My gerbil is only eating the sun-flower-seeds out of its mixed food bowl what do i do?

Question

i have heard that sun flower seeds are fattening to a gerbil and my gerbils are only eating the sunflower seed out of the mixed food i bought for it please help!! i dont want fat gerbils!!

Answer 1

i use to have gerbils :)

they died :(

well anyways.

most people say you can feed a gerbil hamster-gerbil food

WRONG

WRONG

WRONG

u have to feed it gerbil food OR the gerbil-hamster food with no sunflower seeds.

its like, say u were a kid and u had  corn, brocolli, and cake on your plate.

you didnt have to eat watcha didnt want to eat.

you wouldnt eat the corn and brocolli you'de eat the cake!

think of the cake as the sunflowers.

there considered a treat for gerbils.

i hope i helped.

:()

:)

:()

:)

:()

:)

~ rainbow smile

Answer 2

Possibly try a different brand of food. Or, you may want to try some fresh fruits and veggies that they might enjoy.

Answer 3

You should try taking out the sunflower seeds and just giving them as treats because they are fattening but they wont hurt your gerbil.

Answer 4

If your pet isn't that hungry, he/she will just pick out what they want. You can try and take most the sunflower seeds out, and then if they get hungry they will eat what is there.

Answer 5

It's fine. My gerbils do this too. I stopped picking out the sunflower seeds from the mix once I realized I was greatly changing the nutritional value of the food by doing this.

My gerbils choose to eat sunflower seeds first. I only put new food in their bowl once it's down to a little bit, or the bowl is empty. This forces them to eat everything. They can't pick and choose what they want, because I will not give them anything else until they eat their food.

My girls are fit and trim. They're definitely not overweight, even by eating the sunflower seeds first.

Just leave the same food in until it's almost gone. Then, add more food.

Answer 6

ive had the same problem as you, because the seed mixture i offered my mice had many sunflower seeds. they especially liked to pick out all the tastiest, fattiest ones and leave the rest and obviously this would lead to an unbalanced diet.

so what i did was to remove the sunflower seeds. they still need them so i give them as treats. i also give them fresh veges and an occasional dog biscuit to make their food more interesting.

also remove any dried corn or maize from the mixture.

and lastly, when you feed your gerbils, only put a tiny bit more than they can eat. if you put too much obviously they will take their favourites and be too full to eat the rest. so make them eat almost all before offering more.

they need to learn to eat properly.

good luck!

Answer 7

Even gerbils have a favorite foods like you. i have had a ton of gerbils and allot of them preferred sunflowers too. Don't worry to much sunflowers aren't going to make them fat unless they have no exercise machine in there cage (wheel). just make sure to give them the other seeds too, when the sunflowers run out they will reluctantly eat the other seeds lol! Try giving them some veggies (lettuce, carrots, and celery) they like those to (as a treat). Good luck with the pudgy pets lol.

Answer 8

my hamster had the same problem. my friend( a past owner of twelve hamsters) suggested i take the sunflower seeds out of his food bowl and only give him 2 or 3 sunflower seeds daily, so eventually he'll get sooo hungry he'll just eat the food in his bowl. be carefull with this method though, u dont want them to starve to death. if that doesnt work and he simply wont eat his other food, then i dont know what to tell u...

Answer 9

Well little gerbil's do LOVE to eat fresh veggies and fruits. Also try feeding just pellets as only sunflower seeds is not a complete diet.

Answer 10

Or give it just sunflower seeds.  That works for the squirrels in my backyard...:)