Article content material offered by Beri Instone, small rodent food regimen supremo.
We’ve talked earlier than about how hamsters usually are not simply hamsters; there are a number of totally different species, every with its personal wants. The identical is true for feeding. While many pet shops and on-line retailers nonetheless promote “hamster meals” (or, the good rodent protect us, “rat, mouse, gerbil and hamster meals”), most of those diets received’t be wholesome in your pet with out cautious modification to satisfy species particular wants.
Immediately we’re going to have a look at what’s wanted to feed dwarf hamsters accurately. We’re utilizing the phrase “dwarf hamster” as that’s the identify that usually crops up on meals or in hamster care. In actuality, what we imply is all of the hamster species saved as pets, apart from the bigger Syrian hamsters who’ve totally different wants. These are the Chinese language, Russian, and Roborovski (robo) hamsters – they aren’t truly “dwarf” animals – simply smaller species from different components of the world – however that’s the pet classification that has caught.
Chinese language, Russian and Robos are all totally different species, so how come we group them collectively for feeding? It’s as a result of their wants, so far as we all know, are fairly comparable. There isn’t lots of analysis on them within the wild, however based mostly on the science we do have, this grouping works moderately effectively.
The place Do Dwarf Hamsters Come From – and Why That Means No Sugar?
Russian and Chinese language hamsters stay within the northern steppe grasslands of China, Mongolia, southern Russia, and Kazakhstan. This closely influences the diets which might be good and dangerous for them, because it means their our bodies have developed to eat solely the meals which might be accessible in these environments.
From our standpoint, an important factor is that this implies a food regimen with no sugar – that features no recent or dried fruit, and even avoiding candy greens like carrots. The native wild food regimen doesn’t embody sugary meals because the crops that make them don’t develop on the steppes, so the animals’ our bodies haven’t developed a capability to tolerate them. If a pet Russian (together with hybrids) or Chinese language hamster is fed candy meals it has a really excessive probability of growing life-limiting diabetes.
Wild Roborovski hamsters stay in a semi-desert surroundings within the Gobi. In comparison with Russian and Chinese language hamsters they’re higher in a position to tolerate sugar and are much less diabetes susceptible. Nonetheless, additionally they don’t want a food regimen with additional sugar in, and since they’re so tiny, it’s a lot simpler to feed them on the identical food regimen as the opposite small species.
Tips on how to Feed a Dwarf Hamster
Ought to I Feed Hamster Pellets?
Quick reply – not as the one merchandise within the food regimen. Pellets and nuggets is usually a tempting choice for homeowners unsure methods to feed their animal as a result of they declare to place all the required diet into one easy kind. Nonetheless, there are three issues in feeding your hamster on these meals alone.
- Firstly, you’ve no management over the elements, which suggests you may’t adapt their meals to well being or life stage, and need to belief that producers have taken account of points like avoiding sugar.
- Subsequent up, pellets are a very, actually boring food regimen for an animal to eat (this is applicable to hamsters, rats, mice, gerbils and just about another animal you may consider). Each piece of meals eaten is an identical, at each meal, for all times. I don’t assume any human would fancy that food regimen so there is no such thing as a good motive to impose it on our pets. Wild hamsters are foragers/scavengers, which suggests they make investments enormous quantities of their vitality and mental effort into discovering meals. Captive hamsters want stimulation and curiosity by way of their meals to cease them losing interest. Boredom in hamsters can result in over-eating which places the hamsters susceptible to well being issues.
- Lastly, most pellets offered for “hamsters” are fairly giant – dwarf hamsters solely want two or three to make a meal per day, however that’s laborious for homeowners to consider which might result in over-feeding.
So, What Ought to I Feed My Hamster?
Dwarf hamsters needs to be fed a dry combine containing a wide range of kinds of meals. The essential pointers are that it ought to comprise +17% protein and +10% fats. These fats and protein ranges are obligatory as a result of being small implies that these hamsters have a big floor space relative to their measurement, which in flip means they lose warmth extra shortly than bigger animals and must burn extra energy to maintain heat.
When you stay in a extremely popular place like desert and southern American states you would possibly be capable to get away with fats across the 7% mark particularly in the summertime. Within the steppe and semi-desert meals availability is commonly seasonal, so having a special summer time and winter combine is okay.
However in fact, the elevated energy wanted shouldn’t come from sugar, so no dried fruit, dried candy veg, fruit juice, honey, and molasses. Bear in mind that it isn’t only a case of eradicating bits of fruit from an unsuitable combine – these meals are sometimes sprayed with fruit juice and/or molasses to make them extra palatable – and eradicating one a part of the combination will alter the dietary steadiness of the remainder.
As talked about above, Roborovoski hamsters can tolerate some sugar. Nonetheless, they’re tiny – actually, actually tiny! – so a single raisin can kind a complete, unhealthy meal. That implies that though we is usually a bit much less vigilant about their sugar consumption, it’s nonetheless finest to go for a combination with out candy issues added.
Is It Secure for My Hamster to Eat Complete, Unprocessed Grains?
Sure! There’s a fable on the market that hamsters can’t have complete grains as a result of the ends of the husks could be pointy and this would possibly injury their cheek pouch lining. That is unfaithful. Unprocessed grains are what dwarf hamsters eat within the wild, and are significantly better for his or her well being than extra processed meals (akin to pellets or processed cereal puffs), as a result of they’ve a low glycaemic index. Because of this they launch sugar into the blood stream extra slowly than excessive GI meals. Clearly, that may be a actually vital factor in an animal that’s susceptible to diabetes.
Ideally, complete grains needs to be fed reasonably than extra processed variations like flakes and puffs, and may definitely kind the idea of the dwarf hamster food regimen.
What Does a Good Meals for Hamsters Look Like?
Excessive-High quality Retailer-bought Hamster Meals
Discovering a great dwarf hamster combine is HARD, particularly in the event you stay in North America. Whereas information that they’ve totally different dietary necessities to Syrian hamsters is slowly spreading, understanding of their dietary wants continues to be restricted. It’s widespread for business meals to be labelled as appropriate for dwarf hamsters while having unsuitable sugar, protein and fats ranges.
Supreme Harry Hamster (known as Hazel Hamster in N. America) is an entire business combine. The recipe for this has modified through the years, and the present recipe branded as “tiny mates tasty combine” is appropriate for dwarf hamsters. It does have fairly huge items and processed grains, so if feeding this you will need to concentrate on the quantities being fed and make sure the hamsters have loads of cage house and enrichment to encourage bodily exercise.
Selfmade Mixes for Hamsters
The opposite finish of the dimensions is feeding a completely selfmade combine. This may be difficult to steadiness for dwarf hamsters and isn’t one thing to aim with out in depth dietary information. It’s straightforward to get it fallacious and because the animals are so small, it’s also straightforward to overlook well being issues.
In lots of nations, hamster homeowners promote their very own mixes on-line immediately or by way of a small firm. In case you are considering these diets, you will need to verify their dietary composition, as one thing that appears nice on the floor can nonetheless not meet the important thing wants. If you wish to feed meals like this, Beri recommends choosing a recognized model akin to Rodipet or Getzoo (each German, however could be imported to most European nations).
Retailer-bought & Selfmade Meals Combo
The simplest method for most individuals to feed is to mix business and selfmade meals – by shopping for small quantities of attention-grabbing elements from well being meals retailers it’s potential to complement a business food regimen akin to nuggets to create one thing that’s each nutritionally appropriate and attention-grabbing. The best method to do that is to feed one or a part of a nugget per day together with a tiny quantity of selfmade grain combine. Intention for the food regimen to be not more than 60% nugget in complete.
Business meals choices for this technique of feeding embody:
For making a selfmade combine to feed in tandem with nuggets, your mates are:
Offered for human consumption:
Dried lentils and peas, offered for people to make use of in broths and soups – these are excessive in protein however low in fats. These are extra applicable for dwarf hamsters than pet grade pea flakes as a result of their measurement. Observe: don’t feed dried beans as these are poisonous.
Oily seeds and their mixes. Significantly good choices for tiny hamsters are linseed/ flaxseed, hempseed, and sesame seeds. It’s best to keep away from pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds as they’re too giant and sunflower seeds don’t have the fitting oil ratios. You may add tiny quantities of ‘spice’ seeds like fennel and cumin for number of style.
Different minimally processed grains from well being meals retailers e.g. rice, buckwheat, job’s tears (that final one being East Asian may be very species applicable).
Offered for aviary birds:
Aviary meals based mostly on millets and canary seeds – usually labelled for budgies, finches, and parakeets. These are kidney-kind grains that are all the time complete grain nonetheless of their husks, and a beautiful small measurement. E.g. Kaytee FortDiet Parakeet (amazon.com hyperlink).
An instance selfmade grain and seed combine is:
- 50% Kaytee parakeet
- 15% different grains
- 20% legumes (lentils/ peas)
- 15% oily seeds
Protein
Nonetheless, on prime of that you just’ll must present protein (particularly if the chosen nugget has low ranges).
The easiest way to do that for hamsters is to make use of dried bugs (labelled for unique pets, wild birds and reptiles). Mealworms are like marmite, some hamsters love them, some hate them. Crickets and silkworm pupae are extra readily taken.
Relying on the age of your hamster (kids needing extra protein, oldies needing much less) you may feed wherever from one bug each day, to solely a couple of times every week.
Dried Forage
After you have your combine, whether or not business or selfmade, you will need to add some dried forage. Some German meals have this as a part of the recipe however most manufacturers all over the world don’t. On account of evolving in grasslands, dwarf hamsters want a food regimen larger in fibre than different omnivorous rodents.
Dried grass (extra nutritious than hay) and combined forage of dried leaves / stems / roots are each good. Nonetheless, make sure that the chosen model doesn’t add dried fruit or veg, and, notably in America, make sure that there’s no liquorice, which is unsafe.
Dried edible flowers and petals are additionally applicable – they’re a very good low-sugar method to offer a wide range of tastes and flavours. A giant handful of forage in complete combined up per 500g of meals works effectively. Acceptable manufacturers embody:
Does My Dwarf Hamster Want Dietary supplements?
Dwarf hamsters are laborious to complement. Their small measurement and caching behaviours make including dietary supplements to recent meals troublesome, whereas they drink little or no water, so including them to their water bottle additionally doesn’t work. In reality, the latter could be harmful, as a tasty complement can encourage hamsters to drink an excessive amount of and trigger kidney failure. Nonetheless, through the use of a proportion of economic meals of their food regimen, the necessity to complement is minimised, as business meals usually have dietary supplements added throughout manufacture.
When you do wish to give a dwarf hamster dietary supplements, the best choice is to repeat what reptile homeowners do and add a dusting of very high quality complement powder to bugs and grubs earlier than hand feeding them (so it doesn’t get rubbed off once more). Daily Essentials 3 (amazon.co.uk hyperlink), previously often known as Tiny Animals Necessities, is an insoluble vitamin and mineral complement designed to be added to meals and works very effectively for hamsters.
How A lot Meals Ought to I Feed My Dwarf Hamster?
Tiny hamsters solely want a tiny quantity of meals. A one-finger pinch of a good combine is sufficient meals per day for a dwarf hamster.
Bowls are a boring option to feed small animals – they take away all of the enjoyable, train and mental stimulation of discovering meals. So, it’s finest to scatter the meals within the animal’s cage. Nonetheless, hamsters don’t are likely to dig for meals, so scatter it on the highest of the substrate for them to vacuum up. You may up the engagement ranges by dotting bits of meals round on numerous ledges and ranges in addition to on the substrate – that additionally helps you retain monitor of which bits of their cage your hamster is utilizing.
It’s finest to solely feed a day’s price of meals at a time to cease stashing / caching behaviour. Wild hamsters eat the very best bits of meals first, after which use their cheeks as a large bag to move all the remainder again to their nest for later. It’s an important behaviour within the wild because it prevents the hamster ravenous throughout lean intervals. Nonetheless, in captivity it could possibly as a substitute result in the hamster solely consuming the fattening stuff and filling their mattress with mouldering meals.
You must verify hamster beds for meals weekly, particularly when they’re a brand new pet, as this may assist work out if you’re over-feeding. Enclosed beds with no flooring are splendid as you may simply raise them as much as peak beneath with out disturbing the hamster’s non-public house.
To be sure you are giving your hamster the correct quantity of meals, it’s best to weigh them frequently on a set of electronic kitchen scales. Sudden adjustments in weight can level to issues in feeding or well being points.
So, now you recognize the fundamentals of methods to feed your Russian, Chinese language, or Roborovski hamster. Bought a Syrian hamster? Look out for a future article all about their species-specific feeding wants.
