Change of food

[Lovelyness]

Just thinking ahead…is it easy enough to change the food your hamster eats, or do they object to a change in their muesli mix. I’m currently using up the one from the pet shop where I got Blossom, but would like to make sure I get her something nutritionally balanced which would mean switching. With dogs, when you change their food over, you have a period of mixing some of the new food in with the old and gradually increasing the percentage of new and reducing the old. Would it be the same with hamsters, or can you just give a bowlful of the new food?

 

[elusive]

It is the same with hamsters, it depends to some extent how different the mixes are but it is generally best to do it gradually, if the mixes are quite similar types of food but the new one is just better quality rather than totally different just doing it over a week might be ok.

 

[Lovelyness]

It is the same with hamsters, it depends to some extent how different the mixes are but it is generally best to do it gradually, if the mixes are quite similar types of food but the new one is just better quality rather than totally different just doing it over a week might be ok.

Thanks, thats useful to know

 

[Maz]

Which one are you thinking of getting? Is the current food the Pets at Home mix? Or a different pet shop? My local pet shop used to sell Harry Hamster by weight - they had big sacks of it.

 

[Lovelyness]

Which one are you thinking of getting? Is the current food the Pets at Home mix? Or a different pet shop? My local pet shop used to sell Harry Hamster by weight - they had big sacks of it.

Not sure yet. I'm not sure what the current one is. Its not PAH. I didn't ask, but could find out. It has dried pineapple in it, which I'd rather avoid due to sugar.

 

[Maz]

I’m not keen on them with dried fruit in either. Fruit is ok for Syrians but dried fruit usually contains preservatives.

I use a 50/50 mix of Harry Hamster with Bunny Dream hamster food. The Bunny dream is really nice quality but only available online from Vetsend (or eBay) and it’s about £9 a bag. But the pieces are quite small. Harry hamster has better sized pieces but less variety - so I mix them.

Doing that reduces the overall protein a bit though as the Bunny dream is only 15.6% and Harry Hamster is 18%. So it still needs a bit of protein supplementation for the first year but not that much. Harry Hamster on its own has the correct level of protein.

 

[Lovelyness]

I’m not keen on them with dried fruit in either. Fruit is ok for Syrians but dried fruit usually contains preservatives.

I use a 50/50 mix of Harry Hamster with Bunny Dream hamster food. The Bunny dream is really nice quality but only available online from Vetsend (or eBay) and it’s about £9 a bag. But the pieces are quite small. Harry hamster has better sized pieces but less variety - so I mix them.

That’s useful to know. Harry Hamster would probably be the easiest to get from PAH but Miss B does like a bit if variety

 

[Lovelyness]

I’m not keen on them with dried fruit in either. Fruit is ok for Syrians but dried fruit usually contains preservatives.

I use a 50/50 mix of Harry Hamster with Bunny Dream hamster food. The Bunny dream is really nice quality but only available online from Vetsend (or eBay) and it’s about £9 a bag. But the pieces are quite small. Harry hamster has better sized pieces but less variety - so I mix them.

Doing that reduces the overall protein a bit though as the Bunny dream is only 15.6% and Harry Hamster is 18%. So it still needs a bit of protein supplementation for the first year but not that much. Harry Hamster on its own has the correct level of protein.

Do you supplement protein with those? (Edit: just read your last sentence!) Harry Hamster is probably most similar to what she has now so may be an easier swap.

 

[Maz]

That’s useful to know. Harry Hamster would probably be the easiest to get from PAH but Miss B does like a bit if variety

You could maybe have some variety by giving a different treat each day as well as her veg. That’s what I do. It alternates between half a walnut, some pumpkin seeds, a tiny friends yippee (they love those). And occasionally a tiny bit of cheddar or a bit of porridge in cold weather . They need a lot of protein in the first year but in the second year less so.

 

[Maz]

I prefer to mix the two for the variety, but during the pandemic mine had nothing but Harry Hamster as that was all my iu could get. It provides what’s needed. It’s not too bad - it has monkey nuts in and whole sunflower seeds.

 

[Lovelyness]

Is Little One hamster food any good? The protein doesn’t seem very high but I have the science selective now as a supplement.

 

[Lovelyness]

Or how about Bears hamster food? (soya without the bugs )

 

[Maz]

A few people have used the Little One hamster mix. I have some - I got it to try. I'd say quality wise it's half way between Harry Hamster and The Bunny Dream food. It's an ok mix. However it is low in protein and I think you'd need more than Science selective to supplement it.

I'm a bit cautious about some of the non commercial mixes personally. I think there are a few like Bear's mix.

You could mix Little One with Harry Hamster 50/50 for more variety and it would up the protein a bit but it would still need supplementing.

The Little One is 13.2%. Harry Hamster is 18% So if you add them together and divide by two you get 15.6%.

Bunny Dream is 15% so mixed with HH it gives 16.5% so less supplementation needed.

I must admit the Little One in the bag doesn't look anything like as good as the photos in my opinion!

 

[Lovelyness]

Hmm…it’s not actually as straightforward as it sounds! The food she has currently is most similar looking to Harry Hamster or Little One. I may be wrong, but I feel it would probably be easier to switch to something that was more similar to what she has now. Harry Hamster doesn’t seem to have the best reviews.

 

[Maz]

It's ok. Nothing wrong with it - it has it's pros and cons but it's also sugar free. I think things go in trends. It doesn't have the variety of other foods but the quality is fine.

So does the Bears mix with soya have a guaranteed analysis for protein or does it say you need to supplement?

 

[Maz]

I find it slightly annoying that the Little One has such low protein. But a lot of German mixes are like that and you're expected to give insects to bump up the protein. When actually people want a mix that contains everything needed. Harry Hamster is the only one that has everything needed so it can be an option for people who want to keep things simple and economical and just give fresh food treats.

 

[RainbowBrite]

This is the GA and ingredients for Bears.
GA:
19.61% protein
9.43% fat*
10.94% fibre

Ingredients;
Buckwheat, mixed seeds, oat groats, mixed millet (panicum millet, Japanese millet, red millet, white millet), roasted edamame, barley, wheat, red sorghum, flaked soya, dried gammarus/soya protein, peanuts, dried carrot, dried beetroot, dried spinach, dried parsnip, dried bell pepper, flax seed, pumpkin seed, jumbo flaked oats, cracked maize, rye, spelt, mung beans, brown lentils, freeze dried chicken, dried courgette, dried pumpkin, burdock root, dandelion root, sunflower seeds, hemp seed, safflower seeds, walnuts, quinoa, puffed millet, puffed quinoa, green split peas, chickpeas, mealworms, calciworms, basil, parsley, peppermint, lemon balm, dandelion leaves, chickweed, plantain leaves, rose petals, calendula, sunflower petals, cornflower, echinacea, green oats.

 

[Maz]

Thanks Rainbow. So for protein it has dried shrimps and freeze dried chicken and walnuts as well as soya. This is partly why I was cautious as whenever I've bought freeze dried chicken, it has a limited shelf life and starts to smell bad about a month after the packet is open. Otherwise it sounds good.

 

[RainbowBrite]

Thanks Rainbow. So for protein it has dried shrimps and freeze dried chicken and walnuts as well as soya. This is partly why I was cautious as whenever I've bought freeze dried chicken, it has a limited shelf life and starts to smell bad about a month after the packet is open. Otherwise it sounds good.

You can have different options. With bugs and without and with soya.

 

[Maz]

The lentils put me off as well. I think there was a discussion about it on here earlier this year and some feel lentils aren't that digestible for hamsters.