Please Help Me, I've Been Feeding My Gerbils The Wrong Food.

[nikki265152]

Hi, I have 2 gerbils. I have been feeding them the wrong food mix for weeks or more. My parents are divorced, so I would usually stay at my dads house for the holidays. Before I had went to my dads house, they seemed healthy, and there cage was completely clean because it was new. My mom was taking care of my gerbils when I was done, and I told her to feed them the food mix everyday. After I had came back from my dads house, I had noticed that there cage was kinda messy, and there had been poop everywhere, but not that much poop. Anyways, when I was looking at there food mix, I had realized its not a good food mix. The food mix is called Wild Harvest Advanced Nutrition Hamster & Gerbil. The food mix comes with vegetables and fruits in it, so now I think I have been feeding them too much vegetables and fruits but I'm not sure. Please help me, I think there diet is messed up and I dont want them to die. Also, my mom had forgotten to take out there sand bath, so there sand bath has been in there cage for 2 weeks, but I took it out now.

[LilyandDaisy]

Hello,

No need to worry. The food is ok, just not one of the most recommended ones. It won't have harmed your gerbils at all. It's only like the difference between a less expensive and a more expensive brand of human food: they're both perfectly safe to eat. The fruits and vegetables are fine too.

Also it's ok to have the sand bath in the tank for two weeks. Many people leave it in there permanently. Even if the sand was quite dirty, it won't have done any harm.

[nikki265152]

Thank you so much for replying! This helped me a lot! 

[Markpd]

Ideally though the sandbath should be sieved daily, depending upon how much they poop or wee in it, or if they can kick bedding into it .