Fresh Food Mix

[SarahJ]

I want to make my hamsters a fresh food mix for them to have once a week.

For my Syrians i have thought about putting the following in:
Apple
Banana
Broccoli
Grape
Watercress
Cucumber

Can they eat carrots?

Im abit stuck on what mix to give my Chinese's and Robo. as i know they cannot have fruit.
So would just broccoli, watercress and cucumber be ok?
Is there anything else i could add to this for them?

I know i cannot just give them this straight away and i have to build up to giving them the mix all at once. They all get the odd bit of cucumber every now and then and the syrians get apple and grapes already.

[SammytheSyrian]

I feed my hamster all of that..so I would think yes. Correct me if wrong. :3

[nooboo]

chinese and robos can have that, the issue with dwarfs is for campbells and hybrids.

However, you do know that really a hamster should only have about a fingernails worth of anything fresh like that? so a tiny piece of cucumber OR a tiny piece of apple Or a bit of grape? else you would have to give really really invisible pieces to give a mix.

it is a good idea to beild up their tollerance to it if you really wish to give it to them, but i would ask yourself why you want to do so? 'fresh' food is no better for them, in fact as you know can cause problems, thats why they need to build up to it, its way too wet for them, too high in waters. In the wild they would occasionally nibble on a berry but mostly it would be grains, and the odd bug, which is wet and have plenty of goodness in it. Things like cucumber really offer very little nutrition...just added moisture, which hamsters really dont need much of!

In fact you can replace a water bottle by adding fresh veg etc...but they are not very good at not eating too much, which is where problems come, as they are creatures designed to live off of very little water.

If you want to give them a treat i would really consider giving something with more nutritional benefits to the hamster, like a little bit of cooked chicken, or some cooked egg, a tiny bit of porridge, some mealworm...these are still wet and treat like so you would have to watch to make sure it wasnt hoarded but at least are more beneficial!

things like nuts can also be given as treats, and dont require worries over hoarding, same with dried cat food.

[SarahJ]

Thanks Nooboo - I wanted to give them a change from their normal treats. so thought maybe a lil mix would be nice for them, but after reading what you wrote i will stick to giving them a piece of the above food as a treat.

I give them dryed meal worms already, i did try them on the live ones as i have tubs of them for my APH's but they dont seem to like the fact its moving and dont know what to do with it.

I didnt release the problem with fruit was only in campbells and hybirds, i thought it was for all the types! thank you for clearing that up for me.

[Jesse]

That's really interesting reading nooboo, thanks for that x