[Vierville]

It's just the protein content of mealworms that is beneficial and I've found that offering mealworms is a very effective way of getting a hamster to bond with me and become less shy or nervous of interaction, purely because their fondness for the worms overrides their fear or shyness.

Dried mealworms are included as an ingredient in some hamster mixes too, like the "Veresele Laga Mini Hamster Nature" which I use.

I'm sure that giving them a bit of boiled or scrambled egg or plain boiled chicken would provide just as much protein and other nutritional content as worms.