> Happy to - I've come up with several recipes for a variety of reasons... my > most recent, and the one that seems so far to be the most "acceptable" to my > gerbs and less high in fat is: > > 60 g. Healthy Snacks vegetarian dog biscuits > 100 g. millet > 10 g. hempseed (for the vit. E - anti-oxidant) > 90 g. barley flakes > 80 g. triticale flakes > 80 g. rye flakes > 30 g. puffed rice
Mine seem to bury and "loose" alot of the small stuff like Millet seeds, so I sometimes use Puffed Millet in the mix, also puffed wheat and puffed rice. Sometimes I switch off things like somethines I used puffed wheat other times, wheat flakes, so they have some variety. Rolled oats is another favorit of my gerbils i use in my mix alot. Also, I add dehydrated veggies and fruits such as dried banana, dried cranberry, carrot and papaya. This also brings in lots of good nutrients and they really like it, esp the banana chips. Such be sure to use UNsweetened and if possible unsulfered/organic. doesn't need alot in the mix, just a little. I get all of it fineally diced so they are small pieces for them and the banana chips I smash a few times in a bag to break them into small pieces. > This recipe has roughly 14 % protein and 4% fat. I had noticed that my > gerbs were getting a bit chunky.. :) Interestingly, I have been using a mix of nuts OR seeds (pecans, macadamias, hazenuts, cashews, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, etc.) and I always have soem soynuts in there too. I usually have a fair amount int he mix too. But I've never had any problems with gerbils getting chunky or even getting greasy fur. > All this stuff I can get at the local health food store - organic too, which > I think is important. < I very much agree. > I think having flakes and puffed this and that can be > good for some grains because, like rice, some dried whole grains may expand > inside their stomachs. I'm not sure how true this is, but my gerbs > definitely prefer flakes over the straight grain, even if it's the same< Rats do too. Infact, Ive seen a lab study where they set up bowls with hard wheat berries, wheat flakes and wheat flour, and they went for the flour first and flakes second and left the berries unless that was the only food avail. I think its 2 reasons: 1) they learned from us peopel to be lazy, lol and 2) the more ground up or processed the grain is, the faster it breaks down in your mouth into simple sugars, which give a quicker burst of energy lus may taste better to them, IOW, theres a positive reinforcement for eating flakes or flour or puffed grains. > grain. I could share a list of ingredients that my gerbils all treated with > revulsion, if you like. The thing they like least right now is the Millet, > which they used to love, but they'll still eat it. I find switching around the items int he mix renews their interest by providing everchanging variety. Lets say they get sick of Quinnoa... I'll maybe take away quinnoa and put amaranth in instead.... then they get all gung ho about the amaranth, after a while loose interest and are bored with it. I take it out and out in say, spelt. After a while they get board with that, i go back to Quinnoa, and they get very interested in that again :) If you use say, 5 grains in your mix, you might want to keep a list of 7 or 10 grains and cycle thru them so they always have their staples, but also always have somethign new. This can be done also with the veggies/fruits and the seeds/nuts. PS. Although i use dried veggies/fruit, thats just for a staple. I think soem fresh stuff is good too. AG
