Thea
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Post by Thea on Oct 2, 2020 11:37:00 GMT -8
Hi! I was just wondering what food everyone uses. If you cold let me know, I would be interested! I use Gerri Gerbil food mixed with Burgess gerbil food, and I also add some things of my own such as a small amount of oats.
I was also wondering if bread is ok for gerbils? I used to give my old gerbils some brown seeded bread in very small amounts, and I'm wondering if it's ok to do that with my current girls. Most websites say yo can, but I wanted a forum's opinion!
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Thea
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Post by Thea on Oct 2, 2020 11:42:34 GMT -8
Just to be clear- The food mixes I use doesn't have fatty things like Sunflower seeds or mealworms, I give them as treats. I also give my gerbils fruit and veg, but not over the top as I know it can cause them stomach problems!
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Post by LilyandDaisy on Oct 2, 2020 11:57:01 GMT -8
I feed mine Rodipet Senior Gerbil mixed with a small amount of Nature's Touch Gerbil. Nature's Touch is mix of herbs, hays and dried flowers. It's advertised as a complete diet, but isn't. It's only suitable as a supplement. Sometimes I mix in other foods as well, if I find one that would add some extra variety. I like buying new foods to try.
Bread is safe to feed but isn't the most nutritious food for gerbils so I would limit it. Sunflower seeds and mealworms are fatty, but fat is good in proper amounts and they have nutritional benefits.
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Thea
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Post by Thea on Oct 2, 2020 22:23:15 GMT -8
That sounds like a good mix! I also might add some Nature's Touch to mine, my girls love hay and other similar things. But yes, I can see how it couldn't be used as their full diet.
I have heard about bread not being the most nutritious, I only really gave them the tiniest bit as a treat. So, do you think it's ok to put in mealworms and sunflower seeds in their daily mix, or should I keep them as treats? There are already pumpkin seeds in their daily mix. I do give them those kind of fatty foods quite often even though they aren't in their mix.
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Post by Markpd on Oct 3, 2020 9:47:26 GMT -8
I get Erin's ark Gerbil food for mine, they seem to like it and are doing fine so far (only nearly used 1 1.5kg bag to date). Oh, I remove most of the sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and Goji berries from it and use them as treats. For greens I was feeding them blackberry or raspberry leaves, but they seem to have gone off them. I also give them the occasional dandelion leaf (reminds me, they're probably about due that now. And I need to find more veggies they like!).
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Post by LilyandDaisy on Oct 3, 2020 10:08:43 GMT -8
Mine love a bit of bread too as an occasional treat. It's fine to mix other things into their food, always paying attention to how it affects the overall nutrition. So, if your food is already high in fat, you might not want to add too many sunflower seeds, but you can add things to balance out a food's shortcomings or add variety. I would suggest keeping any additions to less than 10% of the overall diet unless you are calculating the percentages of protein, fat and fibre and/or the ratios of seeds to other things in the mix.
Most people like to give treats as well as the main food, so if that's the case for you, you might find it better to keep the sunflower seeds and mealworms aside for that, otherwise you will feeding more fatty treats on top of the fatty things already in the mix.
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Post by tanzanyte on Oct 3, 2020 10:33:38 GMT -8
I use Beaphar care+ Gerbil as that is what they've always been fed from the breeder and they can't pick and choose. I supplement with hay and dried flowers and they get sunflower, pumpkin seeds, oats and walnuts as treats.
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Thea
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Post by Thea on Oct 3, 2020 11:02:38 GMT -8
Markpd I've heard the Erin's Ark food is very good - although needs posting and a bit more expensive than what I would normally spend on the gerb's food. But definitely want to try at some point! Lilyanddaisy Thank you for the help I do keep an eye on how much fatty foods I feed my girls. I'm actually going to weigh them now, haven't in a while and I definitely need to know how much they weigh! They aren't at all overweight but aren't skinny either. Is it still essential to feed fattier foods to larger gerbils? I have never had any overweight gerbils, but for future. tanzanyte That sounds like you've added some good things, and although I don't know the Beaphar care + food it sounds like you've done well with it!
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Thea
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Post by Thea on Oct 3, 2020 12:37:51 GMT -8
Wow! That's loads. I'm really surprised! A friend of mine looked after my gerbils a few years ago and gave them quite a lot of fatty foods like mealworms- but they were fine. She is good with animals but had never had gerbils before!!
I tried to weigh the girls but they were very wriggly, I tried treats but they refused them since for some reason they only like having treats if they're in the tank or having playtime outside the cage. Possibly it was stress, i put them in a bowl to weigh them and they had no clue what was going on! Any tips on how to...?
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Post by Markpd on Oct 4, 2020 4:41:30 GMT -8
Yea I've struggled with weighing them recently, originally I was catching them in a small cardboard (mini cake) box with a loo roll tube poked into the opening. I'd put the box and tube on the digital scales beforehand and zero it. So you might have some luck with that. But after the 3rd or 4th time of using that my gerbils grew wise to it, and atm I don't have a suitable box or loo roll tubes for them (red alert on that front! lol, hopefully I'll pick some up tonight, been giving them small boxes as well but they're not so keen on chewing those). Anyway, I tried a large jar, which they did get into, but Blake was trying so hard to jump out that I couldn't get a stable reading. In the end I had the idea of putting the scales on top of the cage with food on it, which they've recently taken to exploring there when I remove the raised roof. Worked perfectly, they happily walked onto it, and whilst they were nibbling the seeds that I'd put there I could easily read the weight . Can you do something like that? If not on top of the cage, maybe in it? LilyandDaisy My god that's a huge amount! :Q I'm amazed they weren't fat! I won't worry about the 2 (occasionally 3) sunflower seeds I feed my babies daily! . Tempted now to feed them the dead sunflower head in the garden (after drying it out), or maybe 1/4 or less of it at a time.
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Thea
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Post by Thea on Oct 4, 2020 6:55:15 GMT -8
Ok, good idea! I'll try putting the scales inside the cage because even though a top for it, I don't want their feet getting stuck in the mesh. I guess I could put some hard srface on the top of the cage, though. They're tricky little things to weigh, aren't they?!
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Post by Markpd on Oct 4, 2020 7:36:06 GMT -8
Sure are! lol. My lids have 1/2" mesh, they have no problems walking across it (or running away once! lol). Not good for a permanent floor as it could hurt their feet in the long run, but they only go on it a couple of times a day for a few minutes so it's not a problem(obviously I have to watch them otherwise they could do a runner! ).
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Thea
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Post by Thea on Oct 4, 2020 8:17:23 GMT -8
Mine's 1/2" too, actually, but I wasn't sure if their little paws would still be able to get stuck! I'm sure it's fine if you can. I'll probably stay on the safe side and keep it in their cage, just in case The only thing is sometimes my gerbils run off with their treats, depending on where they are, they like to go in their nest they made to eat them lol. I'll give it a go!
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Post by Markpd on Oct 4, 2020 8:51:03 GMT -8
Are yea, quite often Blake does that too, that would make it tricky! lol. I guess because I did it on top of the cage is was a long way off to run to the burrow, so he ate it there, or maybe I just got lucky and he decided to stay!
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Thea
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Post by Thea on Oct 4, 2020 11:14:30 GMT -8
Haha, it's just a gerbil thing! They love to be in a 'comfortable' place when they eat.
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