Help! No ratration mix for hamsters until further notice- any advice what now?

[evel_lin]

I feel like I'm missing some discussion that has gone on. Is there a reason other than the cost and needing to supplement that the RR mix shouldn't be used? I have no problem supplementing and was giving veg daily anyway. It's starting to feel a bit like hearsay and as RR and Silver aren't able to defend the mix we're only hearing one side. I'm not saying the mix is perfect, more that I for one would appreciate more information from various view points

[GhostsInSnow]

The supplement powder (Daily essentials) is pretty expensive (for me anyway) so supplementing both my hamsters as well as my three mice with it would cost me a lot and when I compare the price of the RR mix, Supplement and postage, it just worked out a lot cheaper to get a commercial mix that I don't have to supplement with vitamin powders. I don't mind supplementing fruit and veg, that comes with having rodents anyway and isn't a problem but having to supplement vitamins which are included in other mixes...it just made more sense to change, especially since none of us knew we were supposed to supplement with the Daily Essentials stuff until very recently.
I personally have noticed a very positive change in both of my hams since switching. I'm not saying that this is fact for everyone but this is my own personal experience

[Queen Of The High Teas]

So am I right in thinking that if you use a mix of commercial mixes ( I'm using pretty much the same as Lougarry mix wise), you don't have to add daily essentials or other powder vitamins/minerals? As I have 8 hams, so that is going to get expensive. Obviously, I add extras,and fruit/ veg several times a week, but I'm wary of vitamin supplements for anything, and I'd be afraid off getting the dose right. My personal belief is if things are working as they should, you don't need tubs of powders, potions and liquids.

[kyrilliondaemon]

Originally Posted by evel_lin

I feel like I'm missing some discussion that has gone on. Is there a reason other than the cost and needing to supplement that the RR mix shouldn't be used? I have no problem supplementing and was giving veg daily anyway. It's starting to feel a bit like hearsay and as RR and Silver aren't able to defend the mix we're only hearing one side. I'm not saying the mix is perfect, more that I for one would appreciate more information from various view points

I'm afraid the forum rules are rather strict about this topic so to avoid inadvertently breaking them for the nth time I can only answer kinda not-helpfully with what is 100% my own personal experiences.

In our experience we've had to take a three month old hamster to the vet with weight loss, change in behaviour and absurd claw growth. She got diagnosed with suspected dietary deficiencies. We changed her off the ratrations mixes and added a vitamin/mineral supplement for a few weeks. She's still smaller than she would otherwise be but she's now happy and healthy again (despite being off the supplements again). I can't see why she would be if the diagnosis of suspected dietary deficiencies wasn't correct, and personally I don't want to feed a mix when I can't believe its as complete as I once believed it was.
I did have more experiences I firmly believe are linked but the mods don't feel theres enough proof for it to be appropriate for me to post them on the forum so I'm afraid I can't post those.

After all of that I'd much prefer to feed a mix of commercial mixes because I worry that supplementing the ratrations mixes wouldn't be enough - I thought they were complete and now supplements are advised and I'm just worried there're other things we don't know too.

Now we feed four mixes, one is not commercial and is for diabetics so isn't any help. The other three...
Diabetes prone hams are just on science selective pellets at the moment
Syrians are on harry hamster mixed with jr farm dwarf and jr farm hamster.
Not-diabetes-prone dwarf hamsters are on harry hamster mixed with jr farm dwarf, jr farm hamster and burgess dwarf.
Those mixes give a good variety of food to most of our hams and while we've had the odd ham who wasn't impressed at first, our hams are happy and healthy and I feel much more confident that I'm feeding them a healthy diet. It was worth the change just for peace of mind really. Figure I can still feed them veg and stuff but I won't need to worry they're not quite getting enough, and instead of feeding everyone the vitamin supplements we can stick to just giving them to those on the diabetic mix.


Oh and Wobbles - Any complete commercial mix shouldn't need supplementing, as far as I'm aware if you mix commercial mixes it should still be fine. None of ours on commercial mixes are getting supplements now and I'm confident the diet is good for them.

[Queen Of The High Teas]

Thanks for that Kyrill, very helpful and informative.

I feed HH, burgess dwarf, will add p@h premium as commercial mixes all mixed together. Added is cockatiel mix, a variety of seeds/ grains/ egg biscuit off RR, and naturals herb mix. The last 2 are added a pinch or so of each every other night. As well as that, they regularly get porridge oats, peanuts, fruit, veg, salad leaves, shredded wheat and bits of dry bread.

I have 2 Syrians, 2 robos, a chinese, a hybrid russian, and I'm getting a campbell and a ww this week.

Is this suitable for all of them? I pick most of the pea and corn flakes out of the chinese and hybrid's.

[suga]

Originally Posted by njwilde

Hello guys,

I am going away for Easter so to make sure Poppy, Eleanor and my mice enjoy their usual ratrations I just went on the website to order more food and it said its suspended until further notice as apparently there were concerns it may not be balanced enough?!

Hello??? I mean then none of the stuff available in shops should be aloud to be sold as its certainly lacking in stuff. I am appalled, all my furries prefer that mix and as I feed them lots of other things as well in addition I am sure they get their right nutrition...

Does anyone know anything about this and any other advice on what other food? I always have a backup Harry Hamster which is liked but not as much as the ratrations for obvious reasons, and for my Robo Poppy I am really concerned now as she is a very picky eater....

If you have particular questions in relation to a specific food product then the best place to pass your queries is to the supplier of the food directly. If you have back up harry hamster mix then you could start to introduce this to the diet over a period of time to reduce the likelihood of upset tums.

[Moderator Team]

A note from the moderator team to the Hamster Central community:

Please be aware that we have been spending hours today going through reported posts, PMs, and this thread and trying to make sure this discussion stays objective and helpful, and does not point fingers where unnecessary. This is a touchy subject, because both the mix creator and the customers are members of this forum and are people with feelings (and all own pet hamsters for whom they want the best).

Please do not take it personally if your post was removed, or you were asked to modify your post to be more diplomatic or reflect only your personal experience and not hearsay / jumping to conclusions, and instead think about why it was done. Moderating where people's strong opinions and personal feelings are involved is always extremely difficult, and we are trying our best, so please keep it in mind. We hope that discussions such as this one will eventually result in something good instead of negative--such as improved hamster food mixes and awareness of what is beneficial for a complete hamster diet--it just needs to happen in a constructive and polite manner.

Thank you all for you cooperation.

[kyrilliondaemon]

Er... I swear I'm not being awkward here, but I thought the creator had left the forum? She posted a big thread saying so and hasn't been seen since...

[souffle]

People may choose to leave temporarily or permanently as they wish or may just choose not to post and we respect these choices.
Please remain on topic on the thread.

[shazzy]

I have a feeling Silver left as she felt a witch hunt coming. I agree with the mod's thread that we should respect people's feelings