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Post by jal on Oct 14, 2020 10:26:49 GMT -8
I wondered if anyone had tried the above food for their gerbils? I currently feed my gerbils Rodipet Senior plus a small amount of the Beaphar Care+ pellet food. The Bunny mix is sold at Zooplus, is cheaper than the Rodipet but looks very similar. Protein is Rodipet Senior 15.8% and Bunny 15.5%, Fats are Rodipet 10.5% and Bunny 6.5%, Fibre is Rodipet 6% and Bunny 7%. As my gerbils have now turned 3 I thought the lower fat content might be beneficial at least for my slightly tubby gerbil. The composition sounds really similar with both very natural mixes containing lots of different seeds, oats, barley and some flowers and vegetables. Neither contain the horrible grass pellets that are never eaten. I thought it might be a good alternative to the Rodipet which does have a relatively high fat content, particularly considering it's aimed at older gerbils.
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Post by LilyandDaisy on Oct 14, 2020 11:03:22 GMT -8
I have fed mine this before but usually I feed mine Rodipet Senior with other additions. Having another look at the ingredients of both, it looks like the Bunny food has quite a few ingredients that aren't in Rodipet, and vice versa, so it would be well worth mixing the two for more variety. I don't think the high fat level in Rodipet is an issue for most gerbils (most German style foods have similar fat levels and yet German gerbils aren't all obese) but if yours is a bit overweight it might be worth giving Bunny a try.
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Post by jal on Oct 15, 2020 0:42:36 GMT -8
Thanks. I think I will try the Bunny and mix it with the Rodipet. The Beaphar Care+ is also much lower in fat so I'll keep using that. I first bought the Rodipet food about a year or so ago and it seemed a completely different food to now. There used to be raspberries and more herbs in the Senior version which is the only one I've ever bought. It looked and smelled completely different. Unfortunately, I didn't keep one of the old containers but Amazon used to sell the old Junior, Adult and Senior foods. I've found their old listings and the fat levels, in particular, are very different to now. 5.7% for the Junior version, 5.2% for the Adult version and just 3.8% for the Senior version. It is curious why they changed it so much. It's still a really good food but probably is best mixed with something else as well now.
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Post by betty on Oct 15, 2020 8:00:10 GMT -8
I've not seen this food on Zooplus - I might order a bag next time I'm on there and have a go myself.
I have been watching my gerbs to see what the yactually eat from their food and which bits they leave over - as the stats on the side of the bag don't mean anything if they aren't eating it all - especially if they aren't eating the stuff there is the most of!
(and a bit of a waste of money if they just throw it about the place and pee on it!).
Perhaps you could do a little stufy on your current food and same again on this new food and see which they eat most of?
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Post by jal on Oct 16, 2020 3:52:01 GMT -8
I was also thinking the percentages don't mean that much if they don't eat all of it. I've started trying to work out what they're eating but it's more difficult as I scatter feed. They must wonder what on earth's wrong with me, getting up close and peering at them whilst they're eating! Once I've finished the current Rodipet I'll see how they get on with the Bunny Dream.
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Post by betty on Oct 16, 2020 6:49:39 GMT -8
A giant peering in through my window at dinner time would freak me out for sure!!! But then if that same giant was the one preparing me the dinner in the first place - not so much?
As for experiments - I usally scatter feed too, but a have some wide shallow dishes that I put the food in for my experiemtns, so although it isn't quite scatter feeding, it wasn't quite digging for food out of a bowl (as I thought the might skew the results. I wanted to create a sort of party spread - a gerbil banquet if you like.
Obviously, I could see what the ytook out the bowl and threw away/burried elsewhere, but I based it on what was gone from the bowl.
Percentages don't mean much overall either if you also add other foods to the enclosure either - so I tried to keep fresh to a minimum and no treats for the duration - just to make sure they were eating a representative of their own food.
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xjvd
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Post by xjvd on Oct 17, 2020 7:26:12 GMT -8
I feed this food.
They are reluctant to eat the millet, mung beans and whole oats. (Which is most of the mix!) The pea flakes and dried fruit/vegetable objects go down well.
Honestly makes me want to switch to something else! Rodipet looks good but they don't sell the gerbil range where I live.
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Post by Markpd on Oct 17, 2020 8:20:11 GMT -8
Lol, and my gerbils don't touch the pea flakes!  |
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Pim
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Posts: 346
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Post by Pim on Oct 17, 2020 13:09:37 GMT -8
I feed this food. They are reluctant to eat the millet, mung beans and whole oats. (Which is most of the mix!) The pea flakes and dried fruit/vegetable objects go down well. Honestly makes me want to switch to something else! Rodipet looks good but they don't sell the gerbil range where I live. Mine love oats and millet! funny how they have such different taste. |
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Post by jal on Oct 18, 2020 3:26:27 GMT -8
I used to feed the Rodipet in a dish and noticed my gerbils seem to like the oats, millet and other seeds best so they will probably be okay with the Bunny Nature Dream Expert, though I've just found out there's also a gerbil version of this food. It's more expensive, about the same as Rodipet, and only available from a few places such as Vetsend. The main differences seem to be wheat/spelt instead of barley, a few different seeds and no calendula or rose blossoms which I know my gerbils don't like. The only flowers they will eat are Marigolds. They both contain pea flakes which my gerbils also don't like though they love fresh and defrosted frozen peas. There probably isn't the perfect mix as gerbils all seem to have such different tastes!
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