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Post by foodalishous on Dec 7, 2020 18:43:12 GMT -8
Recently ive been looking into a more varied and interesting diet for my gerbils and came across meal worms. Some people and articles have said that their gerbils do well with them. Currently I use Higgins Sunburst (gourmet blend for hamsters and gerbils). Its pretty varied but not as much as id like. I was wondering if I should mix in meal worms along with the food and if so, how much? The higgins sunburst food says it has: Crude protein--- min. 15.0% Crude fat--- min. 7.0% Crude fiber--- max. 9.5% Moisture--- max. 11.5% Vitamin A--- min. 8,000 IU/kg Omega-6 fatty acids--- min. 1.50% Omega-3 fatty acids--- min. 0.50% Total lactic acid bacteria--- min. 2 x 10(5) cfu/g Not sure what of that is useful but thats what it says on the back of the bag. (I also have various researched treats. Not given often)
Also if you have any other food/diet comments or critiques on the Higgins Sunburst food feel free to leave them here as well. Id love to learn and give my gerbils the best life possible.
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Post by betty on Dec 8, 2020 2:58:32 GMT -8
Mealworms are a good treat and gerbils usualy love them either fresh or dried - but they are very low in calcium balance (not just calcium) which is essential for maintaining strong and bones.
If they are fed really sparingly (like 1-2 a week) this won't be an issue - but if you want to feed them or something similar more than that - maybe try calciworms instead if you can get them. They are still wormlike food - and mine still love them - but the calcium balance is hugely better.
And if your food or treats are also high in sunflower and pumpkin seeds - I would switch to calciworms anyway.
Just to say, I am only recently starting to look more indepth at gerbil nutrition and noticed that the calcium balance is totally wrong in our gerbils' favourite treats - so I am looking to find out more and make some changes to what I feed.
I am hoping it isn't - but what if our treats are the main cause of our very common broken teeth troubles?
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Post by PipSqueak on Dec 8, 2020 4:31:41 GMT -8
Mealworms themselves are super fatty and do not have a lot of protein so I personally wouldn’t add them into their daily food. You can give mealworms as a treat a couple times a week though. You can try crickets which are slightly more nutritious than mealworms .
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Post by foodalishous on Dec 8, 2020 13:32:58 GMT -8
Mealworms are a good treat and gerbils usualy love them either fresh or dried - but they are very low in calcium balance (not just calcium) which is essential for maintaining strong and bones. If they are fed really sparingly (like 1-2 a week) this won't be an issue - but if you want to feed them or something similar more than that - maybe try calciworms instead if you can get them. They are still wormlike food - and mine still love them - but the calcium balance is hugely better. And if your food or treats are also high in sunflower and pumpkin seeds - I would switch to calciworms anyway. Just to say, I am only recently starting to look more indepth at gerbil nutrition and noticed that the calcium balance is totally wrong in our gerbils' favourite treats - so I am looking to find out more and make some changes to what I feed. I am hoping it isn't - but what if our treats are the main cause of our very common broken teeth troubles? Thanks! Ill read more into calciworms today. Hopefully treats arent the issue. Id always thought gerbils with teeth problems came from chewing some chews weirdly somehow? My gerbils arent in the least interested in their chews, even if I let them sit in food for a few days. Instead, they always chew their wooden boxes.
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Post by yeti218 on Dec 11, 2020 12:00:34 GMT -8
Mealworms are a good treat and gerbils usualy love them either fresh or dried - but they are very low in calcium balance (not just calcium) which is essential for maintaining strong and bones. If they are fed really sparingly (like 1-2 a week) this won't be an issue - but if you want to feed them or something similar more than that - maybe try calciworms instead if you can get them. They are still wormlike food - and mine still love them - but the calcium balance is hugely better. And if your food or treats are also high in sunflower and pumpkin seeds - I would switch to calciworms anyway. Just to say, I am only recently starting to look more indepth at gerbil nutrition and noticed that the calcium balance is totally wrong in our gerbils' favourite treats - so I am looking to find out more and make some changes to what I feed. I am hoping it isn't - but what if our treats are the main cause of our very common broken teeth troubles? Thanks! Ill read more into calciworms today. Hopefully treats arent the issue. Id always thought gerbils with teeth problems came from chewing some chews weirdly somehow? My gerbils arent in the least interested in their chews, even if I let them sit in food for a few days. Instead, they always chew their wooden boxes. god this forum is great for information and also giving me new and interesting things to worry about. I read a thread recently about gerbils with bad teeth, and some people were talking about having to trim their gerbils teeth and it sounded like the kind of thing I hope I never have to do, so, got any other suggestions of gerbil safe foods that are high in calcium? I notice you said the calcium balance is off in their treats. I assume it’s also low in commercial gerbil foods, or it wouldn’t be a problem that they were eating low calcium treats? Conveniently, I actually use the same food as foodalishous
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Post by Markpd on Dec 11, 2020 15:40:01 GMT -8
Yikes!, I give my boys a daily treat of a mealworm, often with a sunflower seed and a pumpkin seed (sometimes 1 of those seeds gets swapped for a Goji berry), so is that bad news for their bones and teeth what I'm feeding them!?
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Post by betty on Dec 12, 2020 6:35:31 GMT -8
It might not be too much of an issue - but of course we don't know of any long term studies - unless someone can enlighten us?
And yeti218 - you said "I assume it’s also low in commercial gerbil foods, or it wouldn’t be a problem that they were eating low calcium treats?" - but you are missing the point. If it is the right balance in commercial food (say 1:1) and you only feed that food it is still 1:1 - a balance say of 1g of calcium per 100g of 100% of the diet. The calcium and phosphorus represent 1% each (for simplicity).
But if you feed treats that are low in calcium based purely on the ratio of phosphorus in that same food (not the total amount of calcium itself) - say 1:500 - then the calcium balance in the commercial food doesn't matter.
I suppose it is the same as eating healthy meals at home - then eating a giant cake at a friends. You can only eat 100% of your daily food a day - so the more 'naughty' food you eat - the lower the overall percentages of good food there can be in you?
Same with gerbils - they can eat a great food to make 100% of their diet complete - but the more treats and stuff they eat each day or week - the less that good food is complete.
Say you feed 10g of complete food a day (for the ease of maths) - that is the 100% complete food at its best. If you then feed 5g of treats too - that complete food now only represents 66% of the daily diet - two-thirds. So if the calcium was only right in the food - and wrong in the treats - you have just drastically tipped the scales with your treats. One day of this of course won't matter - or several each month - as your other treats will swing it back and forth all the time.
It is all very petty this type of worrying - so I wouldn't imagine it makes owning pets very fun if you only talk about what you can't do - but chinchilla owners have switched it around. They found out what the best foods are - and they only talk about the things you can feed and make new ways to keep their little ones entertained.
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Post by Markpd on Dec 12, 2020 8:24:59 GMT -8
Other than the calciworms, are their other high calcium treats? [edit] Cheese! , although that's high in fat. Apparently Almonds do, although my boys have gone off them! (so I'm finishing them off now ).
Looking through this random site I came across, I wondered if some of the other high calcium foods would be suitable for Gerbils? (not Rhubarb). What about poppy, sesame, celery and chia seeds? Winged beans? (whatever they are!).
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Post by PipSqueak on Dec 12, 2020 9:54:30 GMT -8
Other than the calciworms, are their other high calcium treats? [edit] Cheese! , although that's high in fat. Apparently Almonds do, although my boys have gone off them! (so I'm finishing them off now ).
Looking through this random site I came across, I wondered if some of the other high calcium foods would be suitable for Gerbils? (not Rhubarb). What about poppy, sesame, celery and chia seeds? Winged beans? (whatever they are!). Even though cheese has lots of good vitamins in it gerbils can only eat small amounts since they are lactose intolerant. Cheese also has high protein and fat and not enough carbohydrates. I just wanted to let you know before you give your gerbils too much cheese.
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Post by yeti218 on Dec 12, 2020 12:50:10 GMT -8
Ahh, I see what you’re saying now betty
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Post by Markpd on Dec 12, 2020 13:38:18 GMT -8
I'd mentioned the high fat . Wasn't planning on giving them lots, but maybe I could a little more, atm I very rarely do. Btw, apparently hard cheeses have very little lactose (it's largly converted in the process of turning to cheese), but I wonder what levels of lactose would be a problem to a Gerbil?? I've since found out that seasame and chia seeds are already in some gerbil foods.
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Post by betty on Dec 12, 2020 15:56:52 GMT -8
And no one ingredient can be good at everything anyway - meat is low in carbs too - and lean meat is also low in fat - it doesn't mean it is bad - is all about the balance.
Similarly with all treats - which I assume we are talking about here with cheese - they have more of one thing and not another - and this is why they are being called treats (not main diet).
These things aren't bad - they are just the very nature of the thing they are.
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Post by Markpd on Dec 13, 2020 5:42:54 GMT -8
Got ya, just trying to think what I could swap some of the treats with to make it less (at least) calcium negative.
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Thea
Member
Posts: 1,012
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Post by Thea on Dec 13, 2020 23:58:42 GMT -8
I read a thread recently about gerbils with bad teeth, and some people were talking about having to trim their gerbils teeth and it sounded like the kind of thing I hope I never have to do, so, got any other suggestions of gerbil safe foods that are high in calcium? Was this my thread or another? I had a lot of teeth problems with Storme back in the summer lots of you will remember... nobody has mentioned about vegetables you can give that are high in calcium. What veggies are high in calcium and safe for gerbils, does anyone know? Don't want to have to go through the teeth issues with Rolo too, although she's fine for now.
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Post by yeti218 on Dec 14, 2020 0:12:32 GMT -8
I think it was something you'd posted thea
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