Fresh corn

[valerie]

Hi can dwarf hamsters eat corn of the corb

[racinghamster]

Not if it`s a Russian Winter white or a Campbells or a hybrid as they are prone to diabetes and corn contains a natural sweetness. I`m wary of corn for my Chinese hamster, although chinese and roborovski are not as prone to this condition as the Russian dwarf species are. It`s best to avoid anything that contains natural sweetness, sugars, molasses or syrup. That goes for everything you feed aswell as treats.

making a list of what you do feed is important because if you want to avoid the onset of diabetes in your hamster, his/her diet is most important.

There are a few other things you can feed as a weekly/fortnightly treat and these are:

A Vitacraft Ravioli biscuit
A Pedigree Biscrok biscuit
An egg biscuit

These are just treats remember and should`nt be fed until one has been consumed over time.

[Christmas_hamster]

Chinese hamsters are also prone to diabetes, they found this out years ago with the first colonies of hams that were established in North America. There are some research papers on the web from these colonies to and that was back in like the 1960's.

[RachK]

My dwarfies have corn. They only get it maybe once a fortnight then only one kernel. I don't give it to my Campbells Dwarf

[racinghamster]

Forget the Vitakraft Ravioli biscuits....I looked into these and they contain CORN and GLUCOSE? The same can be said for many of the dog biscuits out there as many only state `derivitives` of animal or vegetable origin so never actually say which vegetables are included, so it`s always a good idea to be cautious with all of these `biscuited` products. If in doubt, research them first or contact the makers.

[Silver]

I was surprised when I went onto the Bonio website that the last ingrediants listed was sugars & the NHC give all hamsters one in their showing pen!

[racinghamster]

It just goes to show we have to look very, very closely at any additional `treats` that we feed. I bought a bag of those multi-coloured bonio type dog biscuits for Prinny a month ago from my local pet suppliers and only last night, I decided to throw them out because I could`nt guarantee that they did`nt contain corn or starch or any other such ingredients from`vegetable origins`.

Luckily I only gave her one of the black ones and she did`nt nibble it. Lesson learned. I actually feel that there are no shop-bought treats or biscuits on the market that are totally free from sugars or corn type ingredients as these are so widely used now in pet foods.

I`ll be sticking to my own `treats` and they are:

Halfed dried-mealworms (a few daily)
Pieces of kallo organic wholegrain puffed rice (again as a hand-held treat)
Millet
A few small sunflower seeds (taken from the Burgess Supahamster harbest mix)

I hav`nt yet ventured into the fresh vegetables as yet since these are usually bought in large pieces and would probably go off within a few days and be wasted. Herbs I don`t know a lot about but I imagine there are some that are tasty and beneficial.

[Briser]

Uh oh. So hamsters shouldn't eat corn?? There is dried corn in my hamsters food!
She's a pet store hamster so she may be a hybrid! I've been feeding her that food since I got her 3 weeks ago. Should I be picking the corn out?

[Silver]

Don't worry Briser you didn't knwo, thats not your fault. At least now you will know by coming here & asking, its how we all get to know things by asking each other.

I would pick the corn out xxx

[AliKati]

Do you mean Pickle? Pickle's a syrian so I think she's okay with corn in moderation.