What should I feed him

[Colleen]

I have a Chinese dwarf, I got him a food with a mix of pellets, corn, nuts and seeds. He has 3 kinds of treats yogurt drops, Timothy hay biscuits and apple and sweet corn crunchy sticks.

What other things can I give him as a treat that he'd really enjoy?

[kyrilliondaemon]

I'd be careful, as he's a chinese he's at more risk of diabetes than some other hams so I'd avoid the apple (and keep the corn to a minimum). Some of our hybrids favourite treats are dried coconut, broccoli, cucumber, porridge, scrambled egg, walnut, bran sticks, mealworms... There're loads of things you can offer him

[hamsftw]

Those all sound like fantastic treats to give your ham, I probably wouldn't venture far from those hamster specific treats, but for "people" food, try this list:

Foods that are safe for your hamster to eat - pet hamsters breeder

All of my hams have enjoyed broccoli and chicken especially

[Colleen]

Thank you

How do you keep your hammy from getting eggs and porridge everywhere?

[hamsftw]

Originally Posted by Colleen

Thank you

How do you keep your hammy from getting eggs and porridge everywhere?

Not really sure what you mean, when I feed my hammies treats like that I give them a little bit at a time, they don't normally pouch it and they eat it right away. Doesn't really make a mess or anything.

[kyrilliondaemon]

We put it in either small chutney bowls or cake cases, and we make sure the porridge is fairly solid (or completely solid, they quite like it mixed with some bird seed and oven baked for a bit). Some hams still make a mess - like when Fwirl decided it was perfectly sensible to turn over a cake case of cat food and pull it to her nest with the cat food under the cake case, but that aside... Its not as messy as you'd expect lol

Oh, make sure the egg and porridge are cool before the hams get them too, they solidify more and are safer as there's no risk of hams burning themselves

[Colleen]

Ok thanks ill give it a try

[Kissa]

I second what kyrilliondaemon said, Chinese hamsters are prone to diabetes, so you need to cut out the amount of sugar they eat. Lots of owners remove ingredients like corn/maize from mixes, which is high in sugar. Avoid any mix than adds "molasses" or some other kind of sugar. Avoid most hamster treats too, as they are high in sugar. Green veg is great, avoid fruit and high sugar veg like carrot.

If you don't want to pick bits out of the mix, look for Supreme Science Selective. It's not got any sugar or high sugar ingredients. Unfortunately it's a pellet mix, so you might also want to add bird seed or something for variety.

[Colleen]

How bout dried strawberry?

[LavoChain]

Dried fruits generally have an even higher sugar content than fresh fruit. I personally would not feed fruit at all, a lot of Chinese develope diabetes even if they're fed on a strict diet so tempting fate in my opinion is not worth it. There have been some great treat ideas added so if I were you I would go for those. My russian hybrid loves porridge, he gets some oats in his mix as I remove all corn ect.