[racinghamster]

Hi caro. Your right, it`s better to stick to a commercial mix that has the balance there for optimum nutrition. It`s fine to feed additional foods that may help boost the immune system, or at least, the overall health in general and those would come in the shape of dark berries (safe ones from the food list) as these are high in antioxidants. A small cube of apple, which will help with bowel movements and hydration just as other high fibre raw veggies will help digestion. These must be fed in very small amounts though every couple of days.

There is an immune booster for rats that I know of based around the Shumanite diet for older and ill rats, but the components can include many varients like brown cooked rice as well as other ingredients. Some may or may not be suitable for a hamster though so I would suggest taking some notes from good sources on hamster nutrition and only applying those if they are based on evidence that is tried and tested, rather than just people saying `try this or that`, which could be detrimental to your hamster`s health.

Choosing a good mix can be crucial and sticking with the `big` brand names isn`t all that necessary. Harry Hamster is one example of a big brand name, yet if you bought a supermarket own brand like Tesco Hamster food or WAGG Hamster, Gerbil, Mouse Munch, these could easily be added to the diet just to add variety and to spark a new interest for your hamster if he`s gotten bored with a particular mix. I used to change my Syrian`s food over to other mixes when he seemed tired of one mix.

Dry porridge oats and fresh sweetcorn on the cob always go down well with Syrians. x

Edited to add: I can recommend Burgess Supa Hamster Harvest (for Syrians not the dwarf version) as being a good mix.