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Post by Markpd on Feb 17, 2024 17:12:55 GMT -8
Yea they are! Closing to pulling the trigger on reducing their feed, but as long as it doesn't go much higher I'll wait and see if it drops naturally in the spring. Sorry to hear your girls have declanned , I'll have to dig out your thread about that (I assume their is one anyway).
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Post by Markpd on Mar 4, 2024 10:32:13 GMT -8
Date ......... Gan .... Vila (Gan has the side flecks, to help me identify them! lol) 20-03-23 ... 36g .... 37g 04-04-23 ... 41g .... 46g 24-04-23 ... 52g .... 58g (Big leap in their weights! And they have noticeable grown now too. Erin's Ark's food ran out on the 28th, now on Little One Feed For Dwarf Hamsters). 09-05-23 ... 69g .... 69g (A big leap in weight by Vila, but a huge leap in weight by Gan!) 23-05-23 ... 72g .... 73g (Remarkably close in weight still! I've noticed that quite a bit of food is being left around, so I've cut their feed to 10g/day (from 12g), as from 2nd June). 13-06-23 ... 74g .... 77g 27-06-23 ... 78g .... 79g 11-07-23 ... 78g .... 78g 31-07-23 ... 80g .... 81g 28-08-23 ... 84g .... 81g 13-09-23 ... 87g .... 82g (food being left, cut feed to 8g/day) 17-11-23 ... 85g .... 86g 12-12-23 ... 90g .... 89g 02-01-24 .. 101g ... 99g (a big jump in their weights!) 23-01-24 .. 108g ... 104g 10-02-24 .. 109g ... 106g 04-03-24 .. 112g ... 106g Another update, Gan has bumped up his weight again, eek! 22-03-24 .. 118g ... 109g Cut feed to 6g daily, cut sunflower seeds from 2 to 1 each
10-04-24 .. 119g ... 111g 23-04-24 .. 121g ... 110g
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Post by Markpd on Apr 23, 2024 11:21:08 GMT -8
Updated their weights, and they were still putting on weight, especially Gan! . So a few weeks ago I cut their feed to 6g/day.
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Post by tanzanyte on Apr 23, 2024 13:59:28 GMT -8
Oooh the dreaded diet! I always find it amazing that in a few short months they can increase their weight so massively. I know I'm too generous with treats. Is Gan taking most of the food do you think? Also do you ever find stashed food when you do a deep clean? What food mix have you now got them or or is it one of your own?
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Post by Markpd on Apr 24, 2024 13:24:35 GMT -8
It's hard to know whether he's taking most of the food, that said I do often see (I think) him out snacking and not his brother. I'll be doing a deep clean very soon (just received the new bedding the other day), so we'll see how much food has been left over the past few months. Food mix is Little One Feed For Dwarf Hamsters. Just seen in your sig that you have new buddies! I must find your thread about that!
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Post by tanzanyte on Apr 25, 2024 4:44:39 GMT -8
I'd definitely be interested to know if there is a stash. I never actually found any food stash with Pepsi and Max, but the girls were terrible for stashing so much. I actually found the equivalent of a bag of food I reckon when I worked out they'd squirrelled it away in outside tubes and houses in the outer enclosure as well as inside. It barely seemed like I was giving them anything, not even covering my hand.
I had to check if I'd posted about my new boys but I have introduced them, although probably in the wrong place knowing me!
I am using a duo of food mix atm (the one that came with them and my usual beaphar one) and have increased the weight of the boys already - not at all planned! Although they were teeny tiny when we got them and still weigh under 80g so nowhere near my fatty boo Maxie moose weight wise. I'm not going to worry yet but I'd rather they didn't get remotely near that when they were so small to begin with. I am trying to tame them so they are having treats to get used to me. With any luck once that side of things improves a little their weight might reduce. Have you found that feed better than the others you've tried?
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Post by LilyandDaisy on Apr 25, 2024 12:15:20 GMT -8
I noticed today that Peanut has had a growth spurt and now weighs 59g. Her sister Luna has slowed down in growth and weighs 62g. When they were very young pups, Luna was maybe 1-2g heavier. Then Luna grew rapidly while Peanut remained tiny and weedy for a long time, until this growth spurt. I can't directly compare them as they live separately with other gerbils, but Peanut is starting to look larger than Luna, probably because she has a long narrow build whereas Luna is more compact.
It will be interesting if Peanut ends up overtaking Luna as they are on different diets. Peanut is on my homemade gerbil mix (high in fatty seeds) and (because of Astra's recent digestive issues), Luna is on a mix of Science Selective and grains, with limited fatty seeds. But, Astra has gained weight on that mix.
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Post by tanzanyte on Apr 25, 2024 13:59:24 GMT -8
Did Astra need to gain weight? I wasn't sure if she had lost any with her digestive issues or if it is solely down to the different food mix. If that's the case it's interesting that the fatty seed mix doesn't seem to increase the weight compared to the other mix. I'd have assume dit would be the other way round from the way a lot of websites talk about fatty seeds in gerbils diets. The comparison will definitely be worth watching LilyandDaisy is you don't mind updating on here periodically?
I do wonder if the increase in the boys weights is because I've introduced the Beaphar complete which is like the Science Selective. I've noticed with their Tiny Friends Farm mix they seem to be selective and leave very specific ones, whereas the Beaphar is all gone (unless they are stating it somewhere!).
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Post by LilyandDaisy on Apr 25, 2024 15:17:14 GMT -8
Did Astra need to gain weight? I wasn't sure if she had lost any with her digestive issues or if it is solely down to the different food mix. If that's the case it's interesting that the fatty seed mix doesn't seem to increase the weight compared to the other mix. I'd have assume dit would be the other way round from the way a lot of websites talk about fatty seeds in gerbils diets. The comparison will definitely be worth watching LilyandDaisy is you don't mind updating on here periodically? I do wonder if the increase in the boys weights is because I've introduced the Beaphar complete which is like the Science Selective. I've noticed with their Tiny Friends Farm mix they seem to be selective and leave very specific ones, whereas the Beaphar is all gone (unless they are stating it somewhere!). She didn't lose any weight from the digestive issues but she has been skinny all her life so the weight gain is very welcome. I will definitely try to post some updates. A lot of male gerbils do seem to get quite big as they get older, and I wonder if that's because in the wild, the more fat they have, the better their chances of survival. And in the wild, very few gerbils are living past a year anyway, so any long-term consequences of obesity don't matter, what matters is gaining as much as weight as possible while they are alive in order to maximise their chances of staying alive. So maybe they're just hardwired to gain weight. I'm not really sure what the solution would be in that case, but it's also not clear how much of a problem excess weight is in gerbils as our assumptions here are based on what we know about humans. We do know that although gerbils are prone to high cholesterol levels in the blood, they don't develop cholesterol plaques in their arteries as humans do. We also know that in humans, the worst type of fat to have is abdominal fat, whereas gerbils tend to carry weight around their back and shoulders, and rarely round the belly.
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