Opinions on Harry/Hazel Hamster Food for Hybrid

[SnoWolf]

I have a hybrid dwarf named Marshmallow and I've noticed that the food he has (Which is Vitakraft) doesn't have as much nutrition as it should have for a hamster his age. So since I don't have Burgess Dwarf Hamster Harvest available here and ordering online probably will get turned down by my parents I wanted to get to know some of you guys' opinions and views on feeding him HH food. I've seen comments all over ranging from claiming that HH is the best hamster food to saying that it should be a last resort. I wanted to see whether it worked for your hamsters as asking the supplier/company may turn up with a biased opinion. I understand that no commercial mix is perfect and that I'd have to add or remove certain foods to properly balance Marshmallow's diet. Thanks for all the help and I hope that you guys have a pleasant day ahead.

[AmityvilleHams]

You shouldn't ever remove foods from the main mix,as this will cause an imbalance.You would need added animal protein(high quality sources,with freeze dried being best)for any food that doesn't already have animal protein though.

The biggest reason that Harry/Hazel is a last resort for hybrid hamsters and dwarf hamsters in general is because the pieces of food are just too big for them.Burgess already includes animal protein(mealworms)so that is something else to consider.Ordering Burgess online,even if it isn't appealing,is really the best solution rather than having to get a food that ends up being less appropriate.

Make sure no product ever has any artificial flavors,artificial dyes,artificial sweeteners or processed sugars(such as dextrose,maltodextrin,sucrose,sorbitol,etc),no unspecified biproducts(such as digest,derivatives,unspecified liver or animal liver,animal fat or otherwise vague fat,biproduct meal,biproducts,meat and bone meal of any sort,etc),no sulfur dioxide,no propylene glycol,no unspecified preservatives or BHA/BHT/ethoxyquin(sometimes "E&C approved" in UK products,but this is a loophole term allowing the previously mentioned BHA/BHT/ethoxyquin to be used without being specified and is quite harmful as these are all known to cause cancer among other things),and is never irradiated or from China.Any product that will be shared with dogs or cats shouldn't have corn or wheat either,as despite being safe for hamsters both of these are terrible for dogs and cats.

[chesca_27]

I would never really add or remove components from a hamster diet as then you will just unbalance the nutrition of the mix and won't truly know what he's eating.

If you can't get Burgess Dwarf, then Harry/Hazel Hamster is the next best thing for dwarf hamsters. The only down side is you will need to break up some of the bigger bits. In my opinion, Harry/Hazel Hamster is superior to any of the other hamster food options you have, if you can't get Burgess Dwarf, and it would be better to feed a recommended food over something like Vitakraft.

[Pebbles82]

I think there are plenty of dwarf hammies having Harry and Hazel Hamster for exactly the reasons you mention. Yes the pieces are a bit big, but it doesn't seem to stop it getting eaten, or as Chesca says you could break the biscuit pieces up a bit (not all the pieces are too big). It is sugar free. I wouldn't describe it as a "last resort" exactly but as a sugar free alternative.

As the others say, you shouldn't remove anything from the mix as this upsets the balancee of nutrition in in. The big advantage of Harry/Hazel is that it is sugar free so there is no need to remove anything. Yes corn may have some natural sugars, but I don't recall seeing much corn in it (if any). The main sugars to avoid are from fruit or dried fruit, but even then some dwarf hammy owners give the occasional blueberry or something.

Rather than adding anything to it, you could do what I, and some others do, which is supplement it with the occasional fresh extras. So I give the HH each day, plus a piece of veg daily and one or two extras - for our Syrian the extras are things like half a brazil nut, a small piece of cheese, or a piece of fruit. For dwarf hammies I believe good extras are seeds like hemp seed and linseed, and a very small piece of nut once a week eg. Plus you can always give a small piece of plain cooked chicken or other meat (no sauces or gravies) as additional protein, if you're having it yourself. Whenever we have a roast chicken, our hammy gets a bit of chicken every other day for a week or so It's about the only thing that is plain cooked these days I reckon, roast chicken.

[AmityvilleHams]

Fruits in general are fairly controversial,but I'd definitely not give any dried fruit(higher in sugar than fresh fruit).Of course,there are some fruits which are naturally lower in sugar that could be fed in reasonably small amounts if you really wanted to as an extremely rare treat,but fed frequently would be a very bad idea.

[Pebbles82]

Yes the mixes with dried fruits in are a particular problem as the dried fruits contain nasty preservatives.

[Fluffagrams]

Although Burgess is often recommended to Dwarf Hamster owners as it has been specifically dassigned with them in mind, I find that some hams can find it a little bit boring and the grass pellets often get left. Meanwhile the Harry Hamster seems to be a pretty good Syrian food but the larger pieces can be a bit too big for a dwarf to eat comfortably so they may need breaking up a bit first. I found that once I started breaking the pieces up, my Chinese were more likely to eat most of the mix.

Personally, I don't think that there is ever such thing as a perfect hamster mix as every hamster is going to have different preferences over what foods they like. I think that getting the balance right between what your hamster is happy to eat and what offers the best nutrition is the key. After all, you can buy the best food in the world but if your hamster is reluctant to eat it then they're not going to get the full benefits of it anyway.