Flour for gerbils?

[sparkbubble]

I've seen on the internet that gerbils can eat bread, it's just the sugar and salt content that's the kicker. 
If gerbils eat grains, would I be able to make them a sort of 'gerbil bread' myself with wheat or rice flour?

[LilyandDaisy]

I wouldn't think that flour or bread are really any worse for gerbils than they are for humans, but then plenty is said nowadays about the effects of refined carbohydrates on humans. We eat refined carbohydrates because they're delicious and hard to avoid, but gerbils don't know that and we can control their diets, which is why we tend not to feed them to gerbils (in other words, not because they're necessarily bad for gerbils in ways they aren't for humans).

I don't think most bread really contains excessive amounts of salt, and sugar content depends on the brand (cheap white bread will be worse than a better quality wholemeal brand). Bread isn't something I feed as a regular treat but occasionally if I'm eating toast and they look at me very persuasively they might get a tiny bit.

If you wanted to make a "better" bread for gerbils, you could try using a nut flour such as almond flour, as well as plenty of seeds to bulk it out. The texture wouldn't be quite like bread, maybe more like a dense seed cake, but gerbils would likely enjoy it.

[betty]

sparkbubble - did you ever make anything yourself - and if so - did they like it?

I used to give bread to mine on rare ocassions - but then I am in the UK and (no the doubt highly-processed and refined) sugar in bread is way lower here than in the US I believe (from previous online searching). Obviously, natural sugar in fruits can be high weight-for-weight too, which is why both are best only as treats, not staples.

I also give them a dab of almond flour straight - especially elderly, poorly and nursing gerbils - especially when they don't have the enthusiasm (or tooth-power) to husk shells off anything else. They love it.