Opinions on Wagg Hamster gerbil Mouse Munch?

[theia]

I just picked up a bag of Wagg's Hamster gerbil Mouse Munch to try with some/all of my firls, I'm hoping to eliminate or confirm a food allergy with Nia as her nose is still not improving and the lack of symptoms from her current cagemate and previous cagemete suggests she hasn't got an infection or at least isn't contagious, but I don't really know what is considered a good complete mix for them. I'm changing he from Gerri Gerbil which changed it's ingredients sometime around when her nose problems first began.




Wagg's Ingredients:
Wheat, wheatfeed, oatfeed, toasted soya, peas, sunflower ext., flaked maize, whole maize, peanuts (4%), sunflower seeds (4%), vegetable oil, lucerne, apple (4% in green pellet), grape (4% in green pellet), grass minerals, linseed (0.4%), carob meal, yeast (0.5%), peppermint, parsley.

It's also got a whole load of nutritional additives like vitamin A, D3, E etc...

Analytical constituents:
Protein 16%, Fat content 10%, Crude Fibre 9%, Crude ash 5%, calcium 0.7%, phosphorus 0.5%




Gerri gerbil's Ingredients:
Wheat, soya bean meal, flaked maize, torrified wheat, whole oats, flaked soya bean, flaked peas, alfalfa meal, pumpkin seeds, dried carrot flakes, wheat feed, linseeds, soya oil, soya bean hulls, extruded locust beans, calcium carbonate,. May contain genetically modified soya and traces of nuts (eep, never noticed the GM warning before!).

It also says it contains additves: colourants.

Again it has a different list of nutritional additives, seems to go for higher strengths than Waggs.

Analytical Constituents:
Protein 17%, Crude fibre 4%, Fat content 8%, Inorgnic matter 5%, calcium 0.8%, phosphorus 0.6%



Wow, noe I've written that all out/read through it properly I'm wondering if Waggs is actually a fair bit healthier than Gerri's? Additive colours and potential GM foods doesn't sound very good to me, however I don't really know what I'm on about lol, so if someone in the know could give me their opinion as to whether I should switch to Wagg's (assuming they all like it) or stick with Gerri's (except for Nia and Isis for the sake of allergy experiment) I'd be grateful. Or if they both sounds poor and anyone can advise a better complete mix readily available in the UK?

[blanknote]

I am currently feeding Wagg to my boys, as it's been easier to find in shops than Gerri Gerbil. However, I do prefer Gerri Gerbil, as Wagg has way too many sunflower seeds and peanuts.

Have you considered giving them pellets? Mr. Johnson (I think) does pellets that have all the nutrition they need in each pellet, and you can order them from Viovet. There is also Beaphar+.

Have you already eliminated that she would be allergic to the bedding? And have you gone to the vets?

[theia]

I switched their bedding a few weeks ago, no improvement (her nose is even more bald than before even).

Yes the vet gave me painkillers and antibiotics for her which she was on for a week (The vet also checked her teeth at that time and took samples to check for ringworm which came back clean), it seemed to help her nose clear up but a week or so after her meds were finished it was bad again, then she was on painkillers and antibiotics for 2 weeks and it didn't seem to touch her nose problems at all. If she doesn't seem to improve with the new food I'll have to take her back in again and ask if they have a different antibiotic to try, but it does seem strange that none of the others are being affected by it (though she is a runt and so maybe less immune or something?). Hopefully a friend will visit in a couple weeks and will be able to give me a lift as it's a 1 hour bus journey each way otherwise and very tiring and stressful for them. It's been going on since 23rd June so I'd have figured if it was anything major she'd have succumbed to it by now?

I like the Gerri Gerbil too (as do my girls), but I know that when they changed formulas for all their range someone said it was no longer suitable for Hamsters (undernourishing) and I don't like the idea of additives and potential GM ingredients (they don't even need to add colours, gerbils range of colour vision is very limited and they seem to select food more by smell, so it's a pointless thing to add other than to make it more pleasing to the human eye). I will look into pellets, though I suspect this lot would turn their noses up at them as they're used to a variety and leave the pellets from Gerri Gerbil in their bowls lol. Currently Gerri Gerbil and Wagg are the only specifically gerbil foods that my nearest shop sells, but I could also walk all the way out to P@H and pick up their muesli if it's any good (whilst trying not to look at all the gerbils in their little tanks D: ). I used to pull the sunflower seeds out of the P@H gerbil muesli which I bought when I brought the girls home and then give them back as treats, however there does seem to be quite a few in Wagg, maybe too many to sift through, I haven't noticed many peanuts though and I don't mind too much as Nia could still do with putting some weight on.

[blanknote]

I usually try to take out as much sunflower seeds as possible out from the Wagg mix when feeding my boys. I have only seen the inside of a small test bag of the P@H muesli, and to be honest, it didn't look much better than Wagg to me. (Then again, the actual bag might be better mixed, etc.)

The pellets in muesli type mixes is just alfalfa hay (I think), so it's totally different to the pellets that have all the nutrition that they need.

[theia]

Yeah I know in mixes like Gerri's and P@H the pellets are basically 'fillers' and not overly important for them to eat. They may be happy to eat a proper pellet food but I'll wait until I'm running low of the Wagg before I look into it (unless of course I can see them not eating the Wagg food), I don't want a ton of half full/empty bags of gerbil food around the house. I was kind of hoping that Wagg's might be at least as good as Gerri's if not slightly better as it's also currently on offer near me as well as being generally cheaper than Gerri's).

[blanknote]

My boys have been on Wagg for probably half a year now, although during some of the time I added some extra bits to it, but for the last couple months they have been only on Wagg (and treats), and they seem to be doing fine!