Can hamsters have honey, sugar and chocolate

Owners of small rodents often wonder what kind of treats you can treat your pet, whether honey, cookies, chocolate and other sweets can hamsters. This is due to the fact that in addition to ready-made food, the pet menu includes foods that people eat – seeds, nuts, cereals, fruits and berries. However, one should carefully approach the choice of “sweets” for a hamster – a lot of what the owner eats is completely unsuitable for domestic rodents.

Can hamsters have honey

Pure honey is contraindicated for healthy rodents. The composition of any sweets contains a very large percentage of glucose, which the digestive tract of pets is not able to cope with. Such treats can provoke serious diseases that even lead to the death of a hamster. This is especially true for jungars, who have a genetic predisposition to diabetes.

Also, the answer to the question why honey is harmful to hamsters lies in its ability to cause allergies. Even a small amount can cause a severe allergic reaction in Djungarian and Syrian hamsters, up to anaphylactic shock. A similar effect can be observed in other breeds.

Honey for medical purposes

However, some veterinarians recommend using a small amount of honey if a pet is sick:

• a cold animal is often given warm water with the addition of milk and a drop of honey;
• if a lack of vitamin E has caused liver failure in a pet, then one of the treatment options may be the inclusion of honey in the diet in doses prescribed by a veterinarian;
• long-haired Syrian hamsters develop hairballs that clog the intestines and can cause death of the animal. For prevention, it is advised to lubricate the coat with a small amount of honey 1-2 times a week. Rodents have a big sweet tooth, they lick it off, and the hairs that accumulate in the stomachs, sticking to honey, are excreted from the hamster’s body.

Before implementing these recommendations, you need to consult with your doctor and make sure that the hamster does not have allergies, and he tolerates such procedures well.

Drops for hamsters

Pet stores often sell hamster drops. This delicacy almost always contains honey or sugar. Giving such treats to pets is not more than 1 time per month. For dwarf breeds – Dzungaria and Roborovsky, such a delicacy is contraindicated due to a tendency to endocrine diseases.

Can you give your hamster chocolate and sugar?

If sometimes honey does not harm a hamster and can even turn out to be a medicine, then sugar and chocolate do not carry any useful properties, but they load the pet’s digestive organs and create a colossal excess of glucose. Therefore, sweets should be completely excluded from the rodent’s diet, despite their great love for sweets.

The body of hamsters is very delicate, and their health directly depends on proper and balanced nutrition. Subject to the rules of feeding, diseases will bypass the pet, and he will happily jump around the cage, delighting the owner.