Dried Crickets or Mealwors

[Prassy_vg]

Hi there awesome fellow hamster owners
This is my second month of having 2 female Russian dwarves and 3 Syrians (1 female and 2 males) they are all in separate, well equipped habitrail homes.
I am looking forward to buying dry treats for them. Since this is my first time, I'm not sure which to go for meal worms or crickets or both. Can anyone tell me what difference they make to the hamster diet and if there is any preferences I should consider for the Syrians and the Russians separately
Regards
Prassy

[BluerayDarkes]

I not tried mine on crickets not sure if anyone here would say its okay, I do however feed them freeze dried mealworms. If you use live ones you have to cut off the head. They are great as snacks and provide a source of extra protein.

[msdemi]

I have used live mealworms with my rats but intend to go for the freeze dried variety with Sid. As for crickets I hadn't considered them bad memories of the live versions

[cypher]

Both are good for all species as a source of additional protein, they can be quite high in fat though so don't overdo it, one or two mealworms is ample for a dwarf maybe a little more for a syrian although they do seem to be more of a favourite with the dwarfs.
Do only feed freeze dried ones though, live mealworms can give your ham a nasty bite!
If you're in the UK you can get a good mix from zooplus.

[Prassy_vg]

How about dried crickets?

[racinghamster]

I imagine a single dried cricket a week might be good? I`ve never bought any just dried mealworms. x

[cypher]

If you mean how many crickets I guess it depends how big they are, I've had some that were quite small so maybe replace a couple of mealworms, mostly I use the Mucki mix now, there's a few large silk worm pupa in there sometimes but no really big crickets! Not that I look that closely if I can help it!

[WinnieTheHam]

Syrians prefer live insects, though you'll have to pinch their heads so they're stunned/dead. Live ones don't contain as much fat as dried ones. You can feed them without pinching but make sure the hamster gets the head end first so he/she can nibble that bit first so they can't bite them.

[amandad]

I feed both live mealworms and live crickets to our Syrian. She loves them. I usually get six small crickets for her. When I get her mealworms, I normally feed her two or three. I usually get the refrigerated small ones, though, I could probably get away with large refrigerated ones as they aren't that much bigger.

I've tried feeding crickets and mealworms to my rats, but they don't like them. People have suggested I try Superworms (more protein) but those are too big for a Syrian to have unless I cut them in half (which I would prefer not to do). So, unless you want to cut them, I'd veer away from Superworms (unless you get the smaller ones but those are still pretty large).

[Nancy's Hamsters]

Psst: a secret for feeding live Meal worms without having to pinch or be sure the head goes in the mouth first to avoid the Hamster from being bitten is to keep them chilled in a fridge. They go into semi dormancy and are too groggy to bite anything. By the time they are fully awake they are fully dead and ate.

Nothing is more fun for a Syrian then stalking a live cricket If you get the small size they can't bite threw anything Syrian size, and I have yet to see a Hamster not gobble down the head first on either a Meal worm or a cricket they have caught on their own(nobody is there for a wild Hamster to have a Cricket's head pinched off).

Another great protein source which has no mouth to bite but has as much protein is Wax Worms which are actually a Moth larva.