food mix

[katjacks]

until recently i used rr mix and my hamster loved it i have had no problems with it what so ever but what other people have said has worried me a little, i was giving him harry hamster and rr, iv purchased the bits he likes the most from the mix, the apple, bran sticks, soya, and iv also got him the cereal mix from there and mealworms, could i put harry hamster into a tub and add these things to it? or would i need to give him these seperately? iv also got the suppliments for him as advised on rr so going to give him them aswell, i dont want him getting bored of the hh mix and dont want to deprive him of the things he actually does like the best out of the rr mix

[Bekki2308]

I personally wouldnt mix all that together. Id feed the harry hamster as a base mix and give a portion of something else per day on a "treat" basis but thats just me :-)

[vanilla-yazoo]

Heya!
I have also had my concerns over this food too, i wont go into details over it,
I have now changed mixes onto a new mix I am trialing thats sold for rats, i will post a review soon when I have used it for a bit longer.
however
if you want the variety of the RR mixes, but still keep harry hamster, when you are low on food ild add a bag of burgess dwarf/superhamster, the burgess food is full of various seeds and mealworms and a lot of similar parts as the rr, and mixed in 50-50 with harry hamster, will provide a nicely balanced diet. this would still be 18% protein, which is great for young hams, but some older hams find it a bit high, so adding the extra bran sticks, apple and soya flakes would lower the protein a little, myself i would fill the bowl with the combined hamster mixes, then add a pinch of the extra's on top.

I would continue with the supplements, as its good for them anyway, if you offer a small amount of baby food, or fresh veg (or rehydrated if you only have one ham so you are not wasting lots! ) i just add 1-3 drops of baephar vitamins a day, and put their fresh food on a small paper cake case.
this way i can throw the paper case away after, they are really cheep so cost isnt a problem, and no washing up bowls for 9 hams everyday!! also, some of them take the paper case to the nest, and shred it into their bedding after eating the food :D
hope this helps! x

[katjacks]

the other stuff isnt bad for him though and was in rr mix, my hamster will not touch burgess food i tried him with it before rr mix and he wouldnt go near it he just left it all and only ate his harry hamster, thats a good idea about the paper cases though :) thanks for the advice x

[vanilla-yazoo]

harry hamster is a good mix :) if you did want to mix in another one mr.johnsons is pretty good i hear, or even pah premium :) harry on its own is not bad! i have used it for years, if my rat mix dosnt work out im going 50-50 harry and mr.johnson, or science selective :)

np! glad it helps!

[iwasbornwright]

Is Harry Hamster better than the Premium Muesli by P@H? I'm assuming so. If so I'm gonna order some x

[GhostsInSnow]

Harry Hamster is ne of the best commercial mixes, I'd say it's better than the P@H stuff.
I too, like the others, had my worries about the rr mixes so I switched mine on to 50-50 Harry Hamster and Science Selective Hamster. I just break up the bigger bits for my Robo but both he and my Syrian love the new stuff. It's the first time in months that I've had an empty bowl every day from my Syrian :)

[Kissa]

I'm currently using a mixture of three different hamster mixes and a bird seed mix, as I believe in variety for my hams, although I am watching yaz's trial of the rat mix with interest. My main problem is that my Robo is a picky sod when it comes to pellets!

The problem with just adding stuff is that it can muck up the nutritional balance. It's why I used a pre-made bird seed mix to add variety, rather than just adding random seeds -- the mix had the nutritional analysis on the back of the packet, and I could pick the mix that I thought complemented what I already had in terms of the hamster mixes. Saying that, it is still a work in progress ;)

[katjacks]

how can it much it up that much though if they are getting suppliments aswell? surely this would get them exactly what they need? im confused about all this my last 2 hamsters just had hh mix and i gave them veg every 3 days and they both lived long healthy lives both nearly 3 years old, im having to go out and buy the veg just for him as it is because im a really fussy eater myself and dont eat fruit or veg so its a bit of a nightmare lol treat my hamster like my baby though so he has to have the best of everything lol, iv just spent £60 on stuff for him and now thinking iv got him the wrong stuff, im thinking about feeding him baby food aswell and im house bound so just about to spend more money on a tesco shop that i dont even need just to get him baby food, how often can i feed him baby food? and if im feeding him this do i still need to be giving him veg? i dont want to be forcing too many new things on him either as worried he might end up with bad stomach if i do

[vanilla-yazoo]

kissa, the rat mix is going great so far, and I am getting empty bowls, weight gain on those who have lost weight, and overal improvement, but I wont do a full review for here till I have used it for at least a month, so i can give a proper view. but so far so good! the pellets are rather big, I will have a good check at wurzels bowl see if he is eating it, but he can chew down a markie, so im sure he can chew on a nugget XD
ofc, i am suplimenting and giving fresh, so its not a review of this food as a complete mix, but it dose contain some vitamins.

i think that some aditional items are fine, but i would try and feed a good amount of a pure mix, even if you scattered millet and porridge oats, yes they will gather it and have the wrong %'s but they will not just scoff it all in one go!

Harry hamster is a fantastic mix, the only thing is the alfalfa sticks, so adding bran sticks would just offer an alternate fiber source, as not that many hams eat alfalfa, it is a good mix other then that, with a nice selection of food :)

eta:
this is why i use rehydrated veg XD I am funny about food and not all i eat ild give the hams, i have some salad for the buns but I try giving the hams a bit more of a selection.
i looked up dehydrated or dried veg on ebay
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Just-Vegetables-1kg-Dried-Dehydrated-Vegetables-for-Birds-Just-Supplements-/170908695416?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Birds&hash=item27caf3bb78
and other such ones. carrot, broccoli and spinach, which contain a lot of vitamins and nutrients naturally, mine has arrived today so I will let you know tomorrow how it rehydrates :)

[katjacks]

yes thats why i got him the bran sticks because he will actually eat them but will not touch the alfalfa i even tried to wet it a bit to make it mushy to see if he would eat it but he just turned his nose up at it so thought it was a good idea to get him these to add to his mix

[souffle]

Katjacks there is no need to order a special delivery just to get babyfood. He doesn't need babyfood and if you are offering a good diet in that you already have a balanced mix in stock then he won't starve!
Babyfood if only meant as a rare treat as it is too bland and refined for hamsters to have and if you give it a lot they fill up on it and do not eat their mix! It is useful for baby hams and sick or older ones but adults should not have too much.
You can't force them to eat certain bits and they do tend to instictively eat a balanced diet. Remember they don't eat a huge amount so I'm sure he is eating a little bit of most of his mix when you are asleep. :)

[katjacks]

hes constantly eating to be honest lol i suffer with ocd so if something gets in my head i have to do something about it and as im hearing that hamsters are getting this and that im starting to think im a bad owner even though im doing my very best for him, i couldnt really afford to be buying the stuff i have but ill never see him go without and always try my very best to do the right thing for him, ill scrap the baby food then and look into the rehydrated food, do you just give them this every couple of days or something? im just thinking what to feed him to get the nutrients down him aswell as i didnt want to get the ones you put in water so iv got ones to sprinkle on his food

[Queen Of The High Teas]

My syrians get Harry hamster, and my dwarves superdwarf harvest. I bough lots of different seeds/grains off RR, mixed them all in a tin, and put a pinch in with the main mix, alternating with cockatiel mix, or naturals herb mix, so they get a different extras each day. Usually something fresh every day or so as well, or oats/egg/cereals.

[Lougarry]

I didn't throw out my RR mix, but combined it in a large tub with P@H premium, Harry Hamster, Burgess, bird seed (Trill and finch mix) and some dried herbs and grasses for small animals. I also supplement with fresh food every day. I'm working on the basis that variety is good :)

[GhostsInSnow]

I contemplated mixing mine in with my new mixes but changed my mind. I didn't bin it though, we have lots of wildlife by us so I scattered it for them :)

[Queen Of The High Teas]

I didn't throw out my RR mix, but combined it in a large tub with P@H premium, Harry Hamster, Burgess, bird seed (Trill and finch mix) and some dried herbs and grasses for small animals. I also supplement with fresh food every day. I'm working on the basis that variety is good :)

Lougarry, is it ok to mix the foods then? I use HH and burgess, but would happily add p@h premium (none of them will eat the usual p@h mix), herb mix, cockatiel mix, and RR seed mix, but didn't think I could mix them. I was thinking of making one big mix to store in a tub. I have at least one of each type of hamster (or soon will!), so would doing this be suitable for them all? Because one bag of HH and one Burgess isn't lasting very long at all.

[Lougarry]

I can't see why not, though others might disagree. But, re mucking up proportions, actually in my reading I've found no consensus about the optimum balance of different nutrients. With rats, the proportions are varied according to age (older rats require less protein than youngsters, for example) and I think the same should probably be done for hams.

I am using a different mix - Burgess dwarf, puffed rice and the two bird seed mixes - for my Chinese though.

[Queen Of The High Teas]

I'm going to try that then. They never eat every bit of a mix anyway, only pick out what they want and like, at least by mixing them they'd have more variety to encourage them to eat more, and they'd be getting more different things to eat, rather than just the bits they pick out of one. I'll just add a supplement powder to it.

[GhostsInSnow]

I'm using mixed mixes for my hamsters :) and I have some JR Farm dwarf mix for Sheldon to try so I'll at least be adding that in with his food. I think most people combine mixes to make a mix for their hams now :)

[kyrilliondaemon]

Most of ours are on mixed mixes now. I figure if I start with good mixes and mix them all... As long as the hams still get all the parts of all the mixes, it should be ok. I can't see it being much different to if I fed one bag at a time, except this way they get the variety all at once instead of from semi-regular changes in diet.

[Queen Of The High Teas]

My thoughts exactly Kyril. And I'll just pick out the pea flakes and corn out of the bowls for those that need it:p.

[Kissa]

My thoughts exactly Kyril. And I'll just pick out the pea flakes and corn out of the bowls for those that need it:p.

I'd probably have a diabetes-prone and non-diabetes-prone mix if I had any diabetes prone species, just because in my mind it's easier than picking bits out of mixes every day :lol:

But yeah, I don't see the harm in mixing hamster mixes. I can understand why it might be a bad idea to mix loads of extras into a mix if you don't know exactly what the extras contain nutritionally, but that's not the case when mixing mixes. (Plus my theory is more variety means that the hamsters are less likely to miss any vital nutrients if they start selectively feeding ;))

Then again, I have little idea of what %s to aim for any more!

[kjwc92]

I'm using the burgess Supa hamster harvest at the minute, I ordered one bag and they sent nine so my hammys will be munching on that for a while!

[kyrilliondaemon]

I'd probably have a diabetes-prone and non-diabetes-prone mix if I had any diabetes prone species, just because in my mind it's easier than picking bits out of mixes every day :lol:

We do. We find it way easier to feed multiple mixes than to faff with whats going into specific bowls every night lol
We've tried both options and this one is a lot easier...

[PatricksMum]

I've mixed RR and Harry Hamster together and our hammie really likes it.

[katjacks]

are you giving suppliments and fresh foods every day patricksmum? my hamster loved his mix with rr and hh but no way am i keeping him on it after whats happened as soon as his other mix comes in the next few days ill be putting him on burgess even though he didnt eat it before and hates mealworms im going to try him on it again mixed in with his hh

[PatricksMum]

I don't give supplements but I do give him fresh foods every other day such as broccoli, carrots, apple, watercress etc. I assumed he would get the vitamin intake from the Harry Hamster.