can guinea pigs and gerbils live together

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Gerbil Food?

Whether guinea pigs can eat gerbil food is a question that if you have stumbled upon this post you may be looking for the answer for. It can be answered by looking at the type of food that gerbils eat and then comparing it to that which guinea pugs eat on a regular basis.

I am indebted to the RSPCA who have a tremendously site and document the foods that gerbils should eat very well.

Gerbils need fresh, clean water every day and need it constantly available to them. They need their water bottles topped up so that they can drink out of it. Very much like guinea pigs who also need fresh water available all the time.

Gerbils need a balanced diet containing nutrients and minerals such as a compound pelleted ration or a mixture of different seeds. They naturally eat seeds of various grasses, bulbs and a range of leaves and herbs. This is quite different from guinea pigs who’s main food is fresh green hay which takes up to 70-80% of their dietary intake.

Gerbils need a variety of fruit such as oranges, apples, melons and pears as well as vegetables such as fennel, pumpkin, carrot and cucumber. Guinea pigs are also great fans of these fruits and veggies and they always go down well with them when they are given to them.

Gerbils love to hoard food in large stores and food can often go stale when they have hoarded it. This is quite different from piggies, who eat anything they see as opposed to hoarding it.

So as you can see, there is quite a difference between the dietary requirements of gerbils and guinea pigs.

Although, they both need a continuous supply of fresh water, guinea pigs need a continuous supply of hay, where as gerbils do not eat hay at all.

Gerbils need seeds and grains where as piggies could do without eating those, having completely different taste in foods.

However, guinea pigs are big fans of gerbil favourites oranges, apples, melons and pears as well as vegetables such as fennel, pumpkin, carrot and cucumber.

So if you have both a guinea pig and a gerbil, your food bill could be quite big because of their quite different dietary requirements.

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