hammie food

[FemaleCheetah]

What is the best hamster food on the market??????? Does anyone know????

[o0sapphirerat0o]

I trust no small animal commercial food. I make my own.

dog food (holistic)
cherios
puffed wheat
puffed rice
shredded wheat
oatmeal
mueslix (all natural cereal)
veggie mac pasta swirls


Some weeks she leave the pasta swirls other tiems the oatmeal. She generaly cleans out the bowl though.

[Chaos]

Sapphire can you get puffed wheat and rice at any grocery store? I'd love to start feeding a hommade diet. I'm not a fan of any commericial pet food, but I do feed a high quality dog kibble at the moment.

[lilforjc]

I use a mix of vitamin fortified Encore, Bonanza bounti-buffet, sprinkle a little healthy toppings on top andmix it up then 1 nutra-puff a day-they really seem to like it...of course sometimes they get a piece of apple or carrot, etc.

[flowerpage]

Being someone that doesnt make their own....I use Nutriphase gold and is seems fine. My hammy is a bit weird and wont eat the sunflower seeds or corn, but likes the rest. I trust it because its the kind of stuff they would forage for in the wild.

We do give cheerios and oatmeal and a few things like that as treats and she loves them!

[yodelinghamster]

^ that is EXACTLY what I have!!! cool!! except mine LOVE sunflower seeds. My dwarf, Hudson goes NUTS for mealworms and pinto beans too.

[Jiffykat]

I trust no small animal commercial food. I make my own.

dog food (holistic)....What kind (brand) of dog food do you use?

[LilSnooPydOG]

Sapphire can you get puffed wheat and rice at any grocery store?
You can get those two at any grocery store. :yes: Just go to the cereal aisle, it should be there. I get the stuff in the bags, think the brand is Malt-O-Meal. (it's the same stuff i feed my ratties).

I had a really tough time finding any commercial foods that I liked. It seemed every time I had to buy more food, I would try a different brand because the other stuff just wasn't good enough. Most of the bag was just filled with millet and other stuff my hamsters never touched. Overall, it was a waste of money...

[Chaos]

Being someone that doesnt make their own....I use Nutriphase gold and is seems fine. My hammy is a bit weird and wont eat the sunflower seeds or corn, but likes the rest. I trust it because its the kind of stuff they would forage for in the wild.

We do give cheerios and oatmeal and a few things like that as treats and she loves them!

I used to use Nutriphase, but then I found out it contains Ethoxyquin. Taken from Hamsterific:

"Ethoxyquin is a controversial preservative. It is found in many low quality feeds (Kaytee, Hartz, etc..) for small and larger animals alike. I recommend not using a feed containing ethoxyquin, to be safe.

Ethoxyquin is not used as a preservative for HUMAN foods with the following exception: . It is permitted to "promote color retention" in paprika and ground chili pepper in a maximum concentration of 100 ppm.

The maximum allowable residue in eggs, meat, poultry, apples, pears, poultry fat and livers for HUMAN use is 0.5 ppm.

In ANIMAL feeds, the maximum allowable concentration of ethoxyquin is 150 ppm.

Being that hamsters and other small animals are more fragile than humans, it seems risky to feed something that is limited for human intake.

In studies I have read on the internet, here is what I have found:

-Chronic feeding studies in rats of 0.2 % of ethoxyquin in the diet caused transient depression in growth rate, At necropsy, damage to kidneys, liver and thyroid gland were seen in many of the male rats but not in the females.

-In another study, diets containing 0.5 % ethoxyquin fed to rats for up to 18 months, produced renal lesions in all of the study animals.

-Continuous administration to rats fed a diet of 0.2 % ethoxyquin, caused tumors in some of the animals.

With this information, I believe it is a good idea to stay away from ethoxyquin. It is found in many animal feeds, including dogs, cats, birds, and small animals. Just food for thought."

Right now I feed Mazuri lab blocks so I know they get all the necessary nutrition and they get some seed diet (Ecotrition) for variety. I'd like to start feeding a hommade diet, its just getting pretty expensive to feed all these guys and if its healthier it would be worth doing.

[o0sapphirerat0o]

california lamb and rice, natural balance, solid gold, eagle pak, and wellness are all good choices. I use california lamb and rice.

Yes puffed wheat and puffed rice can be bought at any store.

[babyboos]

I use Harry Hamster from Supreme Foods with added prebiotics

the only hamster food recommended by the National Hamster Council