Strong smelling treat

[blpriestley]

Hi, I'm trying to make some hidden treat toys and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what to put in there. At the moment I put in nuts, seeds, his food and dried mealworms. He (a Syrian) does do a bit of chewing to find these but not a lot. The only thing I've found he chews is nuts in shells. I'm hoping to encourage more chewing! Preferably I want the treats not to be fresh but I'm open to any suggestion. 😄

[cypher]

Dried chicken maybe, it doesn't smell that strong to me, I use this one or this one but they have a much better sense of smell than we do so they can sniff it out from a way off, the same goes for most foods or treats, just find things he likes & he'll put in the work to find them.
If he likes mealworms he might like this which smells even stronger!
Mine enjoying foraging among herbs & flowers so that might be worth a try too.

[CMB]

If the chicken is warm it might help him smell it out even easier. My hamsters would smell chicken when it was cooking/finished cooking on Sunday (Sunday roast) and sit waiting for it in their chosen treat giving spot within their cage.

[Drago]

I would agree with the idea of chicken as well, hamsters seem to enjoy it a lot. Cheerios are pretty fun to add in, and they're healthy for them. My hamsters love tearing apart toilet paper tubes filled with tissue to get at cheerios I've hidden in there, so that could be fun to add in

[Pebbles82]

I know you said not fresh - but cheese? Smelled from a long way off - I find a bit of cheddar just goes a bit hard and doesn't really go off, if not eaten straight away. Although if it got wet (pee'd on!) it could go mouldy I guess.

If you want to encourage more chewing though, an irresistable chew or chew stick is the way to go. Most hams find the Whimzee toothbrushes and alligators irresistable (vegetable chews for dogs but the small size is ok for hamsters).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Home-Kitc...zee+toothbrush

Our Syrian will also chew these and they're sugar free. He took a couple of days before he was interested in it but loves them now.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Grocery/R...andelion+chews

[Fluffagrams]

I've done some sniffing games with James and he's usually been the most keen on mealworms, chicken and the other thing that usually intrigues him is a dog biscuit. I tend to buy the Biscrok Original since they're what goes in the show pens but I've not found them to be as easily available as the other types of Biscrok. I've used the puppy biscuits from Pets at Home before but my current hamsters don't seem to be as keen on them as they are the Biscrok.

[blpriestley]

Thank you for your suggestions. I've bought some foraging treats and I'm going to go to pets at home later and try and get some whimzees. For some reason I can't find them anywhere so hopefully I can find some. I saw on the website that they had hedgehog shaped ones. I'm assuming these are just like the alligator ones? Dried chicken sounds interesting he definitely likes fresh chicken so I'll try to get a little bit to try. I've got some gravy bones but he doesn't seem to like them so I'll have a look to see if they have a loose selection of biscuits so maybe I can try a variety.

[AmityvilleHams]

As long as they're Whimzees or Antos they'll be fine The hedgehog ones are the same ingredients but they might be a bit more long lasting,I'd have to check that first though just to verify.

Be mindful of biscuits as it can be difficult to find some that have high quality meat-based animal protein.A lot of the times you'll find meat and derivatives instead of actual meat,which isn't good,and a lot of brands do it whether big brands or store brands etc.There's also a lot of vague terminology with big brands,including the potential to hide questionable or unsafe ingredients with terms that make things seem perfectly safe.It doesn't have to be expensive,but paying a bit extra may be necessary to get superior quality.

A big example is the vague term "EC permitted antioxidants" and similar.This is not a good thing and cannot be considered guaranteed safe,since it allows the usage of ingredients which are known to cause cancer.Having frequently checked even with the US versions of a lot of big brand dog biscuits,it is very much the same except the ingredients are plainly listed and clearly list BHT/BHA/ethoxyquin.

[cypher]

All the whimzee/antos chews are fine, toothbrush, alligator, hedgehog, eurostar or frog they do vary a lot in size but that's about it, the toothbrush seems to be the most popular.
I use Biscrok biscuits too, they can be a bit harder to get hold of but have been the only ones my hams like, mostly the chicken ones, they're not too fond of the others.

[blpriestley]

I've just seen that pets at home sell dandelion 30% and nettle roots 70%. I know that dandelion roots are fine but what about nettle. It doesn't say hamster suitable on the website