Yummy natural treats!

[racinghamster]

I was bored last night so while putting out some dinner for my Russian dwarf Chubs, I got together a few bits and pieces to make him a tasty treat I knew he would like, so I took:

Two shelled sunflower seeds (without the shells)
one pumpkin seed (again, without the white outer shell)
one dry mealworm
one small peanut
One small piece of dry banana

All of the above removed from his normal mixes.

Take a pestle & mortar (if you don`t have one, I would suggest purchasing one!) and tap all the small nuts and seeds down and then mash everything up to a powdered consistency in the bowl.

Gather the powdered ingredients together on a teaspoon and add one to two drops of cold water. Using either your fingers or the spoon, whichever is easier, mould it together like a soft ball. I will say not to add too much water, only a drop to two drops to bind the mixture together as too soft, it may go too sticky. You want it to have a dry consistency rather than mush!

Chubs woke up at around 10:15pm last night and I turned around to see him trying to clamber up onto his shelf where I had placed part of the treat for him. He must have smelled it a mile off! He LOVED it! All natural, only a small piece of banana added for natural sugar taste.

This is something that can be made up easily without buying additional shop bought treats coated in syrup or honey or chocolate, especially for hybrid hamsters or Chinese.

Dry oats or other types of nut could be added as there are many natural things that can be mashed up using a pestle & mortar. Have a go! x

[velma]

Oooo! Sounds good! Could you bake it to make crunchy for them too, do you think?

[racinghamster]

Don`t see why not velma although you would need to make a small amount up, pop it on a baking sheet with greaseproof paper for maybe 15 minutes and see how they turn out. Being mostly seed/nut based, you would just be roasting them. I crushed up another small amount last night for Chubs and he loves it! I added in a few crumbs of science selective biscuit this time and as usual, he scoffed the pea-sized piece I put in his dish and then another piece up on his shelf for him to discover!

It`s so easy to do and everything you add in is natural and safe. x

[Pebbles82]

That sounds good! I have a little bag of skinless sunflower seeds and some pumpkin seeds too. I have peanuts. No mealworms though and only have fresh banana - do you think fresh banana would do instead of dried banana and leave out the water (might be a bit sticky I guess).

[racinghamster]

Fresh banana would probably be starchy/sticky Serendipity, which is why I added a small broken piece of dry banana from the Supahmster food just for the taste. I didn`t want Chubs pouching anything too sticky. I had a look at the dry ingredients I had to hand (listed above) and mashed them all together in just small pieces as I don`t like making too much at once, but as velma suggested, you could do that and pop them in the oven to dry them out and have a few over a couple of days.

I was in my local pet shop this morning and was chatting with Steve the shop owner about his bird seed mixes and I came out with my bag of Supahamster and a bag of kibbled bird food which contains kibbles of sunflower seeds, corn, millet and a few other grains. I can`t for the life of me remember the name of the mix now but will ask the next time I`m in. I popped a small amount in Chub`s dish and he`s scoffed it already! It`s basically the same small bits and pieces you find in dwarf hamster foods and having checked what was in it, I liked the sound of it for adding something yummy to his tea! x