Mix my own Campbell's Hamster food?

HellsBells · 09-07-2016, 09:25 AM

Hey all,

Since a few months I got Campbell Hamsters and I know they can't have sugars and such. I started them on Mixerama Campbell's mix, but they eat it very bad so I tried Vitakraft Menu dwarf hamster, which is sugar free as well but I'm not too happy with the variety of seeds.

I'm thinking of mixing my own now, but would like to read up on how to do it. I got the name of a book for Rat food already because nutritions are all named in there with all the nutritional values with it. (Scuttling Gourmet)

Can anyone recommend some websites about mixing food for Campbells?

Thanks a lot!

AmityvilleHams · 09-07-2016, 11:12 PM

Don't mix foods.You can most likely get Burgess' dwarf hamster mix which is perfectly fine for dwarf hamsters and has adequate nutrition without having added sugar.

Mixing foods is extremely risky,as you can and often will end up with some sort of deficiency at some point.It also is not necessary and is far more difficult,plus it is not in any way cost effective!

cypher · 09-07-2016, 11:19 PM

Mixing up your own food really isn't as simple as it sounds, I do make my own but it has taken hours & hours of research into the nutritional value of different foods as well as the specific species needs & then a lot more hours working out a balanced mix with the ingredients I chose to use.
There are no websites that give a really definitive guide to making your own, some will help as a starting point but you would still have to work out most of it yourself.
The Mixerama mix is good but I think most of our hams here in the UK are so used to being fed a different kind of diet they don't take to eating all of it & it may be the same with hams in your country.
There area few other mixes you might want to look at, Rodipet do a mix for hybrids which would be the same as Campbells regarding low sugars, they also do another mix for Russian hams which does have some fruit in it but is fine otherwise.
If you can shop at Zooplus they have a couple of quite good mixes, JR farms & Bunny Dwarf HamsterDream Basic

You might find this thread worth a read.
Has anyone ever made their own hamster food?

AmityvilleHams · 09-07-2016, 11:23 PM

Viovet do international delivery,so Burgess is definitely an option!It does have very good nutrition and great ingredient quality,at least as far as the dwarf version is concerned.

https://www.viovet.co.uk/Burgess_Dwa...arvest/c30803/

HellsBells · 09-08-2016, 06:16 AM

@Cypher, my hamsters had been on 'lab food' at the breeder so I was certain that they would eat Mixerama well. Unfortunately that's not the case. My little Nuka doesn't eat any food well, but she didn't start growing until I switched her food from Mixerama to a mix of different foods (I switch them every few days). Vim! is still very tiny, only 24 gram...

I really like to read up on mixing my own. But I don't trust Wikipedia on what they need in protein, fats and carbohydrates.

I'm not saying flat out "I'm going to mix my own food", but I do like to read up on it and see if I think I'll manage. I think I could manage, but I wont know for sure until I do research.

About Burgess hamster food, I can't get that in my country, I might be able to ship it but it might be pretty expensive.

cypher · 09-08-2016, 07:03 AM

Changing from lab food to something like mixerama is a huge change & would take quite a long time to accomplish with any ham, it's a big difference not only for what they are used to eating but for their digestion too so I'm not really surprised you had problems really.

I wouldn't switch foods every few days, it's best to begin with one & gradually add another until you've changed or reached the proportions of each that you need & hen add in any other foods you intend to use for a bit of variety but everything should be a gradual progressive change, nothing sudden.

I can't say I've ever looked at wikipedia for info on ham nutrition, it certainly wouldn't be somewhere I'd go for something like that. The mix comparison thread here should give you a good idea of what protein, fat & fibre they need.
I think I posted links to some of the useful German pages in that other thread I linked to before too.

HellsBells · 09-08-2016, 10:06 AM

Unfortunately the breeder told me it was okay to switch to it right away. I'll take a look at the topic, thanks!

AmityvilleHams · 09-08-2016, 03:15 PM

I honestly would not trust that breeder then.Switching diets too fast can cause serious stomach upset and severe stress

As I said before,Burgess is available from Viovet with international delivery.Yes,it will cost more,but if you're getting as much food as possible and also potentially extra supplies it isn't really bad.Just make sure you get enough food for several months if possible,and that way the delivery charge also isn't as bad as it would be having to get food delivered every month!

cypher · 09-08-2016, 08:49 PM

You might find this Mixerama article on changing food interesting.

ETA I forgot to say earlier that even dried food doesn't keep for that long or at least doesn't stay fresh enough & retain optimum nutrition so I wouldn't buy more than enough for a few months (although freezing food can extend the storage life) & bear in mind that when you order food you will have no idea how long it's been on the shelf & what the best before date will be so ordering from sites in other countries can work out quite expensive & requires a bit more thought than just order a whole huge batch to save money when you may actually end up wasting food & money.