Hand-fed (safe) treats for chinese hams?

[Roxie]

Originally Posted by Silver

Coconut curls go down well with all my three

Ah funny you should mention Coconut, I was wondering today whether it would be alright for Chinese. I have the Naturals Rats Dream for Cookie so can take a few bits of Coconut out of that. I assume the sugar content in Coconut is low? I'm pretty dumb when it comes to these things

[Silver]

if you was to feed 100g of coconut (which obviously you would NEVER do that) there would be 6g of sugar.

[racinghamster]

Thanks for the Dari link Silver. I`ll do some reading up on that! Coconut I`m not so sure about. I have read (somewhere but can`t remember where....the rat forum I think) that coconut is quite high in fat? As for sugars, I wouldn`t feed coconut if it contains any sugars at all ladies. I know if something is very small in sugar content, it`s probably safe enough to feed occassionally as a treat. If that was the case, I would probably just add a single niblet of corn, since corn is made up of glucose! Which is why I remove it from my mix.

It really is an educational trip feeding chinese (and hybrid dwarfs) because there can be so many hidden elements to cetrain foods and when you consider that carbohydrates turn to sugar naturally, they are also needed for energy, warmth and basic needs, so they are unavoidable really. I would say as long as their daily mix and add-on`s are all carefully monitored and we know what each ingredient is, then giving the odd little treat now and then won`t hurt, just as long as it`s not a daily thing.