Meat and other foods

[Snowball]

Hi, i have been reading all of these posts about how people give their hamsters meat and potatos and apple sauce and juice, but i thought hamsters are only supposed to eat hamster food, with the occassional raw veggie or may fruit? i didnt know hamsters were meat eaters or potato eaters? is it safe to give them so manydifferent kinds of foods? i worry about them getting diabeties if they are prone too it.

[MissGSFL]

Meats like chicken are a good source of low-fat protein which hamsters really need. Eggs (boiled or scrambled) are also good protein. Hamsters can also have a small amount of cheese, milk and yoghurt (lacto-free is better, but a small amount of dairy is okay). Some hamsters love porridge, pasta, noodles and plain cous cous. Bread crusts have gone down well with mine in the past.

Hybrids and Chinese hamsters shouldn't have anything high sugar, but Syrians and Robos can enjoy the occasional sugary treat. Baby fruit deserts are used a lot on here.

Just make sure anything fed is free from onion and garlic and isn't too sticky or toxic (chocolate)

[Scampi16]

Mine get a range of food from Hamster food & treats, seedblocks as well as baby food, fresh fruit & veg, cooked plain pasta, cooked plain chicken, little bit of cheese, mealworms, dried bananna, plain scrambled egg, dog biscuits (Milky bones), porridge (both cooked and dry) and millet sprays (not all at same time and not too much at one time). Nice bit of variety. My hammies love it.

[MissGSFL]

A corner of Custard Cream biscuits is also always loved. Sometimes I also give a little bit of 'garden salad' (grass and dandelion leaves)

[Kissa]

In the wild, hamsters are omnivores and eat insects and bugs as well as seeds, grains, greenery etc. While they wouldn't eat stuff like plain cooked chicken or scrambled egg in the wild, it is something that they often enjoy as a treat in captivity as is not dangerous for them and full of nutrients

[kyrilliondaemon]

Diabetes can be a concern but there are lots of treats that're fine for diabetes prone hams, we limit the sugar and carbohydrates in some of our hams treats but they can definetly enjoy the odd less-sugary treat fine.
Chicken is a big favourite with our hams

[Anthorn]

Yes, cooked chicken breast is a favourite. A raw organic cauliflower floret and a chunk of apple. Hamsters can eat a lot of the foods we eat. Live mealworms are a favourite so long as they're small: You can play safe and crush the mealworm's head but really the first thing a hamster is likely to do with a live mealworm is bite off its head anyway. Probably best to start them young with mealworms because older hamsters seeing mealworms for the first time will be a bit bewildered.

btw raw fruit and veg needs to be washed thoroughly and apple skins scrubbed to get rid of a thin coating of paraffin wax. It makes the apples shiny but gives hamsters and us the trots. Or just peel the apple.

[crazygal330]

They are omnivorous so can have a wide variety of things as long as they have a good base diet you can add healthy supplements.
I a super excited to try my hammies with live mealworms later on tonight

[Eriklover555]

Actually, some owners prefer to feed a variety of fresh foods (veggies, fruits) and seeds/nuts, instead of a commercial mix. There is no real reason why there can't be variety in a ham's diet.

Despite what commercial feeds will have you believe, there is no "real" list of vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins, etc. In fact, most animal feeds are evaluated just by watching the body condition of animals over a period of time. So, that leads us to believe that if body condition is ideal, the food is ideal - which can be very misleading.

So, variety isn't a bad thing, although it may lead to digestive upset for a ham used to the same type of food, day in and day out.

[Lloydhammy]

what about beef?