Home made mix

[Robolover21]

I want to make my own mix for my hammy, I do this for my other pets and find they benefit from it, but I'm not sure how to do this for a hamster.
She is currently on Harry hamster with. A few mealworms mixed in

[cypher]

Some people have done this but it's not very easy to do & get right.
Apart from deciding which grains, seeds etc you want to put in you need to find the protein, fat & fibre analysis of each ingredient then think about how much of each you want to put in the mix & you need to do that by weight not volume & get the balance right so the overall mix has the recommended amount of protein, fat & fibre, even having done that you can't be sure it would contain all the vitamins & minerals your hamster needs, one reason for the biscuit bits in mix is often to add in vitamins & minerals or with some mixes those are sprayed on to the whole mix.
I'm not trying to say you shouldn't do it just that there is an awful lot to think about!

[Robolover21]

Originally Posted by cypher

Some people have done this but it's not very easy to do & get right.
Apart from deciding which grains, seeds etc you want to put in you need to find the protein, fat & fibre analysis of each ingredient then think about how much of each you want to put in the mix & you need to do that by weight not volume & get the balance right so the overall mix has the recommended amount of protein, fat & fibre, even having done that you can't be sure it would contain all the vitamins & minerals your hamster needs, one reason for the biscuit bits in mix is often to add in vitamins & minerals or with some mixes those are sprayed on to the whole mix.
I'm not trying to say you shouldn't do it just that there is an awful lot to think about!

I know how hard it can be as I have a hedgehog and there is no suitable food made for them so I have to make my own. It will be hard but I can do it.
I was thinking of using two foods like Harry hamster and dwarf hamster harvest and adding in seeds and anything else that she can benefit from

[cypher]

If you don't plan on starting from scratch then it's not so hard. I use three different foods for mine, burgess dwarf, Jr farms & ratrations but I rotate rather than mix them so they get plenty of variety, I also give them a few other seeds like sunflower, pumpkin, hemp, flax & millet along with different nuts as an occasional top up treat plus a variety of fresh veg or sprouted seeds each day.

[Robolover21]

I have added some mealwoemto the mix which brought the protein up to 23% and May add some extra sunflower seeds as there seem to be very few

[cypher]

That's a bit high for long term use, you should probably aim for something closer to about 19%, too much protein can put a bit of a strain on the kidneys so try not to overdo it.
A mealworm or two a day won't hurt along with a few seeds but remember variety is the key so try to use a few different things as extras.

[Robolover21]

Originally Posted by cypher

That's a bit high for long term use, you should probably aim for something closer to about 19%, too much protein can put a bit of a strain on the kidneys so try not to overdo it.
A mealworm or two a day won't hurt along with a few seeds but remember variety is the key so try to use a few different things as extras.

I think I may have worked it out wrong as I added the mealies to the mix (7g) and the hh was 19%

[cypher]

Do you mean 7g of mealworms to a whole bag? I'm not even sure how much is in a bag off hand!
ETA Harry hamster mix if that's what you mean by hh is 14% btw, my maths is lousy so I can't talk lol! but I think you could be getting your figures a bit wrong?

[Robolover21]

Originally Posted by cypher

Do you mean 7g of mealworms to a whole bag? I'm not even sure how much is in a bag off hand!
ETA Harry hamster mix if that's what you mean by hh is 14% btw, my maths is lousy so I can't talk lol! but I think you could be getting your figures a bit wrong?

7 g to 700g of harry hamster
And you are right abiut the harry hamster, i obviously didnt read the bag properly