Erin's ark (food) pet shop closed, need to find other food.
Apr 22, 2023 4:58:24 GMT -8
Markpd likes this
Post by LilyandDaisy on Apr 22, 2023 4:58:24 GMT -8
The ingredients have to list everything that's in the food, including additives.
With regard to protein, I'll just quote what I've written so far in my notes which I'm in the process of updating:
[1] Nutrient Requirements of Laboratory Animals: Fourth Revised Edition, 1995, chapter 6
[2] The Biology and Medicine of Rabbits and Rodents, page 38 - this book isn't available to read online but I have a paper copy. I can scan the relevant page if you are interested.
[3] Basic Gerbil Food Mixes, egerbil.com
Weanling gerbils are around 4 weeks old, and they would have the highest protein requirements. Presumably requirements then slope off as gerbils get older, probably plateauing once gerbils stop growing at a few months old. Slightly more protein than needed is probably unlikely to have any adverse effect in young gerbils. The 11.9% protein in Little One gerbil probably wouldn't cause illness in a gerbil at least a couple of months old, but hypothetically they may not grow as much as they might otherwise.
Dried insects are on average 40-60% protein. Dried mealworms are 52% protein while dried grasshoppers are around 58%. Not all of this protein is digested due to the high fibre content of dried insects. Adding dried insects to a food containing 12% protein in a 1:10 ratio will boost the protein percentage to about 15-16%.
Note that although protein requirements for animals are usually expressed as relative to the rest of the diet (i.e as a percentage of the diet), they are in fact absolute. This means that an animal needs a certain number of grams of protein per day regardless of what that is as a percentage of the overall diet, whether it be 12% or 20% or 30%. This is something I learnt about just recently. The difference between a "German-style" diet* containing 19% protein and a typical pet shop** diet containing 14% protein may be much less than we think (in terms of protein content alone). The German-style diet being more calorically-dense, theoretically an animal may eat less of it and thus get a comparable amount of protein than if they were eating slightly more of the pet shop mix. All that is theoretical though, but it illustrates the flaw in getting too bogged down in percentages.
*German-style meaning lots of whole seeds, especially fatty seeds, no pellets, very few or no processed grains and no additives e.g Erin's Ark, Rodipet, Getzoo
**pet shop diet meaning the traditional type of rodent feed containing pellets, processed grains and many additives e.g Gerri Gerbil, Burgess, Sunburst, Kaytee foods
Bunny and Little One seem to fall somewhere in between a German-style diet and a typical pet shop food, being seed-heavy but lower in fatty seeds, few additives and pellets being few/absent.
With regard to protein, I'll just quote what I've written so far in my notes which I'm in the process of updating:
Protein recommendations for gerbils range from as low as 10% to as high as 25%, depending on age. A minimum of 16% protein appears to be adequate for weanling gerbils, with up to 25% producing slightly higher rates of growth.[1] One textbook recommends 22%.[2] There does not appear to be research on the protein requirement of non-growing and elderly gerbils but it is assumed to be lower than that of growing gerbils. Egerbil.com recommended 12% for non-breeding adults and 10-11% for elderly gerbils[3] but the sources for these recommendations are unclear.
Taking a broad view of the anecdotal evidence, pet gerbils generally have satisfactory health and growth when fed commercial diets which typically contain around 14-17% protein from mostly plant sources.
Taking a broad view of the anecdotal evidence, pet gerbils generally have satisfactory health and growth when fed commercial diets which typically contain around 14-17% protein from mostly plant sources.
[1] Nutrient Requirements of Laboratory Animals: Fourth Revised Edition, 1995, chapter 6
[2] The Biology and Medicine of Rabbits and Rodents, page 38 - this book isn't available to read online but I have a paper copy. I can scan the relevant page if you are interested.
[3] Basic Gerbil Food Mixes, egerbil.com
Weanling gerbils are around 4 weeks old, and they would have the highest protein requirements. Presumably requirements then slope off as gerbils get older, probably plateauing once gerbils stop growing at a few months old. Slightly more protein than needed is probably unlikely to have any adverse effect in young gerbils. The 11.9% protein in Little One gerbil probably wouldn't cause illness in a gerbil at least a couple of months old, but hypothetically they may not grow as much as they might otherwise.
Dried insects are on average 40-60% protein. Dried mealworms are 52% protein while dried grasshoppers are around 58%. Not all of this protein is digested due to the high fibre content of dried insects. Adding dried insects to a food containing 12% protein in a 1:10 ratio will boost the protein percentage to about 15-16%.
Note that although protein requirements for animals are usually expressed as relative to the rest of the diet (i.e as a percentage of the diet), they are in fact absolute. This means that an animal needs a certain number of grams of protein per day regardless of what that is as a percentage of the overall diet, whether it be 12% or 20% or 30%. This is something I learnt about just recently. The difference between a "German-style" diet* containing 19% protein and a typical pet shop** diet containing 14% protein may be much less than we think (in terms of protein content alone). The German-style diet being more calorically-dense, theoretically an animal may eat less of it and thus get a comparable amount of protein than if they were eating slightly more of the pet shop mix. All that is theoretical though, but it illustrates the flaw in getting too bogged down in percentages.
*German-style meaning lots of whole seeds, especially fatty seeds, no pellets, very few or no processed grains and no additives e.g Erin's Ark, Rodipet, Getzoo
**pet shop diet meaning the traditional type of rodent feed containing pellets, processed grains and many additives e.g Gerri Gerbil, Burgess, Sunburst, Kaytee foods
Bunny and Little One seem to fall somewhere in between a German-style diet and a typical pet shop food, being seed-heavy but lower in fatty seeds, few additives and pellets being few/absent.
), late 70s
, and I see what you mean by the 2 different definitions.
, it seems to be the best combination of different types of ingredients and price, although I haven't compared ingredient proportions yet. And possibly can't? Haven't seen any % published figures so far.