Among the most common categories of house pets, hamsters are easily one of the smallest in size and the easiest to feed. With that said, are you sure that the way you feed your pet is correct?
Below are the four most asked questions regarding hamster food.
We believe that they can explain to you the basics of a hamster diet and that your pet will thrive if you follow the scientifically proven suggestions at the end of each answer.
So, let’s get to know more about hamster diets.
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Frequent Questions For Hamster Food
What is hamster food made of?
There are many types of hamster food commercially made on the market. You can buy them online, at the supermarket, or at the pet store.
The most common form of this food are pellets, which are bits of dry food.
The manufacturers use materials like dry sunflower seeds, grains, oats, barley or malt. Premium pellets food has 18 – 22% protein, which is the right amount of macronutrients that hamsters need.
Most hamsters prefer pellets mixed with seed, however, your best bet is a bag of dry food that contain both seed, pellets, dried veggies and also fruits.
Be aware of sunflower seeds. While they could make up a healthy proportion of hamster food, this material is also the leading factor that causes both obesity and nutritional deficiency at the same time.
The reason is that while they have high calories content, the nutrients in this ingredient are not sufficient to satisfy a hamster daily needs.
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What food hamster can eat?
Hamsters are fairly easy to feed, and they thrive on a diet combining fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
In their natural habitat, these animals also thrive on some insects as well, which make them omnivores.
While it’s true that a hamster can live off solely commercial hamster food, it’s best that you supply them with a proper and balanced nutrition plan.
Hamsters also like vegetable and fruits.
Because they are small in size, these rodents will have diarrhea if you include too many veggies and fruits in their meals. They can also eat chicory, broccoli, cauliflower, banana or peach.
The two food that hamsters like the most are peanuts and sunflower seeds. As tasty as they are, these two ingredients pose major risks for obesity and nutritional deficiency in rodents.
Therefore, you should never free feed them with these seeds.
If you include fresh veggies and fruits in your hamster diet, make sure that you remove the spoiled food before it rots. Your hamster will suffer from digestive problems if they munch on these foods.
If you want to give your hamster some special treats every once in a while, then a little hard-boiled egg or mealworms are ideal. These foods supply the rodents with good protein that they need.
Read More: for No Drip Water Bottle for your rodents.
Can rabbits eat hamster food?
Technically speaking, rabbits can consume hamster food.
In fact, feeding these two species of animals the same type of food is what many owners do when they have two in the house at the same time.
Another factor that contributes to this common practice is that the owner is on a budget for pet food, and the hamster food in their local store is at a lower price base.
A lot of hamster parents also do this when the local pet stores don’t have rabbit food, and in a tight situation, they choose the hamster food. Better than nothing, right?
There are many reasons why you might feel tempted to use hamster food for rabbits.
However, commercial food for animals is often specially designed for each species, and food for hamsters won’t have the nutritional requirements sufficient to feed a rabbit.
While a hamster can’t stand too much fiber in their diet, rabbits need ones that are particularly high in cellulose.
The material from plants are useful for the complex digestive tracts of rabbits, however, hamsters can’t digest them fully, which will lead to diarrhea and other digestive problems.
On another note, rabbits also have more sensitive digestive tracks, therefore, using unfamiliar food for them will pose unnecessary problems.
Even as a one-time solution only, this swap will also cause your pet stress and most likely diarrhea.
If you want to introduce any type of food to your rabbit, the process should take over a period of 7 to 10 days whereas you increase the new ingredients steadily and decrease the old food product.
Read More: This guide helps to clean the hamster cages.
How do you avoid bugs in hamster food?
No matter if you free feed your hamster of feeding them periodically from a bag of food, there is always a risk of small bugs infecting the rodents meal.
The most typical species of insect that may invade your hamsters’ food are weevils.
Although they generally don’t harm anyone, these bugs will destroy the pet food and make a terrible sight.
There are many ways that you can employ to keep the bugs out of your hamster food.
However, all of these methods begin at one task: to inspect the stored food and find out the source on which the weevils are infesting and feeding on.
These bugs dote on whole grains, dried cereals, seed, and nuts, which are also the main component of a hamster’s food.
After you’ve done inspecting, discard all the food that is infested by the bugs. It’s also necessary to discard of the food in the area that you store the bag that has bugs inside.
After that, you can try to kill the eggs, larvae, and pupae of the weevils by vacuuming the store area.
Use the brush attachment and pay special care to the edge of your shelves, floor junctures and corners.
Wipe the area clean, and repeat the procedure every 6 months.
If the infection is severe, you may consider professional and chemical treatment.
With that said, if these bugs only present in your hamster food, then it’s not necessary to make such drastic solutions.
In case that you resort to using an insecticide, make sure that you use ones that are safe for food areas, and use the substances for only cracks and crevices.
Read More: to stop hamster biting.
Keep your rodents healthy
As with all other animals, the diet plays a huge part in your hamster life.
It’s necessary that you learn the information that is vital to make up a balanced and strong nutrition plan for your pet.
We hope that you raise your pet healthily and happily.