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Post by mygerbilprince on Dec 15, 2020 4:44:50 GMT -8
I was wondering if any of you had opinions on the best food to feed gerbils. Currently I am feeding them Manna Pro Hamster & Gerbil food but I am starting to think there are better options. I know at least one of my gerbils is picky and won't eat pellets. There seems to be a lot of debate over the best food so hopefully you guys can help!  |
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Post by Markpd on Dec 15, 2020 14:49:32 GMT -8
I don't know enough to tell you which is the best food, all I can tell you is what I get for my boys, which is Erin's Ark megagerbil blend, it certainly has a wide variety of seeds etc in it and my boys seem to like it . I don't think it's cheap mind you (£17 for 1.5kg delivered). I know some people aren't keen on the fact that she doesn't quote nutrition %. Anyway, I'm sure more experienced people will pitch in soon |
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Post by mygerbilprince on Dec 15, 2020 15:58:19 GMT -8
OK thanks I will check that out!
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Post by PipSqueak on Dec 15, 2020 16:44:33 GMT -8
Your mix seems like it has a good variety. When I first got my gerbils I used all living things hamster and gerbil diet left over from my past hamster and it seems pretty similar. I also got some food from the pet store I adopted my gerbils at but it was in a bulk bag and didn’t have a label. I just recently made my own food so I will link that recipe along with the YouTubers channel. My gerbils seem to like it a lot. Adult gerbils need around 10-13% protein and 6-9% fat. Growing gerbils need around 16% protein and 5% fat. The protein percentage is good with your mix but it has too little fat (needs at least 6% fat and the mix only has 4% fat) same with the all living things food mix but closer (5% fat, I should have checked it before I gave it to them but didn’t find the video of the fat and protein percentages yet so I didn’t check but only had a bit left from my hamster.) Try making your own food and avoid sunflower seeds as they are fatty) Food mix video: m.youtube.com/watch?v=kzs6NlUEpMEWhat to feed your gerbils: m.youtube.com/watch?v=Da2HGDo7dv4Channel: m.youtube.com/channel/UCZbfvB_Q2hSS2e8kmEpeO5g |
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Post by mygerbilprince on Dec 15, 2020 17:07:44 GMT -8
OK thank you! Maybe making their food is a better option. I will definitely check it out!
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Post by PipSqueak on Dec 15, 2020 17:18:01 GMT -8
I didn’t have time to add this but the 5th and 6th most ingredient in that food is sunflowers and corn which aren’t the most nutritional. It may be a bit hard to get ingredients to make food from scratch (took me about two months) but it is worth it. If you make food and it takes a while to get your ingredients put everything in your freezer. I didn’t and once I made the mix I realized there was bugs in one of the ingredients and had to throw my batch away but I got big amounts of everything so only had to replenish 2 ingredients.
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Thea
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Post by Thea on Dec 18, 2020 11:01:05 GMT -8
I've recently been trying to figure out what's the best too, although I've had gerbils for 5 years!
I've figured out that the best thing for me is to go to a smaller pet shop that is not a chain one, as they often do their own mixes. Yesterday I went out to a small, family run, old fashioned pet shop in my town and it's great!! They have home made small pet mixes with loads of different kinds of seeds, biscuits and dried fruits/veg. I've also mixed this with my usual nature's touch, oats etc. I'm disappointed that I didn't find out sooner!
If there are and non-chain pet shops nearby, maybe you could go to one of them? They often do their own pet foods that are healthier than shop bought ones. The tiny pet shop I got Rolo and Storme food from also made their own foods. And they are very cheap too in most places! I bought a 1.35 kilo bag yesterday for £3.50 which I thought was incredible for what was in the food, and cheaper than many that aren't as good that I have used before.
Also the Erin's Ark food looks great too if you chose to go for it! I was seriously considering it a couple of months back, but decided not to because I thought it would be hard with delivery every time.
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Post by mygerbilprince on Dec 19, 2020 17:05:32 GMT -8
I have been looking into small pet stores but there isn't many choices for gerbil food. I live in the USA so I have different currency than you in the UK. I recently bought Gerri Gerbil food, I don't know if you have heard of it. However my gerbils won't touch it. 🙁 I am going to attempt to make homemade food but I am not the greatest at cooking.
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Post by PipSqueak on Dec 19, 2020 18:29:57 GMT -8
I have been looking into small pet stores but there isn't many choices for gerbil food. I live in the USA so I have different currency than you in the UK. I recently bought Gerri Gerbil food, I don't know if you have heard of it. However my gerbils won't touch it. 🙁 I am going to attempt to make homemade food but I am not the greatest at cooking. I hope everything works out. It’s not very hard to make the food so even if you aren’t the best at cooking it will still turn out. |
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Post by mygerbilprince on Dec 19, 2020 19:11:32 GMT -8
OK thank you! I will try!
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Post by mygerbilprince on Dec 19, 2020 19:58:16 GMT -8
So I looked into making my own gerbil mix. Some of the things mentioned in the video were too expensive or I couldn't find them. The foods I am planning to put in my mix are unsalted peanuts, sorghum grain, safflower seed (it's bird seed, is that safe for gerbils?), quinoa, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds (with no shell), sunflower seeds, whole grain pasta, lentils, and rolled oats. Will this be a good mix? I never knew that gerbils needed to eat flowers! What types of flowers can they eat? I would love to give them dandelions because they are everywhere around me but I don't know if they use pesticides or not.  My gerbils don't love veggies, but they will eat timothy hay and the occasional strawberry or blueberry... I also saw that gerbils should have insects in their diet... I don't like the idea of that. (eww bugs) Can I feed my gerbils anything to substitute insects? |
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Thea
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Post by Thea on Dec 20, 2020 0:46:24 GMT -8
Hi, I don't believe gerbils need to eat flowers, but they can. For my gerbils' flowers I use nature's touch food which has loads of flowers in so if you wanted to and if it is available in the US you could add some of that to your mix. Also, I think gerbils only eat parts of timothy hay, the rest they just shred.
As for fresher treats, Rolo is fussy with veggies too, but she likes peas, scrambled egg (in tiny bits - I know it isn't a veg/fruit but something to try!!), tiny bits of lettuce, banana, apple, carrot and some others! Have you tried any of those?
If there is enough protein in their diet, your gerbils may not need bugs, but I have always fed mine dried mealworms and they adore them. It doesn't sound pleasant, but it really isn't that bad! Having always been an animal lover I've never cared if I have to feed bugs to my gerbils, but my friends are all completely grossed out  It's something you get used to.
But if you would hate to feed insects, high protein foods maybe? See what other people say!!
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Post by PipSqueak on Dec 20, 2020 5:35:59 GMT -8
So I looked into making my own gerbil mix. Some of the things mentioned in the video were too expensive or I couldn't find them. The foods I am planning to put in my mix are unsalted peanuts, sorghum grain, safflower seed (it's bird seed, is that safe for gerbils?), quinoa, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds (with no shell), sunflower seeds, whole grain pasta, lentils, and rolled oats. Will this be a good mix? I never knew that gerbils needed to eat flowers! What types of flowers can they eat? I would love to give them dandelions because they are everywhere around me but I don't know if they use pesticides or not. My gerbils don't love veggies, but they will eat timothy hay and the occasional strawberry or blueberry... I also saw that gerbils should have insects in their diet... I don't like the idea of that. (eww bugs) Can I feed my gerbils anything to substitute insects? The thing about just adding your own ingredients and making your own food is you don’t know if the fat and protein percentage are at good levels. I worry that since sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds are fatty and peanuts are fatty and have a lot of protein that could cause an imbalance. It’s best to use a recipe that has the nutrition percentage calculated. Try checking bulk bread stores that sell seeds for homemade bread and farmers markets with a bulk section. for the ingredients. And yes safflower seeds are safe for gerbils. Also they do eat herbs/flowers I have a big jar and I store the rosewood natures salad mix in it. It is safe for gerbils but 2 of the flowers (7th and 10th ingredients) can cause water loss but there is not much herbs in my food and because they are 7th and 10th on the list there isn’t much of them so it is okay. |
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Post by PipSqueak on Dec 20, 2020 5:40:04 GMT -8
You said that you wanted to try and feed your gerbils dandelion and that is one of the flowers I told you that can cause water loss. The other flower was nettle. You can feed dried dandelion but in small quantities.
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Post by mygerbilprince on Dec 20, 2020 10:42:44 GMT -8
Yeah, I wouldn't add to much fatty foods. I would hate to feed my gerbils insects because I am vegetarian and I kinda feel bad for the little bugs. My gerbils love small amounts of yogurt and scrambled eggs. They also like plain, no sugar cereal. I will do more research on making my own mix, I could probably figure out the protein and fat percentages myself, it would just take a while! I will try to add a lot of protein to the mix because I would hate to feed my gerbils bugs! Thanks for the help!
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), late 70s
My gerbils don't love veggies, but they will eat timothy hay and the occasional strawberry or blueberry... I also saw that gerbils should have insects in their diet... I don't like the idea of that. (eww bugs) Can I feed my gerbils anything to substitute insects?
It's something you get used to.