If you have a pair of gerbils, you may find that one ends up eating (or stealing) more food than the other and this can lead to one of them gaining/losing weight while the other stays the same. You can modify this by carefully managing their diet, however if you’re noticing sudden and unexplained weight gain/loss this should always be investigated by a vet as it can indicate other health issues. But if you know the cause (in my case it was Moo Moo just sitting at the foraging toys eating non-stop, then stealing from Luna) then you can follow the steps to help get them back to normal
To get one to lose weight: you can decrease their daily food slightly (start with a 0.5g reduction, increase to 1g if needed), then keep a little aside (starting with 0.5g, increasing to 1g if needed), feed the remainder as normal, and when you notice chonker is distracted, sneak skinny bits of the food you kept aside. If chonker notices skinny eating food and tries to steal, distract them with tiny bits of treats, such as oat groats, or tiny bits of mealworms (this can also help to teach them not to steal). Weigh and check them weekly to monitor changes and adjust as needed
For getting one to gain weight: the process is the same, but you would instead increase their daily food by 0.5-1g and keep this aside for your skinny gerb
Also make sure to adjust the treats you’re giving them, give skinny the bigger treats, and chonker the smaller bits
To maintain their weights if one is still a bit of a thief: keep daily food at the normal amount, but keep 0.5-1g aside to sneak to the non-thief
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