Additional food

[Kirstyw]

Hello everyone
We have had Missy our Syrian now for a year an half now. She is lovely and we would like to give her a few more treats. She is fed a mix of pets at home healthy hamster muesli and burgess dwarf hamster mix. We buy the latter as it has meal worms in and that and she enjoys those.
We was wondering some healthy treats to give her? She loves those fruit and honey sticks from pets at home but obviously they aren't great for her and she doesn't get them often. She sometimes gets kale or broccoli or spring greens or this morning a have her a sliver of Apple. First time in months! What other things do people feed? I've read chicken but how do people cook it? When we eat chicken it's usually stir fried with coconut oil. I've also read cottage cheese. It would obviously be the plain one but apart from that is any ok? And how much to feed? And how? Just the solid bits? Also boiled egg- how much? I'm allergic to eggs so we never have them in so would buy it especially for her.
What greens are ok for her?
I apologise if this has been explained already. I've looked through the section and couldn't find anything exact. We are just really careful as we know she's getting a bit older now but we still want to treat her!!

Thank you

Kirsty ��

[Shannonmcn]

If you're feeding chicken it has to be plain with no seasoning. I normally use a George Foreman grill when I'm doing chicken so there's no oil on it at all. I'm not sure about coconut oil, I don't think it would be bad for hamsters since I know a little bit of desiccated coconut is fine. If you fry the chicken first with no salt or pepper on it then take a bit out for her then that might be okay. I don't know for sure so maybe wait and see if anyone else has a more detailed response

If you're allergic to eggs I wouldn't bother buying them in just for her, I eat a lot of eggs and normally just give my syrian the top of a boiled egg, about a cm square. If she's getting mealworms she doesn't need eggs for protein (some people argue they're not great for protein anyway) so it would be a bit of a waste for you to buy a box of eggs just for her. If she likes mealworms you can stick with those, you can buy packets of the freeze dried ones or I found these which have mealworms, crickets and shrimp. My syrian doesn't like them unfortunately but if your girl likes the dried mealworms they might be great for her.

As for safe foods I generally use the list on the Hamster Central wiki. I generally just give her whatever I have in the fridge myself I don't really buy anything in specially so I guess brocolli, spinach, green beans, carrots, cauliflower, bell peppers, cucumber and sometimes banana if my mum can spare a bit of hers. She also gets a few grains of cooked rice or a bit of pasta, some tuna if it's in springwater, chicken or boiled egg white. I do buy her peanuts specially.

[peasypea]

My syrian loves tofu, if that is something you have in the house! Also green beans, courgette and red pepper are her favourite veggies. She also likes a bit of cooked pasta too. She has turned her nose up at chicken and tuna both times I've offered it.

[Kirstyw]

Thank you Shannonmcn for your tips. We have a George foreman so when we do chicken on there again I'll give her a bit. I'm sure she will love it . Thank you for the links- I will print the hamster safe foods list and then I can see straight away what she can eat. We do usually have a load of veggies etc in as we eat quite healthy but we also have buns so we get greens in for them. It's interesting on the list about the plants as I go foraging for my tortoises so I can always keep her in mind as well. and I'll get some of the protein mix from zooplus- we do buy from there time to time so it'll be handy to have in the house. Thanks

Thank you also peasypea. I know you can get tofu in like a little carton and tbh I've always wanted to try it to get away from eating meat so I suppose this will give me a good excuse to buy it!! thank you again