Gerbils can eat meat. You can even buy crickets from the pet store for
them, if you desire. I usually give mine a bit of steak when I'm cooking
(make sure any meat you give is well cooked and not seasoned) The older one
prefers bits of filet mignon (he gets that rarely) and the 2 younger gerbs I
have like ground beef.
I tend not to. It spoils fast and can be smelly and I feel might
add to drawing unwanted things to the cage.
If I feel one of my animals needs more protein, I offer chopped
scrambled eggs. Easier to prepare and store.
And now a question: has anyone here raised gerbils wtihout supplemental
water (water bottles)? Since gerbs are desert creatures, they get enough
moisture through metabolism. One of my veterinary teachers told us this,
and I've had great success. All three of my boys have not had water bottles
since this past Christmas and all are thriving. Cages are a lot less messy
too. I'm just curious to see if others have done this.
Unless you are totally simulating their native habitat conditions,
this is a bad thing.
Even in the arid desert, there is often dew for a short period as
the air goes through dewpoint early in the morning. This forms
small droplets of moisture everywhere, and the desert animals
will lick up what they need. Or drink from small puddles.
In the cage/tank environment of domestic animals this is not
conducive to a clean dry and non moldy environment. Spraying
the glass of the aquarium with a mister will provide 'dew' but
then the animals will be licking the glass....
Veternarian instructors can be wrong. In this case unless
you take great care to simulate ALL of the conditions of
the normal native habitat (providing insects and a wide
variety of seeds and green material and the dew) it fails.
The thing that kills a gerbil or other small animal is dehydration.
If for any reason the animal gets ill, it will quit drinking and if
there isn't adequate moisture for it to begin with, it doesn't
take long (a matter of hours) for the dehydration to kill the
animal.
A water bottle should be provided, and checked and
refilled daily. You need not fill it completely full, but at
least two ounces per animal per day. This gives allowances
for the extra needed water that it doesn't get from the
food or environment (i.e., dew and rain runoff).
You have been lucky if the animals have made it this
long without problems. A shortage of water is stress
that can lead to illness that your animals don't need.
This situation is literally a time bomb waiting to go
off. Please give them a bottle as soon as possible.
Deb
Rebel's Rodent Ranch
