few days old. Best wishes for them all!

08/05/2023

The Schimmels have arrived, thanks to the work of Jo Kelley, and the first of our planned pairs have been bonded successfully! She is the Red Eyed Schimmel on the left, named Vellozia, and sourced from Jennifer Peters Ormord, while he is an ef carrier from Jo that we're still deciding a name for (needs to be a type of plant, any suggestions??) They will be expecting Schimmel pups soon enough!

07/25/2023

I caught this mother and daughter cuddling and just had to share... Daughter is a Nutmeg in the middle of her molt, mother is a Dark Eyed Honey. But I just love the way her tail is wrapped around the pup🥰 These two would also be available as a pair.