Do you think there is a market in the UK for homemade hamster diets for sale?

freckles42 · 06-16-2021, 03:48 PM

General gist is, I have recently started making my own homemade mix for my dwarf hamster. I am considering looking into developing mixes for all the species (i.e. dwarfs, Syrians and robos, with different ones for young and adult) to eventually go on to selling them on Etsy. I don't know however if there is a need or want in the UK for hamster diets sold on Etsy. Thoughts?

To clarify, it would probably be at least a year or so before I would be looking to start actually setting up a store as I know I still have a lot of research to do and I would want to wait until I could try out the mixes on my own hamsters or something like that to get an idea of how well they worked, etc. I am in no rush, it was just a thought I had but I don't want to waste time developing mixes that I would never use. I am wanting to wait until I have at least had a Syrian of my own to get an idea of how to adapt a mix for a Syrian, I'm still adjusting my dwarfs mix as it is as well. I would wait until I was 100% confident in my mixes before looking into selling them!!

The mix I have at the moment is based on german-style mixes if that makes any difference.

Thanks!

Amethyst_ice · 06-16-2021, 04:33 PM

Have you come across rat rations website? Some of our members over the years have worked on homemade mixes and sold on there.

Some have been successfull but others have been withdrawn in the past when defiencies have arisen.

freckles42 · 06-16-2021, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amethyst_ice

Have you come across rat rations website? Some of our members over the years have worked on homemade mixes and sold on there.

Some have been successfull but others have been withdrawn in the past when defiencies have arisen.

I actually get a lot of my ingredients from rat rations. Do you think that a mix would be more successful being sold via rat rations (or something similar) rather than on Etsy for example?

Ria P · 06-17-2021, 01:27 AM

I always said that it would be great if i could walk into a petshop and buy a bag of small textured Harry Hamster for my dwarfs instead of always having to order online (Zooplus).

I had a bad experience when i tried ratrations and found a dried chilli in the dwarf mix. I'm not keen on the loose packaging either and prefer a proper tub or resealable bag and don't mind paying the extra.

The continental type mixes have a lot of herbs which my dwarfs always leave. Herbs and flowers can be bought separately for enrichment.

I don't know if another online foodmix would be a success but there's definitely a hole in the market for a good dwarf hamster mix available off the shelf.

LunaTheHamster1 · 06-17-2021, 03:45 AM

There are a few people over the years that have done this.
Erins Ark is one example, I can't think of the other company at the moment.
Home
I do believe there was talk about the food from Erin's Ark being bad, but I don't know about that - it was just doing the rounds on social media.
Also she doesn't list the nutritional percentages, you would need to look into that.

Amethyst_ice · 06-18-2021, 07:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by freckles42

I actually get a lot of my ingredients from rat rations. Do you think that a mix would be more successful being sold via rat rations (or something similar) rather than on Etsy for example?

What I was meaning is that people attempting to sell homemade hamster mixes isn't anything new and many of those had perhaps a vet or biology background where they had access to do testing and bloods etc over a period of time. And even then, some ill effects were reported and mixes were pulled