Anyone know where to find seeds and grains?

[Eriklover555]

I'm mixing my own hamster food, but it can be very hard to find a supplier for food safe seeds and grains. Does anyone know where I can find a (hopefully not too expensive) supply? Some seeds I'm after are:

Amaranth, Barley, Buckwheat, Canary Seed, Millets, Oats, Quinoa, Rye, Spelt, Wheat, etc.

[Biscotti]

You can find most of these seeds and grains in bulk at your local health food stores, such as WholeFood Market or Sprouts Market. For canary seeds, you may have to look for a bird feed store, or you can buy them on DrFosterSmith.com (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=8389).

Just as a precaution, make sure you are able to find nutritional information on all the ingredients in your mix and is comfortable converting them into aggregate data so that you are able to hit the required protein/fat/fiber %. If in doubt, you can always use the loose grains to supplement existing commercial mix or lab blocks so that vital micronutrients are not overlooked.

[kyrilliondaemon]

Health food shops?
And maybe add a vitamin/mineral supplement to be sure the mix is ok for those.

[Biscotti]

Health food shops?
And maybe add a vitamin/mineral supplement to be sure the mix is ok for those.

:mad::mad::mad: Yeah, haha. There's been a lot of small stores and even large chains like WholeFood and Sprouts cropping up in the last decade or so that specialize in organic produce, free range meats, and lots of eco-friendly products as part of the "green" movements. They tend to be found on the West and East Coast of the U.S. as more people are into the health and green movements there. They usually have rows of bulk bins for loose seeds, grains, nuts, and even candy. :D

And I agree with the vitamin/mineral supplement suggestion. :)

[kyrilliondaemon]

I can list UK sources but figured any help was better than no help lol
Am glad you have lots of choices though :)

[Eriklover555]

Thank you all for the replies! I intend to get a nutritional analysis of my mix before I feed it, so I'm prepared for the fat/fiber/protein content, etc. I'll go stalk the health food stores now *laughs evilly*