Hello everyone, Thursday last week I thought my 4-months-old gerbie, Little Guy, seemed to be cleaning his front paws /wiping his mouth clean more than usual. Friday my dad noticed that in their playpen, he did not run around busily as usual -- he was sitting in one corner doing nothing. He told me that morning and the day before when he was feeding them at lunch, the older one, Poke-poke, had pushed Little Guy off the third floor of the cage twice in his eagerness to grab food away from Little Guy. I watched Little Guy carefully for broken bones or internal injuries, but nothing. Saturday he was still doing the cleaning motion a lot, sleeping a lot, and not chewing on anything hard, not even apple, despite valiant attempts. I finally picked him up for close examination and discovered that he was missing a top front tooth. I'm guessing that he knocked it out in one of his falls off the cage's top floor.
Since then I've been feeding the poor boy whole wheat bread, cooked white rice, warm unsweetened apple sauce, and room temperature fat-free strawberry yogurt. He can't seem to eat anything hard or cold, though he tries. He ends up running off to rub at his mouth. But the boy is simply ravenous when I offer something he can eat. My questions are: 1/ Is this a good food combo, or is there something else I should try to feed him too? 2/ He's not chewing on cardboard or wood at all, but in the meantime his other teeth are still growing. How long should I wait before I need to worry about the other teeth? Should he visit a vet? 3/ I don't know if the root was knocked out too. If it was, will he grow another tooth or is that out? All advice is appreciated, thank you! Amy The Jeu-jeu Gerbils __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? NEW from Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1
