juice for small animals?

Question

In addition to normal larger animals, I have a number of small animals like hamsters and gerbils.  I was just wondering, just as a treat, could I put some sort of fruit juice in their water bottle for a few minutes, just so they could have a change in their lives?  I would expect it is no big deal, but I don't want to make them sick or anything.  And if so, why kind of juice would you suggest?  Thanks -


Answer
While I am not an expert in small pocket pets I can tell you one thing about animals: they don't need anything to have a "change" in their lives or diets. Owners need to have changes and think their pets do to- but this is one of the leading causes of digestive problems in animals.

Animals are made with restrictive diets to be the norm. You won't see a prairie dog decide it's bored one day and go eat a buffalo calf. Nor will a wolf start eating only vegetation. The point I am making is that God created these little guys with niches and their niches are tied into their diets and habitats.

When in captivity, or domestication, the diet needs need to be met by the owners but not changed to suit what we as humans think WE would like.

So having said that, Heather in here answers questions about hammies and such so here is her link and you can ask her. I think fruit itself might be okay but again, ask an expert- and I am not one with hamsters!

http://www.allexperts.com/user.cgi?m=4&expID=34607&catID=2005

that is Heather's link.