What is everyone's preferred hamster mix? - Page 3

Emma · 01-13-2006, 01:34 PM

I was about to say P@H food has added sugar - makes no sense to me why they would do that.

If you're going to make up your own mix, I would reccomend that you read up on hamster nutritional requirements (texts are available on the internet relating to findings from laboratory animals), and then formulate your diet from there. It is easy enough to look up the nutritional content of each food you include in the diet, and work out the proportions. It just takes time!!! I think it's very important that animals get the right nutrition, and if you're just mixing things togther ad hoc there is a danger that the diet could be deficient in some areas.

I would also strongly advise against feeding any kind of uncooked pea or bean, as they can contain substances known as 'anti-nutritional factors' - things which at there best reduce the nutritional value of a food, and at worse can be very toxic.

I do think an understanding of nutrition is required to formulate a homemade diet.

nooboo · 01-13-2006, 02:46 PM

i do bbasically the same thing make up a huge big bin of food, i use a mixture of jollys rasberry hamster mix and a all inclusive hamster kibble as a base, and add different seads, oats, extra flat peas and sweetcorn, fruit ved, u name it to it

even some puppy biscuits at times!

Skwee · 01-13-2006, 03:12 PM

check back here tomorrow lol

but i have the name of a fantastic book that has recipes for all kinds of rodent mixes for all different stages of life etc. Its an amazing book! most of our mixes are based on that! Was given to us by a breeder for our rats but the hamster mixes are not very different and are good too.

nooboo · 01-13-2006, 04:52 PM

ohhh sounds like a good read i await all interested.

i have to admit that my mixes are more on approx amounts and when it looks right and i know i am rather protein high, need to put a few more carbs and fibers in really

Skwee · 01-13-2006, 05:43 PM

yea, i generally change what i put in the mixes depending on who's getting it, we have 4 syrian hamster mixes + plus my one for Moo.

-baby hammy mix

-pregnant hammy mix (higher in protein etc)

-diet hammy mix (not much usefull in it)

-normal hammy mix

not to mention the same again for rats, dwarf hammies, sugar free diets for lemmings, degus and chinchillas. different foods for different birds we have etc...

Hence why it's easier to buy great big sacks of all the different feeds and make our own mixes!!

Pendragon · 01-14-2006, 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skwee

I bought one bag of Burgess Hamster Food (yellow bag) and ended up binning it before using it!

---snip---

-1 bag of harry hamster

-1 bag P@H Hamster Musli (is mainly flakes! tiny ammount of corn and pellets, very few fatty seeds etc)

I guess you aren't aware that Burgess make all the P@H foods then??!!

Recently I've been using Wilkinson's cheapo hamster food and to be honest, it's pretty good. It has more of the things hamsters actually like eating... oats, barley flakes, maize flakes etc, and fewer peanuts & sunflower seeds. But mine also get a lot of different things in addition - including chicken bones occasionally, Purina Salmon & Fish cat biscuits, dried baked bread, cooked pasta if I have that for myself.

I was using Burgess hamster mix but wasn't 100% satisfied with how they seemed to be eating it (or not). I can only get small bags of Harry Hamster locally and it's twice the price.

The trouble is so little is known about Syrians in the wild that a good hamster mix can be hard to formulate. But mine do go for plain cereals and grains more than the coloured "biscuit" things and other odd bits they put in the food. But I have read that they inhabit grain frields etc in Syria so grains and seeds should be a good part of the diet, as they would be able to eat wild grains & seeds as well.

In defence of Burgess, I have to say their Supa Rat food is the best rat food I've ever used for my rats... no pellets and they do eat it all up, leaving only a few oat husks.

Making your own homemade diet is - as others have said - fraught with difficulties, and it's not like the old days when you could go into an old-fashioned pet shop & buy things like crushed oats, flaked maize, barley flakes, groats and kibbled wheat by the pound. Unless you live near a Jollyes (which I don't) but then I worry about the freshness of some of their loose grains as they aren't kept in airtight containers and you don't know how fast the turnover is.

Skwee · 01-14-2006, 01:01 AM

Forgot to mention as well.... we want a bloomin nu free guaranteed feed!!! grrrr.

Not for the hamsters sakes.. but for my friend, she has to use think gloved when handling the food or cups and stuff because she is so allergic to nuts. If she has a cut on her hand and touches a nut... well.. she'd die.

I wasn't aware Burgess made the P@H food. No wonder the sugar levels are so high then

Pendragon · 01-14-2006, 02:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emma

If you're going to make up your own mix, I would reccomend that you read up on hamster nutritional requirements (texts are available on the internet relating to findings from laboratory animals)

Hmmm.... do you have any URL's? I've been Googling all over the place and can't find much, apart from the oft-quoted "feed a rodent laboratory forumla" which isn't much help.

I have an old UFAW handbook which details some nutritional requirements but I'd rather get a better overview... preferably one a bit more up-to-date since mine quotes studies done in the 1950s and 60s.

The other part is, of course, that when you start looking at the protein content of various foods that often just lists crude protein not digestible protein levels... which are different.

I can get rat & mouse lab cubes which are probably suitable but haven't given much thought to trying them on my hamsters, mainly as they were just stashed when I gave them a few to see what they'd do with them!

nooboo · 01-14-2006, 05:26 AM

thank god i have a jolleys down the road is all i can say!

Emma · 01-14-2006, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pendragon

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emma

If you're going to make up your own mix, I would reccomend that you read up on hamster nutritional requirements (texts are available on the internet relating to findings from laboratory animals)

Hmmm.... do you have any URL's? I've been Googling all over the place and can't find much, apart from the oft-quoted "feed a rodent laboratory forumla" which isn't much help.

http://www.nap.edu/books/0309051266/html/125.html

This is the main one I was thinking of - provides a pretty good overview of what is known (bearing in mind it is now 10 years old) and provides references to each study so you can read up further if you are so inclined and have the time - I haven't found the time amongst everything else.