Questions about fresh food

[sushi_78]

How often do you all feed your hamsters fresh food, and how much do you give at a time? I try to give my Roborovski a bit of fruit or veg at least twice a week, should it be more often than this?

Also, which fruits and veg tend to be most popular with hamsters?

[LunaTheHamster1]

i give my hamsters some fresh veg every other day. They get kale on occasion (but causes poos to become softer, so not too often). I also give them broccoli, cauliflower, spinach leaf, baby beetroot leaves, chard on occasion, home grown flax shoots, occasional bit of carrot, and an occasional pea. Off the top of my head I can't think of anything else, but I am sure there is more, it just depends what I am eating or growing. I rotate the veg as to what they get, it's not all at once.

[cypher]

I give veg daily, broccolli, kale, spinach, green beans, courgette, buckwheat sprouts & beetroot are favourites, sometimes they have a pea, baby corn, red pepper. I very rarely give fruit maybe a tiny piece of apple or a blueberry but just as a very occasional treat.

[Ria P]

I feed fresh veg daily but my hamsters are used to them and come out looking for them when i'm late dishing up. Cucumber is the dwarves firm favourite and they get 2 or 3 tiny pieces (fingernail sized), sometimes a tiny piece of pepper or broccoli but no carrot or fruit. The Robo gets 1 or 2 tiny pieces of the same, he could have carrot but doesn't like it. The Syrian gets more, about 6 tiny pieces and the odd piece of fruit like apple. He also likes leaves like basil, parsley, spinach etc but the others don't.

Introduce fresh food slowly and cut into tiny pieces so they dry up rather than rot if not eaten up. Like humans, hamsters have their preferences and dislikes.

[sushi_78]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I'll stick with twice a week for the time being and perhaps build up to every other day after a while.

[Engel]

I give fresh veg everyday but to start with just give a little bit every now and again and gradually increase.

My lot have whatever can fit in tealight holder. Some may say that it's a lot but my lot love it and clear it without any gastric issues

[toffeeham]

I am concerned about fresh food going bad in my ham's nest because where I live the weather tends to be humid. So I try to give her (syrian) very small amount of veggie/fruit during her playpen time so that I can easily clean the left bits. She loves sweeter stuff apparently (carrot, blueberry, and cherry are her fav so far) but I try to limit those. Typically she does not finish green leafy veggie I give. The only exception seems to be the leaf of dandelion. My vet told me many small animals are fond of it. I have tried to treat her home-grown chamomile flowers before occasionally and she always finished them right away.

[Ria P]

Originally Posted by toffeeham

The only exception seems to be the leaf of dandelion. My vet told me many small animals are fond of it. I have tried to treat her home-grown chamomile flowers before occasionally and she always finished them right away.

My Syrian also loves dandelion leaf (and clover) and gets one every morning when they grow in the garden. Hamsters can also eat the yellow dandelion flower. Daisy is another flower they can have.

[toffeeham]

It's so nice that you have dandelions grow in your garden!

Originally Posted by Ria P

My Syrian also loves dandelion leaf (and clover) and gets one every morning when they grow in the garden. Hamsters can also eat the yellow dandelion flower. Daisy is another flower they can have.

[Vierville]

My dwarves all love brocolli and cauliflower. They tend to prefer the tenderstem or brocollini varieties but they are probably just spoiled. They also get small-fingernail-sized potions of sugarsnap pea, spinach, cucumber, green bean, occasional butter lettuce , red pepper and baby corn. Their individual tastes vary but the one thing all of them like is brocolli.

I also give a small fingernail-sized portion of dried coconut or a half a walnut or pecan nut occasionally.

They get a small platter (the lid of a takeaway sauce container) every night with a variety of the above items. I usually give it to them around 10pm, when they begin waking up for their night's activity.

I'm sometimes away overnight so on those days they skip their fresh dinner.