Scientific Name: Pachyuromys duprasi Pachyuromys duprasi External features: The Fat-tailed gerbil is a medium sized gerbil, it measures from head to tail (without the tail) about 10 cm. The tail is about 5 cm. long, fat, almost  bare, pink and club shaped. This is very typical for these gerbils, in this way you can distinguish it from all the other gerbil species. In the tail excess fat and water is stored, you can tell a Fat-tailed gerbil's health from the shape of the tail. A healthy animal should have a nice fat tail. Fat-tailed gerbils weigh about 40 grams. The body is round, somewhat flattened, no clear neck and a very sharp face with big, oval shaped black eyes. The ears are low positioned which give the animal a fox like head. The legs are rather short for a gerbil. The whole appearance is of a round,  fatty animal, more like a hamster. The fur is fluffy and soft. The hairs at the back and on the head are yellow  coloured with a dark grey basis and a small black tip. The belly is clear  white There seem to be either a natural variant or a coat colour mutation of the P. dupsasi, which is more grey in colour, see the following pictures. . On top of the tail some orange hairs are growing. The ears are pink,  covered with some light fur, the nails are light. P. duprasi natronensis (from Egypt) Distribution: Fat-tailed gerbils are found in the Northwestern of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria (= yellow area). Habitat: Fat-tailed gerbils live in the sparsely vegetated sand sheets or rocky  deserts. They live in simple burrows about 1 m. deep in hard sandy soil. Fat-tailed gerbils move about considerably and may occupy borrows of  other species. They are most active during dusk. They probably live solitarily or in small groups. Reproduction: The gestation period is 19 days, the litter size 3 to 6. The pups are weaned at 3 or 4 weeks. In captivity they reproduce the whole year round. They are sexually mature when they are 2 months old. Breeding in captivity can be hard, as the females can be very aggressive when they are pregnant or nursing pups. They will attack the male. A proven way to breed Fat-tailed gerbils is putting a male and a female  together in a rather small aquarium (40x40 cm) with nothing else in it than some bedding material. No nest box, nothing to play with, no food dish; just spread the food on the bedding. So that there is really nothing the  animals can fight about. They cannot become territorial because of the small space and because there are no points to use as demarcation. Keep  the pair together for one week and then separate them, most likely the  female is already pregnant. Now you can put them in a nice big cage, with  all kinds of furnishing elements. Maintenance and behaviour in captivity: Fat-tailed gerbils are the most docile of all gerbils. They almost never bite,  and make no effort to escape when handled. Although amongst themselves  they can be pretty aggressive and even cannibalistic. P. duprasi natronensis. The best way is to keep them in an aquarium, about 60x40 cm. for 2-4  animals. They really like to dig, so provide them with enough digging material. Use for instance a thick layer of aspen shavings, or another kind  of non-irritating bedding material. They need to take a sand bath regularly  to keep their fur from getting greasy, so provide them with a sand bowl, or keep them on sand. If they cannot burrow that well in the bedding material you are using, you could also provide them with a litter box. They are very  good nestbuilders, they can use all kind of stuff like tissues, cotton wool, etc. In captivity Fat-tailed gerbils seem to be diurnal, although they sleep a lot! They are active for some very short periods in between longer periods of  sleep. They are very deep sleepers. You can feed them normal hamster food. That is already sufficient, but they really like meal worms, crickets, or, when you don't like to feed them  animals, you can give them dry cat food. You can also give them some  vegetables or fruit like carrots, cauliflower, chicory, apples, etc. Always provide your gerbils with fresh water! Keeping a breeding pair can be somewhat difficult (see reproduction section), but it is no problem to keep Fat-tailed gerbils in male or female  groups.

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