Mixing Hamster Foods

[heidii]

Originally Posted by Ria P

Why do you want to give a dwarf mix to a Syrian and a Syrian mix to a Robo?

I want to mix them. Rodipet Syrian isn't "only" for Syrians. I have the teddy mix, which as we all know, are no different to Syrians. As long as the nutritional content is correct for both of them, it'll be easier to mix them & and they can have a single jar filled with their food. Obviously, I wouldn't feed something inappropriate for either of them, however both foods are suitable for both types of hamster. The main argument I've seen for not giving the dwarf mix is that the ingredients are small, but I've gotten both out into bowls and the Teddy mix has equally the same sized ingredients.

[Pebbles82]

Maybe it depends which dwarf mix. I know I wouldn't give the Bunny Dream dwarf mix to a Syrian as there are a lot of tiny seeds and syrians prefer bigger pieces. Maybe the rodipet dwarf one isn't like that?

The other thing to check (which is probably ok with rodipet foods) is no sugars for a dwarf due to the risk of diabetes. So a Syrian mix may contain sugars which wouldn't be suitable for a dwarf. A dwarf mix with no sugars would be fine for a syrian unless there were lots of tiny seeds. But if you say they don't seem much different, I don't see why not.

What I did though was have two plastic lock and lock boxes. One had a mix of Syrian Bunny Dream, Rodipet and HH and the other had a mix of rodipet dwarf food and rodipet bunny food.

If you make up a big enough box of each they last a long time. I can't see there any financial savings in giving them all the same food really. Just means the food lasts longer by getting separate ones!

How do you find the Rodipet teddy one? That's a new one on me and I'm not sure why they have it or what's supposed to be different between that and the Syrian one. I know when I used the Syrian one, the junior one was good but didn't like the senior one which was too full of herbs and the hamster didn't like it either, so I just kept using the junior one.

[Pebbles82]

Actually if you're using the Rodipet Teddy one it's 17.6% protein so no real supplementation needed, other than treats for treats sake If mixing that with Harry Hamster at 18% the protein percentage is only slightly under 18%.

[heidii]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

Maybe it depends which dwarf mix. I know I wouldn't give the Bunny Dream dwarf mix to a Syrian as there are a lot of tiny seeds and syrians prefer bigger pieces. Maybe the rodipet dwarf one isn't like that?

The other thing to check (which is probably ok with rodipet foods) is no sugars for a dwarf due to the risk of diabetes. So a Syrian mix may contain sugars which wouldn't be suitable for a dwarf. A dwarf mix with no sugars would be fine for a syrian unless there were lots of tiny seeds. But if you say they don't seem much different, I don't see why not.

What I did though was have two plastic lock and lock boxes. One had a mix of Syrian Bunny Dream, Rodipet and HH and the other had a mix of rodipet dwarf food and rodipet bunny food.

If you make up a big enough box of each they last a long time. I can't see there any financial savings in giving them all the same food really. Just means the food lasts longer by getting separate ones!

How do you find the Rodipet teddy one? That's a new one on me and I'm not sure why they have it or what's supposed to be different between that and the Syrian one. I know when I used the Syrian one, the junior one was good but didn't like the senior one which was too full of herbs and the hamster didn't like it either, so I just kept using the junior one.

On Rodipet, they seem to think that a long-haired Syrian needs different dietary needs to a short-haired Syrian. Obviously, this isn't the case, however I still got the long-haired "Teddy" mix because it had a more varied amount of ingredients. I want both my hamsters to have really varied diets, and Neptr loves his Rodipet.

I've put the two foods - bunny dwarf dream and Rodipet - next to each other, however the size doesn't seem to change that much. Rodipet has "larger" foods, but those are only the easily edible herb/leaves.

[Pebbles82]

I find Bunny Dwarf dream has loads of tiny seeds (most of them end up on my floor! Pip chucks food out of the cage). Syrians really aren't fussed about a lot of tiny seeds and they may end up at the bottom of the mix. Could you not get the Syrian Bunny dream as well, to mix with the Harry Hamster?

Our robo just has the Dwarf Bunny dream and nothing else and he's happy with that. I supplement it a bit with treats/extras.

[Pebbles82]

Basically a dwarf hamster may be happy with syrian food (although they do like tiny seeds as well), but a Syrian probably wouldn't be happy with a dwarf hamster food.

[heidii]

I completely get that, but Neptr doesn't like any large foods. Not sure if its because he is a small hamster, or what, but he always leaves larger foods and eats his small bits.

I will buy that Syrian mix as it does look good, but it looks just as small as the dwarf mix, just with added pea flakes??

[Pebbles82]

I have both at the moment. The Syrian Bunny dream for the Syrian and the dwarf one for our robo. The Syrian one does generally seem all bigger bits - but not as big as the bits in Harry Hamster Take your point though.

At one time Dwarf hamsters had to make do with Syrian foods anyway as it was so hard to find dwarf specific mixes with smaller seeds in.

[heidii]

I did offer Rodipet Syrian Teddy to Pico initially before the bunny dwarf arrived, and he ate it ALL! Unlike the Harry Hamster, which has been left since I brought him home and will be removed. How can I "wean" him off of HH if he hasn't eaten a bit of it??

[Pebbles82]

Just switch it if he hasn't eaten the HH. Our first Syrian only ever had HH and he loved it! But then he'd never had any other choice!