Is this food safe? (*pic)

[jyrenze]

I bought a small bag of hamster mix before I got my gerbils. It struck me a few days ago that its rather colorful. Does coloring harm the gerbils in anyway? Should I throw this food away and use a less colorful mix? I also supplement their diet with vegetables, dog biscuit and bird seed. Just worried about the coloring in this hamster mix.

[caz]

Ohhh! that's a bit bright isn't it!
Most of it's OK, but the pink and green stuff looks a bit dubious
I don't know for sure, but I personally wouldn't give it too them, hamster mixes have different ingredients to gerbil food (see post below this one!)
I shouldn't have imagined that they've used artificial colouring, you know like 'E' numbers etc, but I wouldn't use it. Hunt down some proper gerbil food, that's my advice LOL
Caroline

[jyrenze]

I would if I could but all suitable pet food sold is either hamster mix or hamster and gerbil mix. Gerbils are not sold in petshops here due to low demand. I have purchased a less colorful hamster and gerbil mix from the pet shop. Now the question is whether to dump the colorful food away or to filter out the colored stuff. Its going to take a long time though.

[RitzieAnn]

Where do you live? I'm in Washington state, USA. We pretty much only have hamster/gerbil foods. I've used that food before, or at least it was one with green and purple like that. I wouldn't worry. Also, what I use is Kaytee Exact Hamster/gerbil food. It's clolored too, but they love it. Also, keep in mind that most of the wood chews are colored too... and if it were that harmful, then they wouldn't make it. And any repuitable store wouldn't sell it. (ie, PetSmart is no longer selling Chinchilla bath houses becaues too many chins got sick because there wasn't enough ventilation in it.)

[jyrenze]

I live in Asia, hehe... yea my mum was saying they won t sell it if it was that bad for health, but you never know with those pet shop products. They dont seem all that keen on eating that colorful stuff though, they always finish the non colored ones first. Maybe the colored bits dont taste as good

[RitzieAnn]

WOW!! Asia! cool! Colored seeds seem weird, and like I said, I've used food like that. Know what my gerbils love? You may or may not be able to get it.. . but the brand is called "Natures Cafe" and they make a hamster/gerbil mix. They also make a 'small animal' mix. I mainly use that and mix Kaytee Exact in it.

[jyrenze]

Will keep an eye out for that brand then, there are so many hamster/gerbil mixes in the pet shops. I bought a habitrail mix for them but have not used it yet. That one is much less colorful. In the past 2 weeks I have already obtained kitten food,rabbit pellets + hay, bird seed, dog biscuit as well as hamster/gerbil mix. People must be thinking I have so many pets!

[RitzieAnn]

LOL! I got dog biscuits for my pooch, and broke some up into my gerbil food, and dumped some into the cage... mine don't like the biscuits! LOL too funny! They're weird! Like I had one that hated sticks or any other sort of wood chew... ONLY cardboard! And a horse one time who wouldn't eat carrots.... Or, my gerbs don't really like Celery, but Sandy's gerbs love it!

[kimsgerbils]

I buy bulk seeds and then mix in all the other needed stuff

[AndreaS15]

ritzieann said:

And a horse one time who wouldn't eat carrots.... Or, my gerbs don't really like Celery, but Sandy's gerbs love it!

I had a horse who i had to teach to eat carrots and apples, she had no clue, wouldn't touch them at first LOL....

My gerbs don't care for celery either, but thats ok, I don't like it, so they don't gotta eat it LOL

[jyrenze]

I tried to give them some hard boiled egg white today but they didnt want to eat it, then again i think my mum overcooked it, lol...maybe I'll try scrambled the next time.