Best Hamster food

If hamsters are kept in the cage as pets, the feeding basis consists of dry food. These mostly include pumpkin seeds, peas and maize, striped sunflower seeds as well as oats, green fodder pellets and wheat. Hazelnuts and walnuts as well as peanuts and different coloured snack particles made from corn cereal porridge can also be offered. If these ‘hamster blends’ are declared as the sole feed, the following ingredients must be declared:- carbohydrates 60 to 65 percent- crude fat 3 to 10 percent- crude protein 16 to 24 percent- crude fibre approximately 8 percent- calcium 0.6 percent- phosphorus 0.35 percent- as well as vitamins.

For smaller dwarf hamsters, the commercial feed mixtures can often be too coarse-grained. For these small house friends grain mixtures or piston millet, which are originally intended for budgerigars, are a good alternative.

For hamsters, the daily ration of a grain mixture or pelleted complete food is about 15 grams (means: a slightly heaped tablespoon). A hamster kept in a cage also needs sufficient juice feed to cover its fluid requirements. This amount should also be about 15 grams daily. In addition to green fodder such as dandelion, red and white meadow clover, sweet grasses and shepherd’s purse, chickweed and hogweed, fruit is also very popular with hamsters. These include, for example, pear and apple schnitzel, pitted plums, apricots/peaches and cherries as well as berry fruits such as strawberries or grapes.

First and foremost, however, are vegetables such as cucumbers and courgettes, tomatoes, beetroot, leaf salad or cauliflower of all kinds. In order to obtain sufficient animal protein on a daily basis, it is sufficient to occasionally feed mealworms, grasshoppers or crickets as well as house crickets. These feed animals are available in pet shops. Alternatively, some balls of minced beef and cottage cheese or a small piece of dog biscuits are suitable.

Hamsters kept in cages also need nail material (fresh twigs and branches). This not only serves as a pastime, but is also important from a nutritional point of view, as valuable components such as starch, minerals and fats are absorbed. Especially the bast (inner bark = alive), which is directly below the bark (outer bark = dead), is a delicacy for hamsters. Suitable nail materials include deciduous trees such as beech, birch and willow, maple, apple, pear and hazelnut, with or without leaves.

Attention: Branches and twigs of unknown ornamental plants or woods should not be used for the hamster cage as they are often toxic! The same applies to green fodder from the roadside, where there are highly toxic residues of exhaust fumes. The same applies to fruitwoods where insecticide contamination may occur.
Hamsters must supplement their food like all rodents with salt. This is due to the fact that the salt content of vegetable food is 10 times lower than that of protein-rich food. For this reason, a separate salt lick stone is recommended.

Finally, a few words on the so-called ‘tidbits’. This is a supplementary food which, under terms such as ‘cracker’ or ‘nibbling fun’, signals that the hamster’s need for nails can be satisfied in this way. The majority of such products are made up of wooden sticks plus a suspension device and dried fruit, sunflower seeds, nut splinters and cereal grains. The latter are fixed to the wooden stick with honey or molasses.
As an advantage it can be mentioned that the hamsters find such a meaningful occupation, in order to drive away the boredom in the cage somewhat. A disadvantage, however, is the usually enormously high fat content, which is about 50 percent for sunflower seeds and nuts as raw fat content. The same applies to the various tabs and drops that trade offers in innumerable variations. Since dwarf hamsters in particular tend to become greasy quickly and become almost unable to move, such delicacies should be avoided.