Healthy non stop treats?

[Hamsterita]

Hi!!

I have a Syrian hamster. He arrived at my home a month ago. I'm still taming him because he is super skittish and he comes to my hand, he even started to crawl over me, but he doesn't like to be handled. So, i need treats to "blackmail" him (i don't know if it's the correct expression in English).

I was feeding him with Hazel/harry Hamster mix, and he loved it, so, i basically was using his food as a treat. I grabbed the bites that he liked the most and i hand fed him, i put the rest on his bowl and he ate it later.

The problem his that two days ago i discovered his food full of disgusting pantry worms . I immediately throw away his food and went to buy another one. Hazel/Harry hamster mix isn't available were i live, i've ordered it on line as i had read that it was a great food, and without any food to give him, i couldn't wait for another one to arrive. Anyway i'm still freaking out about the possibility of having a plague at my home, so i'm not very eager to repeat with it . So, i had to look for another healthy food available on a physical store, and the only one that i could find was "Versele Laga Complete Hamster and Gerbil" (Protein 17.0%, Fat content 6.0%, Crude fibre 4.0%, Crude ash 5.5%, Calcium 0.6%, Phosphorus 0.4%) the others were very VERY low in protein. They are pellets and he didn't like it at all. He smell it and did it like it was nothing. I was very worried that he wasn't going to eat it, but he is not dumb and he wasn't going to starve to death, so he is eating it well but only when he is hungry, so the hand feed is over.

I even thought about changing his food again, but i know that is not good to change it so often, and even worst doing it suddenly, and as i said before isn't easy for me to get other quality brands.

And that's the reason why i was thinking what could i give to him non stop as i did with his previous food. I could buy another not-so-high-quality-food with grains and use it? or that would cause that he wouldn't eat his real food (moreover, he's picky)? If i can do it, which one would you recommend? Are there some grains that i can use a lot without lots of problems? I know that moderation is the key but... i just want to "cheat" moderation.

And btw. He is very skinny. He's a pet shop hamster (no breeders where i live, hard to find even in the whole country) and his weight wasn't amazing as i could imagine, but now with his wheel i think that it dropped even more. That could allow me to give him more fatty ingredients or they are unhealthy anyways like with humans?

Congrats if you read til here

[cypher]

It's really unfortunate that you had the moths in your mix, it's really unpleasant I know as it happened to me once years ago but it is unlikely that you'd get another bag of Harry Hamster with moths again, just in case you can put the unopened bag in the freezer for at least 48hrs then it would be fine & if anything was in there freezing would kill it, any eggs are actually harmless once they can't hatch out & fill the place with moths!
So I would suggest getting more of his favourite food & continuing as you were before.
There are lots of things you can give as treats like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, nuts, mealworms, hemp or flax seeds for example, small pieces of fresh veg & tiny bits of cooked chicken but these aren't really suitable if you want to use a lot for taming although if he's a bit underweight a few extra healthy treats won't do any harm.

[Hamsterita]

Originally Posted by cypher

It's really unfortunate that you had the moths in your mix, it's really unpleasant I know as it happened to me once years ago but it is unlikely that you'd get another bag of Harry Hamster with moths again, just in case you can put the unopened bag in the freezer for at least 48hrs then it would be fine & if anything was in there freezing would kill it, any eggs are actually harmless once they can't hatch out & fill the place with moths!
So I would suggest getting more of his favourite food & continuing as you were before.
There are lots of things you can give as treats like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, nuts, mealworms, hemp or flax seeds for example, small pieces of fresh veg & tiny bits of cooked chicken but these aren't really suitable if you want to use a lot for taming although if he's a bit underweight a few extra healthy treats won't do any harm.

Thank you! You always save the day. I'll think about buying Harry Hamster Mix again. The vision of several worms crawling over my bed is still too fresh. I couldn't sleep that night because the paranoia was making me feel tiny bugs crawling over my skin and it gave me the creeps. Three days later my bedroom looks worm-free so i hope everything is alright and the plague contained.
So yeah, you're right, i should order more and continue the taming process without concerns.

[cypher]

lol! I've had a couple of bug out breaks & it does make your skin crawl, I spend days seeing things & imagining everything is moving like a little bug *ick*