Best food for campbells mixed and make your own ideas please

[POLAR WHITES]

I am getting 2 pedigree campbells soon and would like to know in your experience what food you found the best to give them. I dont want to buy off the internet as I have found where I live I am able to get things cheaper than the internet, Also I would be intersted in making my own mix up any ideas. for my mice I have used
40% oats
30% wild brid seed
15% small dog kibble
10% budgie seed
5% mealworms

[Bekki2308]

What percentage protein, fat and fibre does that give overall? Mice and hamsters have different nutritional requirements, I believe mice need a lower protein diet to start with.

[Kissa]

The problem with making your own mix from scratch is that you don't actually end up knowing the nutritional content of it. I know when Silver was making her mixes, she started off with a mix adopted from I believe someone on a German hamster forum, and when she got it analysed, the nutritional content was waaay off what it should have been. I know you said you don't want to buy off the internet, but the way I see it, for all of us who want to feed a balanced mix of seeds and things, Silver's already done the work for us ;) Yes, it's not cheap because of the postage costs, but in my opinion it is worth it.

If you're still set on making mixes, I know the people in the rat world have more experience with it, with the shunamite diet. I know nothing about it aside from that it exists, but it might be worth investigating if it can be adopted for hamsters?

(For reference, hamsters need 19% protein, 6% fat and 8% fibre in their mixes.)

[racinghamster]

Over the years I`ve always relied solely on commercial mixes alone and then ventured into adding a few other ingredients, whether I`ve had mice, gerbils rats or hamsters. With hamsters, it`s a little trickier because they `pouch` food, so as long as you steer away from sharp edged ingredients like whole oats, many wholegrains, flaked grains and seeds and small amounts of nuts are fine.

I still rely on a basic commercial mix (Burgess Supahamster Harvest - syrian mix) as it`s the one I find has the most variety, but I still remove the corn and peas from the mix if I have a diabetic prone hamster. Right now, I don`t. But they still never eat these bits anyway so I prefer to replace them.

I have came across a few home-made mixes online which people do seem to find works for them and many only contain half the things found in commercial mixes, some have more, but sticking to natiral seeds and grains that a hamster would eat in the wild is the best and safest choice. I wouldn`t use human grade cereals that the Shunamire diet would do for rats and mice these days, but look for healthfood shop alternative grains like Kallo organic wholegrain puffed rice, millets, flaked grains, wholegrains, porridge oats and dried herbs sold for small pets for added enrichment and fibre.

Dried mealworms are an added protein source and probably safer than kitten or dog kibble as these can include additives and animal derivitives unless they are the organic or more expensive brands like James Wellbeloved. But I don`t really like feeding a hamster something that`s manufactured for larger animals.

Burgess Supahamsters already includes chicken kibble biscuits in it`s mix. I break these up though for dwarf hamsters as they are more rat sized! :mad:

[POLAR WHITES]

Thank you I think I will have alook at RR and Burgess Supahamsters food

[Lougarry]

Might be worth PMing CAB too, as she mixes her own food and her hams do really well on it :)

[lisab]

I would suggest Burgess as its very close to my own mix. Just I buy items in bulk so I can make it on a larger scale. :)