Gerbil diet: what to feed every day

What should a gerbil diet be?

A gerbil diet is mostly a dry gerbil food, with small extras of vegetables, seeds and insects. Gerbils are omnivores. Wild gerbils, the RSPCA explains, eat the seeds of grasses, bulbs, leaves and herbs, and Wood Green adds that they need some meat sources too. A food made for gerbils gives that balance in one go, so it should make up the bulk of what they eat. PetMD suggests keeping all the extras together (grains, veg, fruit, hay and treats) to no more than 10 percent of the daily diet.

There are two types of dry food:

• Pellets or nuggets. Every piece is the same, so a gerbil cannot pick out the tasty bits. The MSD Veterinary Manual and Burgess both prefer pellets for this reason.
• Mixes (muesli-style). Seeds, grains, flakes and dried veg. They give more variety and foraging, which is why Gerbil Care UK prefers a good mix to pellets alone. The catch is selective feeding: many gerbils eat the fatty seeds and leave the rest.

The sources disagree here, and both have a point. We'd follow a middle path: a good pellet as the base, scattered so it still takes finding, with a small handful of a quality mix or forage herbs on top for variety. If you feed a mix alone, wait until the gerbils have eaten most of it before you add more, as Supreme Petfoods advises, so they do not live on the favourites.

How much to feed a gerbil

About 5 to 8 g (0.2 to 0.3 oz) of dry food per gerbil per day. The MSD Veterinary Manual gives 5 g as the figure that helps prevent obesity and diabetes, Beaphar suggests 5 to 8 g of its pellets, and Bowmanville Veterinary Clinic says gerbils eat 5 to 8 g a day. Burgess puts it as about one tablespoon a day. Gerbil Care UK notes that some packs suggest 5 to 10 g, which is up to double the vet figure.

Start at about 5 g each and adjust. If food disappears completely by the next day and the gerbils look lean, add a little. If you keep finding big stashes of old food when you spot clean, or a gerbil looks round from above, cut back. Gerbils hoard by instinct: the RSPCA says wild gerbils can store up to 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) of grain, so some buried food is normal, but a growing pile means you are feeding too much.

How to feed gerbils: scatter, don't bowl

Scatter the daily food over the bedding and platforms. The RSPCA recommends it because it cuts squabbling and lets gerbils forage, and Gerbil Care UK goes further and uses no bowls at all, scattering food between layers of bedding as the tank is built. A bowl lets one gerbil guard it, which is one of the triggers Gerbil Care UK lists for fallouts.

1. Feed once a day. Burgess suggests the morning. Pick a time and keep to it, so you also get a daily look at every gerbil.
2. Scatter the dry food. Spread it across the surface, the platforms and the shallow side of the tank, so each gerbil has to search.
3. Hide a little more. Push a few pieces into a cardboard tube stuffed with hay, or under a handful of bedding. Our gerbil enrichment guide has more foraging ideas.
4. Add fresh food on feed days. A thumbnail-sized piece per gerbil, cut small.
5. Clear old fresh food. PetMD says remove uneaten fruit and veg within 10 hours, and the RSPCA says check daily for stale stashes.
6. Check the water. Make sure the bottle flows and refill it with fresh water.

Which gerbil food is best?

The best gerbil food is one made for gerbils with about 18 to 20 percent protein and no more than about 4 percent fat. Those are the figures the MSD Veterinary Manual and Gerbil Care UK use; Bowmanville Veterinary Clinic aims a little higher at 20 to 22 percent protein. Read the analysis on the back of the bag before the picture on the front.

Beaphar gerbil food

Beaphar Care+ Gerbil and Mouse is a pellet, so there is no picking out favourites. Beaphar lists 16 percent protein, 1.4 percent of it from animal sources, 2.6 percent fat and 6.5 percent fibre. That fat level is comfortably low. The protein sits a little under the 18 to 20 percent target, so a few mealworms or crickets once or twice a week fills the gap.

Science Selective gerbil food

Supreme Petfoods makes the Science Selective range. When we checked Supreme's own site in November 2026, its gerbil products listed bathing sand and treats but no Science Selective food for gerbils, so treat any bag you find in a shop the same way: check the protein and fat against the targets above, and note that Gerbil Care UK lists Science Selective bathing sand among sands it avoids for gerbils.

Protein, seeds and treats

Gerbils need some animal protein, and most dry foods carry less than the target. Gerbil Care UK gives a few live or dried mealworms or dried crickets once or twice a week, or freeze-dried plain chicken. Supreme Petfoods also lists mealworms as a good treat for hand taming, which our guide on how to tame a gerbil uses.

• Pumpkin seeds. The RSPCA calls them a healthy treat and Burgess prefers them to sunflower seeds. Half a seed is plenty for taming.
• Sunflower seeds and nuts. Fatty. The RSPCA warns too many lead to weight gain, and Gerbil Care UK keeps seeds and nuts to once a week at most.
• Millet spray. A small sprig is fine.
• Plain porridge oats and plain popcorn. Gerbil Care UK lists both as treats.
• Hay. Burgess suggests good-quality feeding hay to nibble and gnaw. It also binds tunnels together.

Fresh vegetables and fruit

A little, not a lot. Gerbil Care UK gives a thumbnail-sized piece per gerbil, no more than twice a week, and Burgess warns that too much green food can cause diarrhoea. Vegetables come first; fruit is sugary, so keep it as an occasional treat.

• Good vegetables: carrot, cucumber, broccoli, cabbage, sweet pepper (bell pepper), courgette (zucchini), pumpkin, fennel, peas and kale. Our pages on carrots, cucumber and broccoli give amounts.
• Herbs: Burgess names basil, sage, parsley and coriander (cilantro).
• Fruit as a treat: apple without pips, pear, melon, strawberries and blueberries.

Introduce one new food at a time, in a tiny piece, because the RSPCA warns sudden changes upset gerbil stomachs. The full list, with what to avoid, is in what can gerbils eat.

Foods gerbils must never eat

Citrus is where sources split. The RSPCA lists orange as a suitable fruit, while Burgess and Gerbil Care UK put citrus on the avoid list. With so many safe fruits to choose from, we'd leave citrus out.

Water: how much do gerbils drink?

Very little, but it must be fresh every day. The MSD Veterinary Manual says an adult drinks about 4 ml (under a teaspoon) a day, and Bowmanville Veterinary Clinic gives 4 to 10 ml. The RSPCA wants water available at all times from a bottle with a metal spout, checked daily for leaks and blockages. Gerbil Care UK uses two bottles plus a raised bowl so there is always a backup, and glass bottles inside the tank because gerbils chew plastic.

How much does gerbil food cost?

Very little per month, because gerbils eat so little. From the amounts above, a pair gets through about 300 to 480 g (10.5 to 17 oz) of dry food a month, so a 1 kg (2.2 lb) bag lasts roughly two to three months. Treats, insects and veg add a small amount on top. For a full costed breakdown of food, bedding and the set-up, see how much a gerbil costs to buy and keep.

Changing your gerbil's food

Do it slowly. The RSPCA warns that sudden changes can upset a gerbil's stomach. Mix a little of the new food into the old and shift the balance over a week or two. Watch the droppings: they should stay small, dry and firm. The RSPCA says to see a vet straight away if droppings turn moist, the bottom gets dirty, or a gerbil eats or drinks more or less than usual. Our gerbil health guide covers what those signs can mean, and the gerbil care guide puts feeding into the full daily routine.

Keeping mice as well? See our pet mouse diet guide.