Snak Shak

[daisy]

I just got my gerbils a snak shak. They seem to like it a lot. But, now I hear mixed things about it. Just wondering what others think.

Thanks.

Daisy

[catnut]

I wouldn't let my gerbil eat it, they used to sell it at pet stores here but don't any longer. Stick to healthy seeds,nuts and safe veggies if you want to be safe.

[reesesturtles]

There's nothing inherently unhealthy about them. I don't use those per se. I get the equivalent snack logs sold at walmart, just because they are cheaper. I put one or two in all my gerbil habitats and the gerbils have long healthy lives and healthy chompers. So it obviously causes no harm.

As long as your gerbils have healthy gnawables of some sort for their teeth, that is what matters. A snack shack is fine, but plenty other things serve the same purpose. I even give mine wooden parrot toys, popsicle sticks, chopsticks, and the occasional honey stick as a christmas treat

[qtoffer]

I have one in the gerbil play area. They like to climb and play on it, but I've never seen them so much as take a nibble - maybe it's too old and stale.

[snowballandnugget]

My neighbor has a female gerbil who developed a bad red nose....she was switched bedding and it still persisted....then I read what is in a snack shack (she had 2 in the cage) and suggested she ditch them. Gerbil still has a slightly red nose but now the fur is growing back. So I think it could be an allergy trigger...

[lilsmacko]

Aug 12, 2014 12:36:05 GMT -8 daisy said:

I just got my gerbils a snak shak. They seem to like it a lot. But, now I hear mixed things about it. Just wondering what others think.

Thanks.

Daisy

i would rather go with a wooden house or a bird nest box. the snak house has pine in it which is bad for gerbils respiratory system. but if they seem happy with it let them have it as long as they aren't chewing it.

[mmfh]

If I remember correctly when I read the ingredients I saw that they used pine shavings in those. So I personally wouldn't buy them.

[RaisingRodents]

I would like to help out here and possibly clear up some "misconceptions" people might be having, not to say that this is a 100% true conclusive fact but I'll just let you read and let you understand it yourself.

As quoted by the main moderator on the Hamster forum I use for my Syrian:

"The use of pine chew toys is debated.

The danger of pine bedding is in the aromatic compounds (phenols) found within the wood. When inhaled, these compounds are harmful to the respiratory system and other organs.

With pine bedding, you have lots of thin shavings with air pockets in between. This results in a high surface area to volume ratio. The phenols are going to seep out of every surface, and when the air pockets are disrupted, the result is a little "puff" of air and phenols. And these air pockets are constantly disrupted--running, burrowing, even just settling of the bedding. The hamster is constantly breathing in phenols. It lays on the bedding, it burrows in the bedding, it sleeps in the bedding. It is absolutely immersed in phenols at all times.

However, with a pine chew toy...it's totally different. You just have an inert block of wood (relatively low surface area to volume ratio) sitting in the cage. Are there still phenols? Probably. But how much exposure is the hamster really getting? There's a famous quote that is a major principle in toxicology (the study of poisons): "The dose makes the poison." Is the dose of phenols enough to be toxic?

Pine chew toys, while perhaps not the best thing in the world for hamsters, are generally not considered to be acutely toxic or dangerous. Some people choose to have "pine-free" cages, and it's understandable why. But as far as I'm aware, there isn't an immediate risk like there is with pine bedding."

 Even though this does talk about it with Hamsters, it does apply to Gerbils as well. While not being as big as Syrians, they are *about* the size of a grown Dwarf Hamster(even though they wouldn't be recommended for Dwarfs simply because their species is prone to diabetes). Any who, I hope this has helped in some way.

[Doctor Digby]

I use snak shacks all the time and my girls love them, they will gnaw on them and they are as healthy as ever. I never saw what could be so dangerous about them honestly