Anyone else make their own food?

[mouseandstrawberry]

Hi all im new.

I've been researching hamster and gerbil food for a while now. I currently have two gerbils who are only 3 months old and after working with animals in a rural setting became fascinated with feeding natural food, herbs and weeds that sort of thing.

After looking at the content of hamster diets i realized most have low quality products in and are mainly all cereals and fatty seeds Even the pelleted ones like the sort i feed my rabbit were only cereals.

So anyhow im using up my food i currently have as treats. Im getting a Robo very soon and plan to adapt it for 'him' too.

Anyone else make their own? This is currently what mine get;

Main daily mix
* Pearl Barley
* Wheat
* Millet
* Oats
* Corn
* Peas
* Meal Worms
* Lentils
* Red Dari
* Peanut
* Sunflower

Kinds of Daily Treats but these vary
* Vegetables, kale, brocoli etc
* Cheerios
* Various seeds and beans, adzuki, linseed, mung etc
* Herbs, for example mint
* Flowers
* Monkey nuts, hazlenuts etc
* Dried Alfalfa, grasses and Weeds
* Mineral licks

Occasional Treats
* Dog biscuits
* Pet shop treats
* Cheese
* Boiled Egg
* Live crickets, meal worms etc
* Meat such as chicken,
* Small animal Buttons
* Fruit such as strawberry etc

Any suggestions would be great or if anyone else makes their food without a pet shop mix i'd be really interested to hear what you use

[POLAR WHITES]

I think silver is the best person to talk to if you are wanting to make your own food.

[HollyHamster]

Don't forget to add a base commercial mix to the food as it will contain all the vitamins and nutrients a hamster needs. Far too many hams have suffered the consequences of being nutritionally deficient (and as a result, been very very sick) from feeding a completely home made mix.

Hams need a proper balance of crude protein, crude fiber, and crude fats (plus a variety of vitamins and minerals). I would get your mix professionally analyzed before offering it to your ham, just to be sure it has all that the ham needs in it.

Oh, and one more thing, uncooked lentils are bad for hams as they interrupt the digestive processes and prevent nutrients from being absorbed.

[mouseandstrawberry]

Originally Posted by HollyHamster

Don't forget to add a base commercial mix to the food as it will contain all the vitamins and nutrients a hamster needs. Far too many hams have suffered the consequences of being nutritionally deficient (and as a result, been very very sick) from feeding a completely home made mix.

Hams need a proper balance of crude protein, crude fiber, and crude fats (plus a variety of vitamins and minerals). I would get your mix professionally analyzed before offering it to your ham, just to be sure it has all that the ham needs in it.

Oh, and one more thing, uncooked lentils are bad for hams as they interrupt the digestive processes and prevent nutrients from being absorbed.

The above is what i give my gerbils hun I will change it for a hamster.

Ohh and i have read ingredients in many foods, well all of the major brands and its not as hard as you may think. A base food contains nothing special. Cereals, seeds etc. Look into it and you'd be surprised how 'basic' the diets are. Also most hamsters leave one or more parts in a store bought mix so aren't having a balanced diet.

I'm not arguing 'for' it im just saying i know i can do a better job making it from scratch as even the better foods aren't complicated or have hard to come by ingredients.

[Silver]

Originally Posted by POLAR WHITES

I think silver is the best person to talk to if you are wanting to make your own food.

Thanks Polar Whites,

I do not give any advice about any mix other than the commercially available mixes on any hamster forum now. That's one of the reasons why all my hamster emails are turned off, due to the stress I was put under by a few people. My health is more important to me.

I do give advice about non commercial mixes to a few trusted people

xxx

[POLAR WHITES]

Originally Posted by Silver

Thanks Polar Whites,

I do not give any advice about any mix other than the commercially available mixes on any hamster forum now. That's one of the reasons why all my hamster emails are turned off, due to the stress I was put under by a few people. My health is more important to me.

I do give advice about non commercial mixes to a few trusted people

xxx

Sorry Silver I didn't know, hope you r ok. I just remember that at one point you talked about hamster mixes. I didn't mean any distress.

[Silver]

Originally Posted by POLAR WHITES

Sorry Silver I didn't know, hope you r ok. I just remember that at one point you talked about hamster mixes. I didn't mean any distress.

Thats O.K Polar Whites

It's not a problem I just thought I would say as it will save people making a PM to me then they can't send it

No you have not caused any distress you are right I did use to talk about non commercial mixes

xxx

[Bekki2308]

I do make my own gerbil, rat and hamster mixes I wont go into specifics with strangers. However, do you know the nutritional analysis of your mix overall whether calculated mathematically or sent to a lab, that list of ingredients could give a wide range depending on the amounts etc. If you got the recipe with amounts from a gerbil recommended recipe can you share it?

[racinghamster]

I tend to rely on a commercial mix as my `base` these days (Usually one of the two Burgess Hamster Harvest mixes) and only add in Canary seed mix and added mealworms and feed small amounts of fresh raw vegetables. I used to throw in many other things but apart from Kallo organic puffed rice and cooked brown rice every now and then, I try not to go mad as adding too many additions could upset the true balance of the commercial mix. I also used to remove bits from the commercial mix in the `belief` that corn, maize or peas were all part of the great diabetes risk debate. I know better now and don`t do it. Although corn is arguably a starch grain, it`s still a useful part of the nutrients a hamster needs. x

[kyrilliondaemon]

I'd be very, very careful. If you do want to make your own mix I'd strongly reccomend supplementing heavily with vitamins and minerals e.t.c - far too many hamsters have suffered from people believing they can make complete mixes and no-one realising the dangers until many hams are sick (and in a few unfortunate cases have passed).

I know it seems that commercial mixes are mostly cereals e.t.c and they probably are, but they do have all the vitamins, minerals e.t.c that a hamster really needs and since my hams enjoy them I feel they're safer on those than on untested (and therefore potentially deadly) home-made mixes.

I'm not saying that absolutely everyone will make a mess of it, but that making home made foods has been underestimated before and unfortunately quite a few hams have suffered so I would be very, very careful when making a mix if you do choose to do so as there's more in the commercial mixes than you might expect.