which raw nuts are the best for gerbils to eat?

[catnut]

What is the best kind of nut to feed a gerbil? it's hard to find good information online and with the price of nuts, some may be out due to the cost. There are peanuts in the one food i feed my gerbil but i only give her a small piece once in awhile as peanuts aren't as good as they are a legume. I used to give past gerbils peanuts, just for the odd treat, but not sure if peanuts are the safest to feed? Anyone know a good site so i can feed Sierra a good nut? she is an active gerbil and i want her to put abit of weight on. Thanks.

[LilyandDaisy]

All nuts safe for human consumption are safe for gerbils to eat. Peanuts despite being legumes have many of the same nutritional qualities as nuts and are better in some aspects. In terms of specifics:

- Almonds are by far the highest nut in vitamin E, followed by pine nuts and peanuts (25mg, 9mg and 8mg per 100g respectively). But the best source of vitamin E for a gerbil is sunflower seeds (35mg).

- Peanuts, almonds and pistachios are highest in protein (26%, 21% and 20% respectively).

- Walnuts are the highest in the essential fatty acids, followed by pine nuts.

- Macadamia nuts and pecans are the highest in fat, which may be desirable when you need to fatten a gerbil up, but pecan nuts would be the better choice as they are lower in saturated fat than macadamia nuts. Macadamia nuts, despite being the most fatty of nuts, are the lowest in the essential fatty acids.

- Brazil nuts are very high in selenium. For this reason I wouldn't feed very often or in large quantities. When you think about the portion size of nuts given to gerbils are compared to humans, we tend to give them a chunk of the size of their paw or even bigger, or sometimes even a whole nut, which if you scaled up to human size would be an enormous portion size. So with brazil nuts that would be a huge amount of selenium and you can have too much of a good thing.

So overall, peanuts and almonds come out as quite good choices. With peanuts you do have to make sure they're from a reputable source (as you would with all foods really) because improperly-stored peanuts can be sources of aflatoxin. Ideally choose human-grade nuts.

[catnut]

thanks for the info., i wasn't sure about peanuts and which nuts were best.