[Pebbles82]

It was something I was going to do, but never got round to as it is quite time consuming in terms of researching and sourcing suitable ingredients. It's quite a big topic! I really wanted a healthy, ideally organic, mix. It is probably achievable but difficult in terms of getting the basic nutrients and vitamins right. In some ways I feel that good ingredients should cover most of this, but the commercial mixes like Harry Hamster have the vitamins added so you know they are getting them.

I did find a recipe on a German hamster website and it sounded quite healthy, but as I say I never got round to it. The ingredients I sourced were going to work out really quite expensive too (although it would make quite a bit of mix). In the end I stuck with Harry Hamster, which I know our hamster eats nearly all of, and supplement with fresh food.

I do wish there was an organic hamster mix that met all the required nutrients and had good quality ingredients, even if it was more expensive. I found it annoying that all but one mix I have found rely heavily on soya for protein and probably GM Soya at that, but then there is no real evidence to show GM Soya is harmful - I did come across something that said it was, but have also come across things that say it isn't.

The one that doesn't use soya is the JR Farm Feast for Hamsters. It has animal products for protein, but not necessarily nice forms of it and I found it smelled so awful I didn't want to use it. Charlie wouldn't touch it either! It's also a quite low in protein so would need a fair bit of supplementing.