Who doesn’t love hamsters? Hamster is one of the popular choices for a pet and usually mistaken with guinea pigs. Talking about their food, we often pictured hamsters with chubby cheeks, filled with sunflower seeds, just like in our old Sunday morning cartoon. But you might be wondering what would hamsters eat in reality?
Well, this article will help you out to answer your curiosity. If you are a new hamster owner, knowing about the best and healthiest food for them is super important!
Hamsters can eat a variety of foods because they are known as omnivores. In the wild, their typical food is based on where they live, from seeds, grains, and sometimes some insects. Anyway, hamsters’ cheeks are their food pouch. They don’t immediately eat the food but instead, they keep it in their cheek pouch to be eaten later.
Since they are able to eat a wide variety of foods, you might get overwhelmed when you have to choose one. Here are some ideas for you that you can try:
1. Packaged Pelleted Hamster Food
As a new hamster pet owner, the easiest and safest choice is to go with a packaged meal from pet stores. The pelleted hamster food offers a complete balanced diet for your little friends. It also comes with many types and shapes. You can choose from cereal types, cookies type, or even biscuit types, whatever your hamsters like. Giving pelleted food constantly might lead your hamsters into boredom. To prevent them from refusing the food, you can add supplements and mix the pelleted food with a variety of other items as long as the pelleted food remain to be the main portion of the diet! They will love it!
2. Seeds and nuts
Seeds are one of their favorite meals! It does not always have to sunflower seeds, anyway! It can also be some pumpkin seeds. However, the best option is the loose seed mix diet that contains a variety of seeds mixed with grains and dried vegetables! This combination is good for a balanced diet plan. You can also give them some type of nuts or peanuts as long as it is unsalted. Also, never give your hamsters almonds because it is bad for their health!
3. Fresh food
Basically, hamsters love to eat fruit and vegetables. You can give them a lot type of fruits and veggies, but you have to make sure about the portion. They obviously have a small body so too many fruits or veggies can lead them to tummy problems like diarrhea. Some types of hamsters, like dwarf hamsters, for example, are prone to diabetes, so you have to cut down or avoid fruits with a high level of sugars, like carrots and grapes, or any sugary store-bought treats like fruit yogurts. Acid is also bad for your hamsters’ bellies so you may don’t want to give them any citrus fruit with a high level of acid in it.
If you worry, you may want to consult with your vet before choosing the safest type of fresh foods along with the proper amount of portion depending on the body size of your hamsters.
The basic safe foods that you can offer to your little furry friends are small cube of apple without seeds, carrot or cucumber, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, bananas, cucumber, dandelion greens, kale, peas, cooked and peeled potato or sweet potato, spinach, romaine lettuce, celery, bok choy, peaches, mango, or hay.
And since they are omnivores, you can also give them some type of insects like mealworms or crickets as well!
4. Human meals
Besides fresh fruits and veggies, you can also offer your little friends with your usual meals (with proper portions, of course!). You can give them foods such as whole-grain bread or whole-grain cereal without sugar, cooked whole wheat pasta, cooked brown rice, small pieces of cooked chicken, hard-boiled eggs, plain air-popped popcorn without butter or salt, and even peanut butter! However, you must be careful when giving them peanut butter or any other sticky food because it may get stuck in their cheek pouches (remember about their habits of keeping food earlier!) and then lead into some health problems. So it will be better for you to give it as an occasional treat with a small portion.
You may also want to make sure your little friends are not eating any food with sharp edges, because just like the sticky peanut butter, it can become stuck inside their cheeky pouches and injured them! We don’t want any accidents to happen, right?
Okay. Now we know about the best type of foods that we can feed to our little friends, but it is also important to know which types of food that you should not offer! Those are raw beans, raw potatoes, citrus fruits like oranges, apple seeds, almonds, garlic and onions, rhubarb leaves or raw rhubarb, and (sadly) chocolate, along with any salty and sugary foods. You also should not give them any junk food as well! Keep their diet plan fresh healthy, so your little friends would be very happy!
That is all about some ideas about the healthiest food that you can offer to your hamsters. Remember that the key about the healthiest food is not only about what type of food you offer but also about the portion. Even though they look cute with those cheeky bums, you should never give them too much food or more than they have to because they might get sick from it. The easiest and safest option is the packaged food for hamster because you can easily find them in pet stores, but it will be better to add other types of foods like fresh fruits and veggies, seeds, or even small portion of human meals to keep them out from boredom! So, good luck!
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