>I'm concerned about whether she is getting enough nutrients
>if she is just eating corn and sunflower seeds. And
>if not, what can I do?
Some are spoiled rotten piggy brats about their feed mix.
I'd pick out the sunseeds and the corn for a while, as the
sunseeds are high-fat and gerbils get fat easily (not making
this up, the easiest way to make a gerbil get overweight is
to feed oil and fat rich seeds).
When she gets hungry, she'll eat what's there.
>Also, she has a food dish and when I put food in it at night, the next
day she usually has filled the dish up with bedding material and has
covered the food. I'm concerned about this also, because I don't
know if she would uncover the food and eat if she got hungry. She
doesn't seem to, but rather seems to go without after she covers the
food.
Gerbils like to hoard food. Discontinue using the dish for
awhile, as there are lots of them that like to sleep in the
food dish or use it as a toilet. Just put the food right on the
bedding in the same spot, and she can dig for it when
she wants to eat.
>In addition to being concerned about her, I feel like she's
>wasting lots of food and I don't know what to do.
I feed a pair about an ounce and a half a day, this is a shotglass
to the top. Feed about a shotglass to the line (an ounce) a
day, and clean the uneaten food out every week.
I wouldn't offer the lettuce, but the apple and carrot, a thumb
sized piece of carrot or a 1/8th apple (core, cut into quarters,
then cut a quarter in half) once every few days would add
to the diet. I would offer it one day and clean it out the next.
Deb
Rebel's Rodent Ranch
