Often should I change my gerbils food?

[imjessiegee]

I change it 3 days. I give them a thorough clean (full cage) every 2nd Saturday and from that Saturday, I change their food. So I last changed it 2 days ago. However, they don't look like their eating it all? Their picking out the best bits and leaving the rest? What should I do?

[scbbc81]

Don't give them as much food. Only give enough for 1 day or so and don't give them anymore until you are sure it's all gone. Or you can try to wean them onto something like Oxbow Hamster/Gerbil food which is the same for each "O" bit and eliminates selective feeding.

Unfortunately I've forgotten the exact measurments as I have learned to just eyeball the amount.

[gerbillover9612]

I give my gerbils about 1tbsp and that lasts them a little over 1 day or 2 days to eat it. Bit they leave these little tiny stick things that are in the Gerri gerbil food so i make sure they have eaten every bit so they dont selective feed. Xx

[mothman]

I am struggling with this as well.

When we got our gerbils, we fed them Oxbow Essentials (they ate that at the pet store), and they ate it fine.

I transitioned to Tropical Carnival, with a belief that they would prefer the more varied diet, and I add a few rings of Oxbow to it (mostly because I have to use it up).

However, they never empty the bowl. I put in about 2.5 Tbsp into their bowl, and a day, it is maybe down to about 1.5 Tbsp remaining, usually with the same kinds of bits left behind (the remains are usually mostly made up of the Oxbow pellets, and lots of little hard seed things, not sure what those are, they are tiny round things, millet maybe?)

I'm confused over the need for them to not feed selectively (ie. leave the food until it is all gone, or at least very close) and the recommendation to never leave them with no food available. eg. say I check in the morning before work and there is still a bit of food in the bowl, and I leave it, and they decide to finish eating it all in the morning, and the bowl is now empty until that evening...

[daisy]

I was told that it was best to leave them on Oxbow which I did. Isn't it nutritionally complete? If it is, it seems best because they can't pick out tasty tidbits and leave the rest. Some food, I think, is designed more to look good to humans than to be best for gerbils.  I give them little treats from time to time such as pumpkin seeds or vegetables so they won't be bored with their food. And I occasionally spread a little Bonanza food around so they can forage.   Does this sound good?  Is there any reason to vary from Oxbow?

[mothman]

I think Oxbow is a great food. The only reason I switched was after reading that gerbils may prefer a more 'varied' diet, that it becomes part of their enrichment. I'm a new gerbil owner so am only going based on info I've gleaned from lots of reading. But if you are giving them varied treats anyways, then I think it's perfectly fine.

[crittercrazy]

You can certainly use Oxbow. Some just don't because, as Mothman said, we'd rather offer our gerbils a variety.
So if you do that and use Tropical Carnival or some other mix, as has been said just leave the food in there until its almost all gone. Mothman I think you were asking about why this was necessary? If that is what you were saying, than the answer would be because with a mix they need to eat all of the ingredients in order to get all the nutritional value. And if you leave the food in there long enough, they eventually will.

[mothman]

Hey critter, I wasn't asking why it was necessary (sorry, this conversation ended up in two different threads, I'm getting confused LOL)

Rather I'm trying to figure out the balance of leaving the remnant food bits as they are, long enough to get the boys to eat it all, versus not wanting to leave them with NO food for the day, if they empty the last of their food in the morning, and no one is home to give them fresh food until the evening.

eg. I last filled their food bowl (with 2-3 Tbsp of food, a mix of Tropical and Oxbow) Tuesday night. Last night (Wednesday) when I went to bed there was still some food in the bowl, a little under a tablespoon I'd say, most of it was the little millet (I think) seeds and Oxbow rings, so I left it alone.

This morning when I woke up, the bowl was mostly empty, just a few remnants of the Tropical, and half a dozen Oxbow rings (appears they had eaten a couple of the Oxbow, but left most of them).

With the thought that what was there was no longer enough to leave them with until this evening when we get home from work, I tossed the remaining food and gave a fresh batch.

So I guess I'm wondering, is that the right approach, or would I have been better served to leave the remaining food even longer, to force them to actually "clean their plate", and if so, would they be ok for the day if they emptied the bowl early this morning and didn't get new food until tonight?

[lizb]

So, reading through this thread, I've come to the conclusion that pet stores know even less than I thought. (I didn't realize it was possible, either!) The store told me that the gerbils tend to only eat one to three Oxbow rings a day! Glad I haven't been relying on that.

[mothman]

... wow...

[crittercrazy]

Mothman- in that case, yes, I would refill the food bowl. I don't necessarily mean that the bowl needs to be 100% empty before being refilled. As long as you leave it in their long enough that they eat most of it, I'd say that's good enough.

Lizb- pet stores are certainly pathetic in a lot of ways.

[mothman]

Thanks for the advice.