[Hamsterita]

I'm not an expert, but in my honest opinion I don't know why you say that would be cruel, as long you provide her enough food to eat and hoard.

Blacky is picky, and I can't give him tons of food without control, because that way he only would eat what he pleases and he would leave behind several bits (actually he already does it). I feed him fresh food all nights and mornings, and I don't let him pouch them If I can, because he KNOWS when I check his hoard to know If there's something there rotting, and he doesn't like it at all, so that way I don't have to check so often.

But sometimes I check that his stash is enough, and sometimes I only feed him with the mix every couple of days. His bowl is never empty. He always leaves the rounded black/dark green bites of the harry hamster mix (and now he must have half of the bowl full with those). It's kinda funny, because at the very beginning he pouched those too, and I noticed that he didn't like them because I could see a lot of chunks of that kind when I cleaned, but now, he doesn't even pretend that he wants them. He's not interested at all and he leaves them there. When I see that he is grabbing those too, I add more mix. You can figure something like that checking her hoard. If she has more than two handfuls of mix ( that's an example) you can reduce the amount of food or something.

As I said before, I don't have experience in hamster care, but it's logical, that way you can make sure that she's eating what she should (all kinds of bites), and that she's eating fresh mix, and that her hoard instincts are covered.