Diet question

[bexs]

I am completly new to hamster care, but after a little research I am torn between two diets and wanted other peoples opinions. I am thinking of either making up my own Shunamite style mix, like I feed my Rats, or I've also heard Harry Hamster is quite a good mix. What are your thoughts?

[Smysha]

What's the Shunamite mix?

I've seen a lot of people giving their hamsters the Hamster Harry mix here. I don't have it and just bought a basic regular hamster mix from Sainsbury's. I do however give Jenga other stuff as well. Every day she gets these Raviolo treats that she loves and every other day I give her some fresh food. Carrots, grapes, cucumbers. Today she's got half a boiled egg in her treat ball.

[Ceretrea]

Shunamite is a homemade mix designed for rats and can be modified for mice and others.

Essentially it involves a muesli style mix as a base with added grains, seeds, protein etc in measured proportion (cup = 10%).

I'll be changing Kasala's mix to SupaHamster Harvest in the next week and it will be:-

1 cup/scoop = 10%

SupaHamster -- 50% (3 cups/scoop)
Pearl Barley
Jumbo oats
Shredded Wheat Bitesize -------------40% (5 cups/scoop)
Rice
Cornflakes
Buckwheat

Extras:
Green Lentils 5% (1/2cup/scoop)
Bird Seed 5% (1 cups/scoop)

The idea is to aim for 100% in total but I don't follow that rigidly, its more important to get variety and she also gets fresh treats of veg, fruit, egg and so on.

[bexs]

Thamks. Do you feed fresh food everyday alongside the mix or just a few times a week?

[Ceretrea]

Er. for some reason I can't edit my post but the cups are wrong ^^ 50% should read 5 cups and the cereals should read as 30% or 3 cups and the bird seed 10% or 1 cup.

Sorry about that.

Fresh food I give a very small amount every other day, on the in between days I might give her a treat of rye bread or so on as I don't want to give her a runny tummy and she doesn't eat that much to be honest

[Ceretrea]

Just thought I'd add that my mix is for an elderly female Syrian, you might have to tweak it for a different age and type. Best way is to keep a close eye on your hamster and change the diet if necessary, add something or take something away. But if you have a good variety you should not come unstuck..a bit like a human balanced diet.