Why the alfalfa in Harry Hamster / other hamster foods?

[Hanlou]

I've just pulled up the ingredients list for Harry Hamster:

alfalfa, corn, soy (15%), wheat pellets, wheat, peas, peanuts (4%), sunflower seeds (4%), carob pellets, pumpkin seeds, raw fat, vitamins and minerals, inulin, yeast, EC-approved color.

Based on the usual theory that an ingredient list will have the greatest quantity first etc, then alfalfa looks to be a rather large component of Harry Hamter. I presume that this is what the pellet things are, and perhaps also the coloured chunks. But no rodent I've ever had actually eats the pellet things so why are they put in there and why on earth do they seem to be the major component of the HH food?

Also, I did hear/read (but can't prove that this is still the case!) that vitamins etc were always put in these pellets so if my hamsters / rodents aren't eating them they must be really missing out on a good diet!

Do hamsters need alfalfa? If they don't eat it then what's the point of it being in there unless they do? I was just looking at the pellet left-overs in my mice dishes and my hamster dishes and just wondered why they are in there when nothing seems to actually eat them! :P

I was just wondering and thought maybe someone can answer me.



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[Moosley]

Im pretty sure that alfalfa is mainly for roughage? Bulk food, like you would give horses hay as well as their mix.

My hamsters soon learn to eat their alfalfa, they dont get more food until they eat it and it works, though my hamsters also get hay or the alfalfa cubes (for horses) which they prefer to chew on as its more exciting. That way if a hamster *really* wont eat pellets then they still get tricked into eating alfalfa.

[Holly]

I've always assumed that they are in there becasue they form an important and scientifically researched part of a balanced hamster diet - though, as you say, if they aren't going to get eaten then what's the point!

Actually some of mine do eat some of the pellets - I find they aren't a favourite but that, since I've begun feeding hamster mix only every 3 days, a lot more of my hamsters do eat at least some of everything.

[Hanlou]

I'm not sure I can see how alfalfa can be so important tbh - as I understand hamsters are primarily seed eaters in the wild not grass eaters. If alfalfa is so important, how come we aren't all feeding them hay like I do my chinchillas and degus? To form the primary ingredient in the mix still seems so odd to me somehow, unless I've got hamster dietary needs all wrong in my own head. Herbert is never a fat hamster as he's so active. I understood that hamsters need that fat because they are so active which is why they should have seeds etc together with some protein. Alfalfa will never fatten anything up.

I've tried leaving the food (and I do this with my rats with great success) but hamsters aren't daft - they can empty the bowls to fool you but I know for certain that their less than favourite bits are those that they've stashed away - so the pellets still don't get eaten, they just get left in a pile somewhere in the cage!

My concern is that it's to bulk up the food rather than to provide an essential nutritional component. Hmmmm. I've offered hay and grassy things to Herbert and Tinks' but they don't seem interested at all. I'd love to know whether it is important or not. Perhaps I should be offering them fresh alfalfa in small amounts?

[Holly]

Well I personally prefer mine to eat what I believe is a scientifically "whole" food - I believe that HH is so good because of everything that is in it. I don't know enough about the hamster's nutritional needs to make my own scientifically balanced food so I go with what I believe to be the best commercially ab=vailable food.

Also don't forget that the hard pellets are essential for hamster's incisor teeth - grinding them down helps to keep teeth in trim.

[Ness]

alfalfa is meant to be really good for rabbits and rodents, but I have no idea why. I think they would prefeer to eat it fresh though.

I have some hamsters who eat the pellet things.