What can you feed a hamster at home: food list

Before deciding how to feed a hamster at home, you should contact animal breeders. If you purchased an animal at a pet store, ask the seller what food was given to the baby. Considering that sellers are not able to provide rodents with optimal care, start from the food familiar to the animal and supplement it.

What to feed hamsters

If you just bought a pet in a store, immediately take all the contents of the dowry, including a drinker. From food you need to take grain food for hamsters and a mineral stone that does not contain salt.

The grain mixture should be specifically for hamsters, and not for birds or other rodents. Do not take drops for rodents: there is too much sugar, the animals do not need it. If there are several mixtures in the store, do not take the cheap one. The more expensive ones have the vitamins and minerals your pet needs and is better balanced. If you still decide to take economy class food, buy vitamins for it.

In addition to the dry mixture, it is necessary to feed the animals with juicy food.

What can hamsters and what not, a list of products

The table shows the main groups of products from what can and cannot be eaten by rodents:

The table gives general principles on how to feed a hamster, based on them, make up a pet’s diet.

What can be given to hamsters, food quality

If you have no plans to get rid of the animal in the near future, pay attention to the quality of the feed. The animal should not eat “from the garbage”, moldy grains and rotten fruits are not suitable for babies. Food at home should consist only of fresh and high-quality feed.

No one in their right mind would give a pet rotten fruit. But slightly spoiled apples “with barrels” are also dangerous for animals. A person is not afraid of porridge that has stood for two days in the refrigerator, and a hamster can get sick from it.

How to feed fruits to animals

Fresh vegetables and fruits can be put in a cage in a large piece or cut into pieces.

Since you can only feed your hamster with fresh food, be sure to remove the remnants of succulent food no later than after 8 hours.

Can hamsters give the same food in winter and summer

The diet of animals is quite diverse. It includes: grains, nuts, fruits and vegetables, protein products. Vegetables and fruits have a seasonal cycle. In the middle lane, cucumbers and plums grow in summer. At this time, they have a lot of vitamins. There will be no benefit from plums for the new year. It was: either grown somewhere far away, or treated with chemicals that protect against spoilage. This product should not be given to an animal. As for watermelons, it is better to exclude them from the diet altogether. They have a lot of water, and nitrates added during cultivation are perfectly dissolved in it.

It is better to prepare fruits in season. To do this, dry apricots and pears, and then add to your pet. Instead of greenhouse cucumbers, feed the animals with carrots and turnips, which retain vitamins well, apples can be given from fruits.

Is it possible to give a hamster exotic fruits?

Fruits are fed to hamsters at home regularly. They should be sweet, not sour. As for imported exotics, animals do not need them. Fruits such as: kiwi, papaya, pineapple, mango will not bring any benefit to steppe animals. Not to mention something more exotic. The only fruit that has come into common use is a banana, they can be fed without fear.

What can you feed a hamster who was left without a mother

It is a great misfortune if the babies lost their mother at birth or she escaped from the cage.

You will have to arm yourself with patience and take care of the little hamsters on your own. Of the mixtures, milk is best suited for feeding kittens. It can be bought at a pet store. Give your babies a diluted mixture every two hours. After eating, massage their tummy. Give the animals bottles of warm water so they don’t catch a cold.

As you grow, your diet gets richer. Add baby purees without salt and sugar to animals:

• vegetable;
• fruit;
• meat.

Boil them porridge on the water. Monthly animal can be fed with adult food. If necessary, grind it on a grater.

Controversial issues or what not to feed a hamster

There are products that cause controversy among animal owners. Is it possible to give milk to animals, how much cheese can be given, and how crackers and bread will harm.

To answer these questions, you will have to return to the diet of animals in the wild:

• Adult animals do not feed on milk, and the composition of the cow is not suitable for cubs either. Babies fed with bread soaked in milk only survive due to potential health, and not full nutrition.
• Feeding a domestic hamster cheese is not worth it. It is quite fatty and contains a lot of salt: this will harm the rodent.
• Bread and bakery products are completely inedible for rodents, although they will chew them. There are too many harmful components in crackers and cookies in the form of fat and sugar. If you decide to feed something similar, choose unsweetened drying. It will not be very useful, but in a minimal amount it will not cause harm.

What can you feed hamsters

The closer a hamster’s diet is to natural nutrition, the better for the animal. The less the product is processed, the more useful substances are preserved in it.

These rodents are the children of the steppe. It is easy to guess what hamsters eat. The basis of their diet is cereals of varying degrees of maturity: seeds, grass sprouts. Juicy roots and roots harvested in vegetable stores are also included in the menu of these resourceful animals.

Protein food is also necessary for animals. In the wild, these are: insects, wounded birds and small animals.

So, the diet of animals consists of:

• grain mixtures purchased at a pet store;
• juicy vegetables and fruits;
• green;
• seeds and nuts;
• low-fat dairy products, eggs or chicken breast 2-3 times a week.

The list of products can be supplemented if you have experience in raising such animals. You can make your own grain mixes or supplement them with grass seeds or cereals.

The cage should contain water and a mineral stone for grinding incisors.

Nutrition and care dangers of improper feeding

It happens that inexperienced pet owners seem to feed the animal correctly, but get a bad result: the animal gains excess weight, digestion problems arise. What could be the reasons:

• the animal is given a lot of treats;
• at home, the animal does not have enough “simulators”;
• hamsters’ diet consists mainly of ready-made meals: cereals and boiled vegetables

So feeding hamsters is unacceptable, even if they like it.

In nature, animals run up to several kilometers a day. They need exercise. In addition to the wheel, for running in a cage there should be: paths, labyrinths, passages and ladders.

The hamster eats twice a day: in the morning and in the evening. The evening portion should be larger, since the peak of activity of these nocturnal animals falls on the evening. Restrictions on dry food can be omitted so as not to create additional stress for the animal. Let the dry mix lie in the feeder at all times. Change it so that it does not have time to deteriorate. But treats – dose, especially if they are sweet, if you do not want to fatten the animal and bring it to illness.

What do dwarf hamsters eat

Feeding dzungaria practically does not differ from the diet of Syrian hamsters, with one exception. Babies are susceptible to diabetes. For this reason, sweet fruits should not be given to hamsters as their main diet. It is better to limit yourself to rare cases and give such fruits in small quantities.

What to feed hamsters at home in special cases

Special cases are the time of illness or the feeding of small hamsters. For babies, boiled cereals on water or baby food in jars without sugar, milk and gluten are suitable. In case of illness, the owner of the animal should contact the veterinarian, but one-time disorders can be tried to be corrected:

• If the animal has diarrhea, you can give the hamster rice water or slightly undercooked rice.
• If – constipation, it is necessary to give him 2 drops of vaseline oil after 3 hours. Here oil is not so much food as medicine.

An elderly hamster eats worse. It is more difficult for him to cope with large pieces of food and hard food. You can grate vegetables and fruits and steam cereals. However, solid food must be added, the animal cannot do without it. A decoction of chamomile, brewed twice a day, is also good to give to “pensioners”.

Caring for rodents is easy, but you need to know what hamsters eat. To do this, study the question of what hamsters are fed and what they cannot be fed on this depends on the health of the animal and its mood.