Larry-Jasper's homemade diet

[chesca_27]

Larry-Jasper is fed on my own homemade mixture, which he loves. He is an 8 month old pedigree winter white, meaning he isn't at risk of diabetes. His current food will last him until he is around 1 year old, so I have geared it towards an older hamster because he will be older when he has it. I have switched him over before, from his previous mix.

Since I have some time over the holidays, I have been working on a new food. I wanted to know everyone's opinion on the protein, fat and fibre percentages and ingredients. I won't be sharing the exact recipe as I worked very hard on it. And yes, I know about Harry Hamster and Burgess Excel Dwarf Hamster Harvest, so please don't suggest I use that instead.

I will be ordering this from Mixerama, so once I have created the mix recipe on Mixerama, I will attach the link to it (it may be in German and it won't have any nutritional information). I am also going to use this thread for updates on his food and any nutrition questions, since I find hamster nutrition very interesting.

Ingredients (in no particular order):
Millet
Red pepper
Freshwater shrimp
Mealworm
Wheat flaked
Spelt
Dari sorghum
Flaked Oats
Carob
Flaked peas
Nettle seeds
Kardi
Linseed
Crushed barley
Buckwheat
Amaranth
Pedigree Biscrok milky biscuits
Thrive chicken
Sunflower seeds
Flaked soya
Pumpkin seeds

Protein = 18.52%
Fat = 6.89%
Fibre = 8.98%

Could I have some suggestions on the best types of millet to use, as well? I want to use a mixture for extra variety.

Thanks

[Cinnamon Bear]

You may end up with a new hamster mix by starting your own company some day

[chesca_27]

Originally Posted by Cinnamon Bear

You may end up with a new hamster mix by starting your own company some day

Maybe . I really hope so though. I plan to be a small animal specialised vet when I'm older and hopefully have a small range of products for them . All depends on my GCSES (which I choose this year) and if I get into the Royal Veterinary College (not for some years)

[Cinnamon Bear]

I hope all your dreams come true

[chesca_27]

Thank you

[Cinnamon Bear]

Your welcome

[cypher]

Sounds good to me Chesca, all the ingredients are good, does he eat the nettle seeds btw? Mine would never bother with them so I replaced them with something else.
It depends how much millet you have in your mix overall but if you can just include a good variety as each one has a slightly different nutritional value but they're all good.

[Hamsterita]

Out of curiosity, how do you know the nutritional information (the percentages) on a homemade mix?

[cypher]

Hamsterita the simple answer to that is lots of research into individual foods & lots of calculations!
You can see more about making your own mix here, it isn't at all easy but it is fun & very satisfying when you finally get all the work done & see happy healthy hams enjoying it!

[chesca_27]

Sorry for my delayed response. I ended up playing with the recipe and changing it to include higher amounts of Jasper's favourite food so I have: Protein = 18.55%, Fat = 6.84% and Fibre = 9.24%. Not huge changes except for a bit of an increase in fibre, but otherwise I would have really struggled to keep the fat down and protein up. I was going to barely include mealworms, because they are so fatty, but I couldn't do that to Jasper's adorable face .

Originally Posted by cypher

Sounds good to me Chesca, all the ingredients are good, does he eat the nettle seeds btw? Mine would never bother with them so I replaced them with something else.
It depends how much millet you have in your mix overall but if you can just include a good variety as each one has a slightly different nutritional value but they're all good.

Glad to hear it I'm pretty sure he eats nettle seeds but I know he ignores the nettle pellets. I think he just doesn't like any pellets as I've never seen him eat them! It's only 20g of nettle seeds anyway. Approx 400g of millet, depending on what varieties are used and how it ends up dividing. Are all millets safe?

Originally Posted by Hamsterita

Out of curiosity, how do you know the nutritional information (the percentages) on a homemade mix?

I had to look up the protein, fat and fibre percentages and convert them to how much it would be per 100g for each ingredient. I then divided the amount needed by 100 and times it by the amount of grams for protein, fat and fibre.

Originally Posted by cypher

Hamsterita the simple answer to that is lots of research into individual foods & lots of calculations!
You can see more about making your own mix here, it isn't at all easy but it is fun & very satisfying when you finally get all the work done & see happy healthy hams enjoying it!

I agree with Cypher! Good thread linked. Cypher really helped with making my own mix and my original recipe was inspired by hers!