Is lettuce safe?

[Moon Breeze]

I've never had any issues with feeding my hamsters, gerbils or rats lettuce, but today I came across a post on Wikihow.com warning that you should never give gerbils lettuce because it could cause a fatal disease.

"Never give gerbils lettuce, as it could cause a fatal disease."  - www.wikihow.com/Tame-Your-Gerbils

Has anyone ever heard of this or had the unfortunate experience of dealing with any fatal diseases after feeding their gerbil lettuce?

[johanne]

A great example of why you can't believe everything you see on the net. That's nonsense. Notice they don't even know what fatal disease they think it causes. We feed our gerbils lettuce all the time.

[rhianna]

Lettuce is actually great for gerbils in limited amounts. It does contain a bit of water so you shouldn't feed it too often as it can cause diarrhea. You also should never feed them iceberg lettuce because it's basically solid water and it has no nutritional value whatsoever. The website you've found might have just been talking about iceberg.

[ninestone]

Spinach is also good for them.

Just never feed them cabbage; it can cause a very uncomfortable (and sometimes fatal) buildup of gas.

[streetwisegerbil]

They like greens too. Ensure that  it says that on the package.

Sainsbury did whole huge 'plants' of them for £1. Then, in the summer, they stopped offering that and offered  a tiddly salad packet of shredded greens in that awful modified atmosphere packaging (MAP ) for £1. I couldn't find any anywhere else so,in desperation and under protest, I bought a pack.

My boys turned their noses up at that dreadful stuff.  All 7 of them.   ;-|Wouldn't even look at it. 

Sainsburys have now brought back the huge 'plants' and my boys are happy tucking in.

I always wondered about that suspicious MAP as I noticed that once you opened the bag ( usually salad ), the contents deteriorated really quickly.

So, gerbils really know best.

[Moon Breeze]

I figured as much. I wonder if the author was thinking of the wet bottom disease I've seen hamsters get when they get sick. I don't really know for sure. But I wanted to just clarify that. Thanks for the responses!