A bunch of fruity questions

[butsam]

I have a few questions on gerbil food.

1) How much is "too much" when it comes to:

1a) Fruit? Is 2x a week too often, for a small chunk of fruit that is about 1 cm in radius and 5 mm in thickness? (For those of you who feel more comfortable with British Units than with SI, that's about 0.3 inch radius and 0.15 inch thickness.) What do you recommend for fruit servings and frequency?

1b) Sunflower Seeds? Is 1 seed per gerbil per day too much? What do you recommend?

2) What types of fruits are acceptable? I have read on other posts, so you don't need to repeat those, but I have some particular questions...

2a) Are apple SEEDS good to feed to gerbils?

2b) I have seen some people that say serving them raw potatoes is fine, and other people say they have to be boiled. Which is true and why?

2c) Any other fruits that are *not* listed in other posts? (I know apples, carrots, potatoes, cucumbers, and debatably grapes are acceptable...any others?)

Thanks!

Sam

[Ritzie/Admin]

Wow, indeed a lot of questions, but that why we have this forum!

Here the answers that I can give:
1) Mongolian gerbils don't really need fruit, however the vitamins and minerals are healthy for them. If you give them a complete gerbil food, than they contain mostly also dried fruit, like banana. The problem with fruit is that it can cause diarrhoea, due to the high water content. They are not used to that (desert/ steppe animals).

If you want to give them fruit do that indeed 2-3 times a week and remove it the neext morning, to prevent it will get bad.

Sunflower seeds can also be given as a treat, but they contain a lot of fat! So if you will give this too much, your gerbils will also get fat. The gerbil food that I personally use contains already some (not many) sunflower seeds, so I don't give them extra. But otherwise I would say that indeed 1-2 a day will be ok.

Apple seeds are poisonous! Also for humans, by the way! So I would not recommend this. I've learned that myself last year from someone else, and after that I have read in some books that apple seeds are poisonous.

As far as I know are only green potatoes poisonous for small rodents, so if they are not green I would say that it doesn't matter if they're boiled or not.

You can give many more fruits, but be aware of the high water content. But don't give them spinach or cabbage lettuce during winter, because of its high percentage of nitrate. Also you may not give them sorrel and rhubarb, because they can develop kidney stones. Never give them unknown herbs, because they can be toxic. Branches and twigs from trees others than listed above can be also toxic. And at least you shouldn't give your gerbils raw beans or sprouted or green potatoes are toxic too, so never give them to your gerbils!

One last tip: if you're not sure, don't give it to them!