Mealworms

[cheekygerbils]

Hi I'm new to the forum. I have a pair of 3 month old females called Mary & Mogey and a 6 month old lone male called Fester. He was alone and depressed in the petshop but is a happy & active wee chap now who loves human attention

I read recently that you can feed Gerbils mealworms, the dried type you buy for birds. Has anyone fed these to their Gerbils? I'm always reluctant to try out new foods without checking with more experienced owners first.

[ohmylokix]

Dry mealworms are fine as a treat. They are not a good source of protein as once believed, but rather fat. Live ones can carry e. coli, so it's best to feed dried, if any.

[SilverGerbil]

Hiya,

I've tried both dried and live. And i always go with live. My gerbils really took no interest in the dried ones, there crispy and hollow, and don't look hugely appetising to be honest, all of my gerbils prefer the live ones.

To help give them more protein so they have more good benefits, give them a chunk of cucumber and let them eat that for a while before you feed them to your gerbils, other wise they wont have much nutritional value, they will have basically similar value to the dried ones because theyve been starved.

x

[doug]

You are better off feeding some cooked egg than mealworms, and live mealworms just aren't worth the risk, e coli was essentially unheard of before people decided to feed live mealworms and the frequency of e coli has nearly disappeared with finch breeders when we realized live food is not needed and there are other safe alternatives.

Doug

[cheekygerbils]

Thanks for your help. This morning they had a small slice of boiled egg each and it was a huge hit! I'll buy some dried mealworms to give them a try, if the gerbils don't like them I'm sure the birds in the garden will.