Wilko's own brand Nature salad?

Lizwig · 12-16-2015, 12:01 PM

So I bought a bag of Nature's salad from Wilko the other day for Donny, and he seems to eat some of it but I was wondering if someone could tell me if it's nutritious enough for him.

Link to the product: Wilko Nature's Salad Mix at wilko.com

velma · 12-16-2015, 04:28 PM

I've never tried that one. Is it supposed to be a complete food or a treat supplement thing? Curious now

Lizwig · 12-16-2015, 06:18 PM

It suggests mixing it in with hay, so I'm guessing a supplement of some kind at least.

cypher · 12-16-2015, 09:31 PM

If you mean nutritious enough as a main food then no, it does say complementary food on the pack there & is probably meant as a supplementary "Salad" type addition to the diet although it does have a fair bit of wheat & corn for a salad!
I wonder what edible leaves are too?
Does it have the GA on the pack? I couldn't see it at the link.
I would say it's fine to give as a supplement, I like to give mine various herbs, leaves & flowers scattered around the cage but it's not a complete food.

racinghamster · 12-17-2015, 02:02 AM

It`s basically a dried leaf/herb type mix that is nice to feed in small amounts but is definitely not a complete food! I remember buying something similar for my wee robo and placing some in his cage. He seemed quite excited at first and nibbled on some of the straw type pieces, but it usually ended up just being left!

That`s all it is really, a dry leaf salad. Some hamsters will play with it and have a nibble, while others won`t. It`s worth a go though. I imagine it`s more of a gimmicky thing though as fresh raw veg and salad leaves will be better for them in terms of nutrition and those can be bought in all supermarkets for £1.00 or less and kept in the fridge! x

cypher · 12-17-2015, 02:36 AM

Mine do quite enjoy a nibble on the dried herbs, they do have some benefits over some of the fresh veg we can give them good fibre & mineral levels plus some of the additional benefits you get from certain herbs so I wouldn't write it off as a gimmick but definitely only use as an extra along side normal mix & fresh veg.

Gemma_xo · 12-17-2015, 03:36 AM

I was looking at that pack for my Hamsters. I did have Pixie on their own brand food for a week or so and she barely touched it so I thought better of it & just stick to fresh veg on top of her normal food mix of Burgess Dwarf Hamster Harvest with JR Farm Feast with some meal worms & Science Selective biscuits broken in there too. (which now, thankfully she enjoys

). Tinkerbell's on the same food & seems to enjoy it ^^

Cypher, given you're a Dwarf Hamster expert - what herbs? I've been looking on the internet for aaages and can't decide what ones to give Pixie and Tinkerbell.
Also dried? How do dried herbs come about?

x

cypher · 12-17-2015, 03:44 AM

I'm not sure I'm an expert but there are quite a few different herbs they can have, the most common ones are things like dandelion, nettle, red clover, plantain, chamomile & lemon balm & parsley I think some hams enjoy basil fresh or dried but mine won't touch it!
You can get bags of mixed herbs like the Rosewood herb garden (I think that's what it's called) & there are a few other makes too (sorry I don't have any links to hand right now) or you can just buy individual loose herbs, I get some from Ratrations.
If the wiki page comes back up there are some listed there in the safe food section, most of my sources are in German which isn't a lot of help!

Lizwig · 12-17-2015, 07:28 AM

Is lemon balm okay for Syrians? I've been meaning to get a lemon balm plant for lemon balm tea. I've had the tea before and it made me so mellow I forgot about all my stresses.
It would be nice to see if Donny would like it too.

Regarding the nature salad though Donny likes some but not all of it so far. But I have to be super careful when I give it to him, I've already found a long piece of black string in it that I had to take out.

Other than that the product has a nice herby smell that's nicely fragrant. Nice enough that I'm just sniffing it occasionally.

cypher · 12-17-2015, 07:57 AM

The string doesn't sound very nice! I always treat any kind of dried plant the same as you would hay & check very carefully for any sharp pokey bits & only give small amounts so it's best to have a feel through regardless of what foreign bodies might be in there!

As I said in your other thread but just for anyone else looking at this lemon balm is fine for syrians & herbs generally will be the same for all species.