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Old 05-26-2017, 05:08 PM   #1
Desmond
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Default Picky eater?

My Syrian hamster Desmond seems to be very picky with his regular food. I feed him a hamster food mix that has a lot of different things in it, including a few types of seeds, dried peas, a rodent block/biscuit type of thing, a few various types of biscuits shaped like hearts and stars, and something that looks like a fruit loop (lol). It is supposed to provide the hamster with the proper nutrition (of course, I do give him fresh vegetables and other food as supplements/snacks/treats in addition to his regular food). His food mix also includes generic-looking pellets, but he eats everything in his food dish except these. He won't even take them from my hand if I give them to him, but he'll gladly take any of the other mix components from me.

I'm wondering if this sort of picky eating is normal for hamsters? I'm worried Desmond is missing out on certain nutrients if he's avoiding those particular pieces of food, but is eating everything else just fine. If it makes a difference, he is still very young, so I'm also curious if he might outgrow this and start eating those pellets, or if it's simply something he doesn't like.
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Old 05-27-2017, 04:26 AM   #2
AmityvilleHams
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Default Re: Picky eater?

That sounds like your food just isn't a good quality food.Shapes and such meant to appeal to humans rarely appear other than in poor quality foods(Kaytee etc).

The food must be natural and contain the necessary nutrients,along with no unsafe ingredients(unspecified biproducts including derivatives and digest and "liver" or animal liver,any artificial dyes,any artificial flavors,any artificial sugars or processed sugars such as maltodextrin,dextrose,and sorbitol,and also no unsafe preservatives which would be BHA/BHT/ethoxyquin which are all known to cause cancer).
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Old 05-27-2017, 05:25 AM   #3
cypher
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Default Re: Picky eater?

A lot of hamsters won't eat pellets, not knowing which food you use it's hard to say for sure but the pellets are often alfalfa or grass & hams just don't like them so I wouldn't really class that as picky eating.
Ideally you want them to eat everything in the mix so feeding the best quality mix you can is the best thing, not sure where you are but most people in the UK feed Syrians Harry Hamster, some hams will still get picky with some bits in that but most seem to do well on it.
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Old 05-27-2017, 06:35 AM   #4
Desmond
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Default Re: Picky eater?

Quote:
Originally Posted by AmityvilleHams View Post
That sounds like your food just isn't a good quality food.Shapes and such meant to appeal to humans rarely appear other than in poor quality foods(Kaytee etc).

The food must be natural and contain the necessary nutrients,along with no unsafe ingredients(unspecified biproducts including derivatives and digest and "liver" or animal liver,any artificial dyes,any artificial flavors,any artificial sugars or processed sugars such as maltodextrin,dextrose,and sorbitol,and also no unsafe preservatives which would be BHA/BHT/ethoxyquin which are all known to cause cancer).
Thanks, that's good to know. I checked the ingredients and the food doesn't contain any of those ingredients except some dye, but I think I will try out a different type of food and do more research to find another high quality food that has the right nutrient balances and such and ideally no dye.


Quote:
Originally Posted by cypher View Post
A lot of hamsters won't eat pellets, not knowing which food you use it's hard to say for sure but the pellets are often alfalfa or grass & hams just don't like them so I wouldn't really class that as picky eating.
Ideally you want them to eat everything in the mix so feeding the best quality mix you can is the best thing, not sure where you are but most people in the UK feed Syrians Harry Hamster, some hams will still get picky with some bits in that but most seem to do well on it.
It looks like the pellets are made from alfalfa, as that is listed in the ingredients. That would make sense then, if hamsters just don't like alfalfa. As I mentioned above I will be looking for another type of food and I'll make sure alfalfa or grass aren't a part of it. Thank you!
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Old 05-27-2017, 09:12 AM   #5
Drago
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Default Re: Picky eater?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Desmond View Post
It looks like the pellets are made from alfalfa, as that is listed in the ingredients. That would make sense then, if hamsters just don't like alfalfa. As I mentioned above I will be looking for another type of food and I'll make sure alfalfa or grass aren't a part of it. Thank you!

I wouldn't necessarily say to get a food without alfalfa pellets or grass. Grasses are a natural and important part of a hamster's diet, and they offer extra fiber and vitamins. A different food would be a good idea, but ensure there is an acceptable amount of fiber in it
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