How heavy is your gerbil? Or are you at the other end – wondering if your gerbil is too light?
Well, generally an adult female gerbils should be between 50g and 100g; and an adult male usually between 70g – 120g. There are always those odd few who eat too many sunflower seeds and can top out at over 130g!
Gerbils don’t usually fluctuate wildly in weight – they tend to reach an first adult weight – then often plump out a bit further at the top end of middle-aged.
Often as well, one gerbil in each clan will always weigh a noticeable amount more than the others. This is totally normal and they don’t need to go on a diet – they NEED to be bigger because they are the boss – and changing their weight could affect the delicate balance they have.
What If My Gerbil Is Underweight?
An underweight adult gerbil isn’t usually an issue that lasts long.
If fed enough food a day – based on your food’s weight recommendation table (always on the packaging) – usually between 5g to 10g per day per gerbil – plus the odd treats and fresh food – they should be fine at whatever weight they have settled on right now.
An active inquisitive gerbil who is always 45g is just fine.
If they are real young (between 3-6 months) – and often female they may still only be around 20-40g. If they are young, active and bright-eyed it isn’t something to get really worried about – and feed that one more treats if you want just to see the weight hop up. If they are the smaller and more shy of the two or three in the clan – they will never be heavier than the others anyway.
There is always the chance that they have a health issues that isn’t using their food properly – so although they are eating the right amount – and even treats from you – their body might not be digesting them effectively. Additionally if they are stressed or overly-active they may burn off more calories than they are eating. Just like humans when we are nervous or worried about something we eat less and often have a jittery tummy. Nervous people often lose weight too.
Active people like runners and sports people need to eat twice as much as inactive people just to stay at the same maintenance level – so a really active gerbil will need more food – or technically more nutrition from that food.
So if you are buying low nutrition food (usually cheaper food with corn and wheat in the first 5 ingredients) they might be eating 10g a day – but it is only half full with anything useful. They may as well eat 5g of something more nutritious – like seed-based diets. These diets cost more per bag because you are feeding less of them per serving. Simple maths.
What If My Gerbil Is Overweight?
At the other end of the scale – and overweight gerbil doesn’t need to be overweight.
This can only lead to health issues in old age – so if your gerbil is over 2.5 and still over 100g, perhaps you need to thin them down slowly.
A male or female gerbil can sometimes top out above 100g for no other reason than they are eating more than they are burning off. Sometimes a dominant gerbil – or a single gerbil – will focus on eating all the best food – all the time – (and sleeping the rest of the time). Needless to say – the ‘best’ foods are usually those high in fats and sugars (just like with us humans).
Simple ways to prevent this include but not limited to:
- Feed the clan less food each day (so instead of 10g each – feed 8g each)
- Take out the best bits of your staple food and only give them as treats (instead of other treats)
- Find a healthy treat to give your podgy one instead of the best bits of your food
- Give treats to the clan in a moving enrichment (such as hanging chain or cardboard ball)
- Change your food to a premium extruded food (where all the bits are the same)
- Have every fourth day a no food mix day (only give fresh food that day instead of both)
- Don’t feed more than the recommended amount – as they will always be selective.
This last one is important – as if you always had full cupboards – you would always eat the naughty easy stuff wouldn’t you? If you give a week’s worth of food at a time to your gerbils – you are allowing them to eat ALL the best bits all the time – rather than spacing them out. Making them HAVE to eat the boring (usually more nutritious ingredients) bit will help keep the weight off.
What If My Gerbil Has Lost Weight Quickly?
Gerbils shouldn’t lose weight fast naturally – if they do – there is most likely something wrong.
A gerbil losing just 10g in a few weeks can be a huge percentage loss if they were only 50g to begin with – that’s a 20% weight decrease (like a human losing 30lb or 2 stone in less than a month). This could be something urgent!
So, ideally you would always have a base weight recorded for your gerbil so you can check for weight loss if you expect it. Just looking at your gerbils isn’t enough.
Say you thought your gerbil had lost weight – but you didn’t actually already know their weight – you might leave if for a few more days or so before being ‘sure’ they were lodging weight – then you would weigh them. But that’s all you have – a starting point. You would then have to wait even longer to see if they lost anymore – but then they could have lost a third of their body weight and be in serious trouble.
The most common reason for a gerbil losing weight rapidly is tooth loss or damage. Gerbils teeth need to match up perfectly for them to wear down (they grow all the time so need to wear down evenly). If they break or fall out (both very common with gerbils unfortunately) – the matching tooth – that is no longer worn down – grow up and into the gums or tongue causing great pain.
Obviously with their teeth not working properly anyway – they can’t eat half the food you offer them – as they can’t shuck chells or open seeds etc. but if the errant other tooth is rubbing on the gums or causing discomfort when they close their mouth – they often can’t eat even the softer foods. Poor things.
Luckily – it is easy to remedy with a quick trim. Back to almost normal immediately.
Other reasons for rapid weight loss include:
- Start of a declan – where the other gerbils are stopping them eating
- Motherhood or fatherhood – the constant stress of kids can affect eating and digestion
- Fear or incorrect husbandry (including environmental extremes)
- Major organ failure – which can lead to a secondary deficiency due to failing digestion
- Tumors – these can ‘eat’ all the food instead of feeding your gerbil…
What If My Gerbil Is Gaining Weight Rapidly?
It would be very unlikely for a gerbil to gain weight rapidly – unless they had been ill beforehand – were in a clan that wasn’t working (or where one of a pair died) – and you took them out to live alone – or they were ill.
Weight gain would need to be even to be normal too. Weight gain in one place – or unevenly on the body would usually indicate an illness – such as ovarian cysts, tumours or heart failure.
Or pregnancy. Always check the sexes of all the gerbil in the enclosure if you have had them less than 6 months. No need to know how to do it – just compare them to each other – if they both or all look the same – they will be the same. And same-looking gerbils of either sex can’t get pregnant.
However, if you have had all your same-looking gerbil for less than a month (and there are no obvious male parts) – they could still be pregnant from before – so get a picture of them in the classic up-sidedown ‘phone position’ and share online in a gerbil groups for an instant answer on gender.
Should I Put My Gerbil On A Diet
Ideally no, but you can choose what you feed them so it is healthier.
You are totally in control of the health of your gerbil – and so feeding them a better choice of healthy treats and the right amount of a decent complete food can do them the world of good – and most likely extend their lifespan.
Ideally don’t restrict the amount of food you give your gerbil below the recommended amount – so don’t only give 3g when it recommends 6g. This isn’t how gerbils – or the foods – work. You just need to be food savvy. Swapping out ‘the best bits’ for treats – or making treats healthy ones (brocolli, kale, carrot) can gradually make a huge difference – without upsetting your gerbils gut.
Always have hay present in your enclosure – it is great for digestion and enrichment. Also, feed something every day – even if you have the ‘no food mix’ day – still use that day for some fresh veg or a treat.
So remember – rapid changes in weight loss: bad.
All other weights ok – but watch.
