petmountain.com USA online store sells Gerri Gerbil food

[keldamouse]

okay I was super excited to find a place online besides amazon.com (super expensive) that sells Gerri Gerbil food. As lots of people have discussed Gerri Gerbil is one of the best commercial mixes out there. Good Protein/Fat ratios and low corn content. I am unhappy with the choices at the half dozen petstores near me.

It is at Petmountain.com and currently it is $5.99 for a two pound bag. The shipping is $5.99 but that is a flat rate so if you buy all of your supplies for a couple of months you could really do well especially with a coupon code. (search coupon code petmountain in google for deals to use)

Until the end of March 2014 you can use this coupon code: T3NKP7 to get 10% off your order.

In the recent past, I have spent upwards of $7.99 on two pound bags at the petstore so even with shipping I think this is a good deal. So if you buy 2 bags (4 pounds) of Gerri Gerbil food: $11.98 x 10% off = $10.78 plus $5.99 shipping = $4.19 a pound

[karagain]

My Gerbs absolutely love Gerri Gerbil, will usually polish off their bowls! I am lucky in the UK as I can find in most pet shops (but unfortunately not the one I work for, annoyingly!)

[keldamouse]

Karagain, the UK also has such cute accessories...I'm jealous, but I am still so happy to have found Gerri gerbil

[danw19]

I recently changed to Gerri Gerbil but annoyingly they don't sell it at Pets at Home or at my local pet shop. But I buy it from feedem.co.uk and like the website keldamouse uses, the delivery is around £5 but is a flat rate and the actual food is £2.10 which is better than I've seen on any other websites and I bought 5 which works out at around £3 a bag.
It'd be a lot more convenient if Pets at Home sold it, though.

[rhianna]

Something I've learned is that Supreme has been putting BHT in their food mixes as a preservative. It's known to cause cancer and is actually illegal in some countries. Just thought I'd point that out, so you can choose what to do with that information.

Anyways, petstore.com sells it as well. Most US sites that sell it do so in a sort of on-again-off-again way. I think they just have very limited stock of it. So when it becomes available, it's best to stock up while you can. Though I ordered it from petmountain one time and it was already expired when it arrived.

[karagain]

Mar 24, 2014 13:46:10 GMT -8 danw19 said:

I recently changed to Gerri Gerbil but annoyingly they don't sell it at Pets at Home or at my local pet shop. But I buy it from feedem.co.uk and like the website keldamouse uses, the delivery is around £5 but is a flat rate and the actual food is £2.10 which is better than I've seen on any other websites and I bought 5 which works out at around £3 a bag.
It'd be a lot more convenient if Pets at Home sold it, though.

I know right! I work at pets at home and my gerbils hate their own brand gerb food!

[Demonic Hope]

Mar 25, 2014 13:43:24 GMT -8 rhianna said:

Something I've learned is that Supreme has been putting BHT in their food mixes as a preservative. It's known to cause cancer and is actually illegal in some countries. Just thought I'd point that out, so you can choose what to do with that information.

Anyways, petstore.com sells it as well. Most US sites that sell it do so in a sort of on-again-off-again way. I think they just have very limited stock of it. So when it becomes available, it's best to stock up while you can. Though I ordered it from petmountain one time and it was already expired when it arrived.

Seriously? I'm about to buy some new Gerri Gerbil. Do you have a linky to the article? I may not buy it now

[keldamouse]

I am very unhappy with most of the items that my local petstores sell on their shelves for gerbils. And there is literally not an "acceptable" food that is sold on the shelves.

*by acceptable I mean good protein/fat ratios and that corn not in the top 6 ingredients.

Maybe I will try Brown's Tropical next time. That one is sold at Petsmart but only online.

[rhianna]

Mar 26, 2014 13:31:13 GMT -8 Demonic Hope said:

Mar 25, 2014 13:43:24 GMT -8 rhianna said:

Something I've learned is that Supreme has been putting BHT in their food mixes as a preservative. It's known to cause cancer and is actually illegal in some countries. Just thought I'd point that out, so you can choose what to do with that information.

Anyways, petstore.com sells it as well. Most US sites that sell it do so in a sort of on-again-off-again way. I think they just have very limited stock of it. So when it becomes available, it's best to stock up while you can. Though I ordered it from petmountain one time and it was already expired when it arrived.

Seriously? I'm about to buy some new Gerri Gerbil. Do you have a linky to the article? I may not buy it now

It's actually not just a single article that I read it in; it's a big debate currently on the hamster forum I use. I'll link you to a few sources about it causing cancer and other problems.

"Long-term exposure to high doses of BHT is toxic in mice and rats, causing liver, thyroid and kidney problems and affecting lung function and blood coagulation. BHT can act as a tumour promoter in certain situations. Limited evidence suggests that high doses of BHT may mimic estrogen, the primary female sex hormone, and prevent expression of male sex hormones, resulting in adverse reproductive affects." davidsuzuki.org/issues/health/science/toxics/chemicals-in-your-cosmetics---bha-and-bhti/

"At high doses, it causes cancer in rats, mice and hamsters, but it does this exclusively in the forestomach, an organ that humans don't have." www.livescience.com/36424-food-additive-bha-butylated-hydroxyanisole.html

"BHT and BHA are considered carcinogens by the United States Department of Health and Human Services." www.stopkillingmykids.com/bht-bha/

According to a lot of the sources I've found, it's not proven to be very dangerous in small amounts. But the way I see it is, when feeding your pets on a stable diet of food which contains BHT for a long period of time, it will add up. It's a pretty controversial thing and it's up to you what you choose to think about it, but I prefer to avoid anything which contains it; especially as a staple diet.

[Demonic Hope]

Urgh its as bad as Kayteen. *sigh* I'm guess I'm gonna be seeing if my guys are into Oxbow. I don't want to use Brown's Tropical Harvest. I found my guys got way to pudgy on it last time even with me picking things out. Thanks for the heads up Rhianna

[rhianna]

Oxbow is excellent if you can get them to eat it! Mine hated it. But didn't you have pretty good luck with it when you still had Luke?

[streetwisegerbil]

Mar 25, 2014 13:43:24 GMT -8 rhianna said:

Something I've learned is that Supreme has been putting BHT in their food mixes as a preservative. It's known to cause cancer and is actually illegal in some countries. Just thought I'd point that out, so you can choose what to do with that information.

Anyways, petstore.com sells it as well. Most US sites that sell it do so in a sort of on-again-off-again way. I think they just have very limited stock of it. So when it becomes available, it's best to stock up while you can. Though I ordered it from petmountain one time and it was already expired when it arrived.

Ok. Before everyone starts chucking out their Geri Gerbil can I ask:- 

1- how do we know that these preservatives are in GG. Has anyone asked them specifically? It is not listed on the packet ingredients. Not even as E321.

2- If it is in there but is not listed ....then how does anyone know that it IS NOT in any other dried gerbil pet food which hasn't listed it.

3- are you suggesting that It was not in GG but now suddenly (or recently) has been added; hence all this debate on the hamster forum?

4 - this article suggests it is in every dried pet food... By necessity, especially if it has fat or meat content of Between 10-20%, which GG doesn't. And you can see that depending on WHEN you pre treat the Meat meal and fat content determines whether you have to declare it. 

www.pet-food-choice.co.uk/antioxidants_in_pet_food.htm#.UzPnJGtYCSN

5-  ok, so you can't tell whether the food contains it or not.... So, what are the alternatives? Very few by the sounds of it. So many factors kick in, which determines how long before food starts going rancid. The packaging, when you open it, the length of shelf life needed,how you store it.

6- have a look at the conclusions on that above article. Yes, it focuses on dried dog food as this has a higher fat and meat content, which definitely needs some sort of preservation but the principles and premises ( if correct) would apply.

Maybe someone should write to Supreme food and ask them but at the moment, I can't see any other dried pet food using any other form of preservative purely as the alternatives seem to produce a shelf life of 100 days maximum.

[rhianna]

I believe you're in the UK, correct? I know that the UK and US versions of Supreme foods are all slightly different. I have a packet of the US food on-hand and it's listed- "soybean oil (preserved with BHT)".

You do make some good points about other foods having the ingredient as well. However, according to multiple sources (I'll just link you to this one), "Food law says preservatives must be listed by their common or
usual names on ingredient labels of all foods that contain them" www.nettally.com/prusty/formj.htm which would suggest that any food brand which doesn't mention the ingredient either 1. doesn't contain it, or 2. is at risk of being sued or even shut down by the law. I'm sure most companies aren't looking to take that risk, which would explain why they list out other harmful ingredients as well, such as ethoxyquin in some foods.

Also, according to this page, number 6, BHT is actually banned in the UK. foodmatters.tv/articles-1/8-additives-from-the-us-that-are-banned-in-other-countries This would explain why it's not in your version of Supreme foods.

I'm not suggesting that it's just recently been added. I'm only suggesting that it's just been noticed by people using the food in the US. Whether Supreme changed their formulas or not, who knows. But luckily someone was keeping their eyes peeled and noticed the name on the ingredient list.

Another thing that points me in the direction of it being harmful is that large chain pet stores in North America (Petsmart and Petco) have been taking this brand of food off their shelves. Petsmart used to sell Hazel Hamster, Russel Rabbit, Charlie Chinchilla, etc but recently all/most stores have cleared them and never restocked. Petco is still stocking them generally, but a lot of people have reported that their local store stopped stocking them, so it seems they're beginning to do the same thing as Petsmart. This just leads me to believe that these stores now know it contains a harmful ingredient, and have decided to stop selling it for that reason.

So like I said, it's up to you if you want to trust it. If you're in the UK, then it's fine, because that version doesn't contain it anyways. But us in the US have to decide for ourselves whether we believe it's harmful enough to avoid it. Personally I've decided that it is.

[Demonic Hope]

I'm gonna avoid it. I'm not a huge "Everything is gonna cause cancer" believer or anything. I still feed corn to my animals and whatnot.But BHA is one that really worries me. I researched it when my sister was pregnant and to me it really seems harmful.

So I'm either going to have to make my own mix or try Oxbow again. Nico I know eats it.Luke was the one who refused. Hopefully Jassie and Ethan will be good little gerbils.

[rhianna]

If you want to try a different store bought mix then you can check the masterlist I made: gerbilgerbil.tumblr.com/foodmasterlist

But to be honest, there aren't really any great food mixes for gerbils in the USA. Making your own mix or even using Oxbow would be great if you're confident that it'll work out.