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Pebbles82 · 07-01-2016, 10:47 PM

I've always given our Syrian: His Hamster mix, a thumbnail sized piece of veg each day (usually broccoli, carrot, cauliflower or cucumber - a different one each day

and one healthy "extra" - like half a brazil nut, half a walnut, a piece of cheese (thumbnail sized again), a healthy hamster treat like a piece of dried dandelion root or treat biscuit without sugar, or a couple of pumpkin seeds. The nuts only once a week though. To make him work for them (ie get out of bed and go across the cage!) I put them in different places, and would sometimes scatter feed half of his hamster mix.

So the hamster mix would go half in the bowl, half scattered round on the substrate. The veg would go somewhere else (I used to put it in a hanging sputnik but now it goes on top of a ceramic log thing), the "extra" would go somewhere else again - on a kabob or the top of a toy or something - but always the same place. He would get quite excited going to find it each day (knowing where it would be) and it also got him using the whole cage. (Just realise I wrote in the past tense there - it's because he's ageing now and everything is at floor level. I still do the same but all at floor level!)

Occasionally he'd get a piece of plain cooked chicken or any other plain roasted meat we might have had (no gravy) but I tended to keep that as an out of cage treat - he usually ate it straight away or ate some and left some - if they pouch it you then need to check the nest and remove it if it's still there before it goes off! Occasionally he'd pouch it but I never found it in his nest so reckon he ate it all later. It's one reason for giving very tiny amounts - they actually don't eat that much.

Toilet paper puzzles - I was thinking you meant Crossword toilet paper - lol! I had this vision of a little hammy in glasses having to complete a crossword before getting his treats

Did you mean toilet roll parcels?

07-01-2016, 10:47 PM
Pebbles82 Hamster Antics Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 23,533	Re: New treat system, is it too much? I've always given our Syrian: His Hamster mix, a thumbnail sized piece of veg each day (usually broccoli, carrot, cauliflower or cucumber - a different one each day and one healthy "extra" - like half a brazil nut, half a walnut, a piece of cheese (thumbnail sized again), a healthy hamster treat like a piece of dried dandelion root or treat biscuit without sugar, or a couple of pumpkin seeds. The nuts only once a week though. To make him work for them (ie get out of bed and go across the cage!) I put them in different places, and would sometimes scatter feed half of his hamster mix. So the hamster mix would go half in the bowl, half scattered round on the substrate. The veg would go somewhere else (I used to put it in a hanging sputnik but now it goes on top of a ceramic log thing), the "extra" would go somewhere else again - on a kabob or the top of a toy or something - but always the same place. He would get quite excited going to find it each day (knowing where it would be) and it also got him using the whole cage. (Just realise I wrote in the past tense there - it's because he's ageing now and everything is at floor level. I still do the same but all at floor level!) Occasionally he'd get a piece of plain cooked chicken or any other plain roasted meat we might have had (no gravy) but I tended to keep that as an out of cage treat - he usually ate it straight away or ate some and left some - if they pouch it you then need to check the nest and remove it if it's still there before it goes off! Occasionally he'd pouch it but I never found it in his nest so reckon he ate it all later. It's one reason for giving very tiny amounts - they actually don't eat that much. Toilet paper puzzles - I was thinking you meant Crossword toilet paper - lol! I had this vision of a little hammy in glasses having to complete a crossword before getting his treats Did you mean toilet roll parcels?