What foods can my hamster eat?

Anyone who has pets will tell you that one of the most important parts of caring for them is making sure you are providing them with a healthy diet. We all love to eat and the same is true for our furry friends. Eating is one of the main factors in living a healthy lifestyle and the same is true for your hamster. They have their own needs and requirements when it comes to their eating habits and making sure to take those into consideration is vital. The right food should be able to sustain them and cause no potential risk. 

Saying that, there are a few different dietary options out there to choose from for your pet. You’ll want to find one that works best for both you and your hamster depending on your specific situation. You’ll also want to know what to avoid for their health and safety. All the right foods out there have their own benefits to measure but for every great diet choice there is one that can cause harm. Taking all the factors into consideration will improve the quality of life for your hamster and therefore you in the long run. So the real question is, what foods can a hamster eat?

Hamster Pellets

A balanced diet is a reoccurring theme throughout this post and something which I am a huge advocate of among both hamsters and humans alike. One of the main problems with hamster muesli is the ability to selective feed; this means that if your hamster develops a taste for a certain element of the muesli, they will selectively eat it and neglect a lot of the other elements. This problem is cured by the hamster pellet; each pellet is almost identical and contains all of the nutrition required by your hamster.

Hamster Muesli

Hamster muesli is probably the main dietary component for the majority of pet hamsters. Regardless of species, which will be an important factor when deciding what to feed your hamster, most owners will rely heavily on the contents of the “complete” mixtures which can be purchased either online, at the supermarket or at the local pet store. There are many different manufacturers of hamster muesli and an equally wide variety on the market at varying prices (See list below). Upon purchasing Littlefoot, I was witness to this extensive variety and made me wonder what the differences between them all were and what made some more expensive than others.

   

Best Foods For Hamsters

Pet owners can choose to go for a range of fresh to prepackaged foods available to buy. Either one with the right considerations usually provides the right nutrients and ingredients for a hamster’s health. Often hamster food can be bought in a pet store and supplier or even just a local market for the more natural food treats. This is good for those looking into occasional alternatives to possibly traditional food choices. But both options will bring their own positives, it’s more about personal preference and knowing about each of them.

When buying food at a pet store, there are many to choose from. There will be specific foods designed for hamsters with the right nutritional and health considerations for them in mind. Sticking to those options is the best bet as they are made for only hamsters as opposed to ones for mice or other pets. It is safe to assume the best from pet store brands.

One of the foods available to peruse is pelleted hamster food. These are generally seen as a great choice by nature because of their specifications. Pellets are designed so that a hamster can’t get too fickle about what they’ll eat. They don’t allow the hamster to discard any of the vital proteins and seeds they might not want to eat otherwise.

There are also loose seed packets that can deliver the same nutrients as pellets when eaten properly by your hamster. The one caveat is that you will want to be sure that your hamster is eating all of the food and seeds and not just being picky. If they do this they can miss out on vital nourishment.

Hamsters can also do well with small portions of human and fresh foods too. These can be a nice little treat for a furry friend. They will give them a little something to look forward to. Keeping that in thought, hamsters should not be given junk food and should instead be fed healthy alternatives like seeds and fruits such as berries among others. You will also want to ensure that you are not overfeeding your hamster these treats, be sparing with them.

Fruit and Vegetables

Hamster muesli alone is a perfectly acceptable single source of food for your hamster, it contains all of the sustenance and nutrition needed, but at Happy Hamster we are not just aiming for acceptable, we want the happiest hamster possible. Hamsters are omnivores and in the wild, their diet will consist of a wide range of food sources ranging from plant life to insects. It is my intention to create an environment which will stimulate many of Littlefoot’s natural instincts, this will include providing him with variety of different fruits and vegetables. The following fruits and vegetables are perfectly safe to give to your hamster. Once again it is important to introduce these foods slowly to begin with and only ever give in moderation, as part of a balanced diet:

• Apples
• Bananas
• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Grapes
• Mango
• Melon

• Beansprouts
• Broccoli
• Cucumber
• Celery
• Cauliflower (leaves included)
• Carrots
• Peas
• Sweetcorn

Once again, this list is by no means complete and there will many others which are perfectly safe for your hamster; not having tried and tested them, I cannot recommend them.

Hamster Treats

You should treat your hamster as you would treat your child. If allowed, my eldest son Oliver would eat Jaffa cakes all day with the occasional pit stop for a purple Babybel. Not only would this be seriously detrimental to his health, it would also drastically reduce his life expectancy. While treats can be a great training aid for your hamster and a means to start building an interactive relationship, they can also be dangeros if given in large quantities. Excessive consumption of saturated fats and sugars may lead to diarrhoea and obesity.

Some of the more popular treats are outlined in the following list:

• Yoghurt drops
• Chocolate drops
• Honey sticks
• Millet

Many of the foods listed in the fruits and vegetables section are also considered as treat items and like the treats mentioned above, they should be given in moderation. For hamster breeds which are more prone to diabetes (hybrids, winter whites, Campbells and Chinese) be careful not to give them too many sugary treats. Certain treats can also be given as a way to keep the teeth from becoming overgrown and work as a greatr alternative when you hamster begins to chew the bars of their cage. Follow this link for more information on hamster bar chewing

Live Food / Protein

As mentioned earlier, hamsters are omnivores and will frequently partake in the odd insect or grub in the wild. I was quite surprised when I read about this and for some reason, I only ever associated hamsters with seeds and plant life. The hamster muesli will contain an adequate amount of protein but there is no reason why you cannot compliment this with even more. The following food items can be given to your hamster as a protein supplement:

• Mealworms – Live or frozen
• Crickets – Live crickets will provide a small treat and activity for your hamster
• Small amounts of cooked chicken or beef

Foods Best Left Away From Hamsters

While there are many healthy foods out there for your hamsters there are also ones that shouldn’t be given to them. Some are just not the best option and others can negatively impact the health of a hamster or even be toxic. This can lead to the inquiry: what foods should hamsters avoid?

It is equally important to learn about the foods which are unsuitable for your hamster as well as the ones which are good. The foods which are ill advised for your hamster are known to contain certain acids and extracts which will disagree with the hamsters digestive system:

• Almonds – known to contain cyanic acid
• Apple seeds, Grape seeds, Kidney beans
• Human chocolate
• Avocado – contains cardiac glycosides
• oranges, tangerines – large amounts of citric acids will upset the digestive system
• Watermelon – causes diarrhoea
• Garlic

A Hamster’s Diet

Finding the right diet for your hamster can be an important part of their daily routine to nail down. For the most part there are quite a few foods out there than can be healthy for a hamster – and on the other side of the argument there are also some that can cause a negative reaction. Overall it is best to find a food that ticks all the boxes and supplement it with extra approved treats.

Happy Hamster Top Tips:

• If you purchase your hamster from a pet shop, you will be advised to purchase some of the in store food. While you may have reservations about this or already have a preferred brand in mind, it is very important that you do acquire some from the store. You can then begin a weaning process where you will gradually introduce the new brand of food into your hamsters diet. Failure to do so can result in discomfort to your hamster.
• If your are in doubt abut what you can feed your hamster, think about how food would be presented in the wild. For example, salted peanuts = No
• Do not force food upon your hamster because you think it is the right one. Pay attention to your hamster and their reaction to the food. While you do have a responsibility to ensure that your hamster is presented with a balanced diet, remember that hammy knows best.
• It will not take you long to start noticing your hamsters favourite foods within their muesli. Why not try purchasing them separately and increasing the content within the mixture. For example. Littlefoot is very keen on sunflower seeds so I purchase some separately and mix them in to his food. Not too much though, Remember, everything in moderation.