I would suggest using guinea pig pellets over rabbit pellets for sure. Some
rabbit pellets are made with a penicillin additive which could be very
harmful to a gerbil. Not all rabbit pellets contain this anymore, but some
do and it is not always listed as an ingredient.
Vit C is a water soluble vitamin, so any excess they get beyond what they
need will be excreted in the urine.
Jill
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From: Tana and The Little Rascals <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Question for Tana
Date: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 6:50 PM
Oh goodness, I need to update that!
At the time I was putting in dog food from free samples a feed store was
giving away (I didn't have as many then so the teeny little sample bags
lasted awhile). I have no idea what brand it was. I haven't done it
lately. Any time I think about getting any I'm in a store that has
nothing but HUGE heavy bags that I'm not about to drag up two flights of
stairs! (Or do they not make them in smaller bags??)
My current mixture still has the dry corn and uncooked oatmeal, rabbit
pellets (I realized the guinea pig pellets I was getting had vitamin C
added and I'm not sure if that's good for gerbs), parakeet seed, and a
couple kinds of mostly unsweetened breakfast cereal. The cornflakes
have a smidgen of sugar, and I'm just using them until they're gone. I
found at a store called Trader Joe's some TRULY unsweetened cereal,
called Kashi I think (threw the box away so I can't check). I put in
split peas and/or lentils sometimes.
The main thing for me with the bird seed is to look at the contents. I
picked up some once without realizing it had peanuts in it (don't
remember what kind it was) which are very fattening! Parakeet seed is
usually the cheapest and doesn't have stuff like that. I generally mix
equal parts of everything. You can adjust for weight, though -
sometimes my heavyweights get more of the oatmeal and rabbit pellets and
less of the birdseed as it has more fat.
I can see I need to spend the rest of today going over my site for
outdated stuff ... grin.
Caroline Hussey wrote:
> "I usually mix my own food. The current mix contains dried corn,
> uncooked
> oatmeal, birdseed, dog food, guinea pig pellets, unsweetened breakfast
>
> cereal, split peas, and lentils."
>
> I saw this on your site and have some questions. What kind of dog
> food could
> I use? What kind of birdseed? And how much of all of these should I
> mix
> together for 2 female gerbils that won't be use for breeding?
>
> Thank you! I like the idea of mixing my own food instead of buying
> food with
> so many sunflower seeds.
>
>
> -:�:-
> ._�..� ���)) -:�:-
> �.�� .����))
> ((��.�� ..�� -:�:-
> -:�:- ((��.��. . . . .caroline. . . . .
>
--
Tana and The Little Rascals
http://members.home.net/tlr-gerbilry
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