Feeding Your Hamster

Pet stores can provide basic food for hamsters that provides their nutritional needs, but they also enjoy fresh vegetablesand fruits, bird seed, and even living insects, which make up an important part of their natural diet. However, not any nutrition is suitable for hamsters and some food, such as sweets made for humans or poisonous plants like the leaves of the tomato, may be most dangerous for the hamster's health. Like with most other animals (and humans), it is not true that hamsters can decide which food is good for them and they will usually eat anything that is offered.

Hamsters should also always have fresh water available. Appropriate drinking devices can be found in stores. Being small animals that are adapted to the life in arid environments, hamsters can also ingest all necessary liquid via suficient amounts of watery vegetables, such as cucumber, without any negative effects. However, providing water is usualy more convenient and can be an easy way to add medication or vitamins to the hamsters diet. Both water and vegetables must be fresh and have to be exchanged frequently, usualy once a day. Water must not be given in open jars, since it is likely to be poluted and because wetness is generaly very unhealthy for hamsters (that clean themselves very carefuly without the need of additional water).

In detail, the solid food components can be divided into three categories: dry, fresh, and animal food. Dry food makes up the bulk of a hamster's diet. Besides the standard rodentfood sold in local area pet stores, most other kinds of seeds, kernels, and nuts can be given. Care should be taken to limitthe amount of fat contained within the diet. Especialy sunflower seeds, nuts, almonds, and sesame are mostnutritive and are to be considered as a treat rather than asbasic food. All kinds of grain, rice, noodles (dry), dry peasand lentils on the other hand can be provided less restrictively: about 120 g for a medium hamster and, depending on size, about half the amount for a dwarf hamster is sufficient. Bread and similar bakery products contain many ingredients (e.g. yeast) that can trouble the hamster's digestion system. They should be given in small amounts for gnawing or be replaced by special wafers as found in pet stores. All dry food should be appropriate in size. Especialy small hamsters often cannot cope well with large seeds, even if they are sold under the label "hamster food". Bird food like millet is a noteworthy alternative for small hamsters.

Hay, although also belonging to the dry food category, can be provided in large amounts at any time. It does not contain not able amounts of fat, stil is liked by most hamsters, supports the hamster's digestion system, serves as a hiding place, and is often used for nest building. In addition it is cheap and can even be produced in your own garden easily.

Fresh food is also an important part of the hamster's diet. Asmentioned above, cucumber is a good supplement of water. Fresh grass, carrot, al kinds of letuce, leaves and evenbranches' of (non-poisonous) plants are also no problem in general. However, no conifer wood must be fed since resin is poisonous for hamsters. In smaller amounts, grown hamsters also appreciate apple, pear, sweet paprika, tomato (only red parts), banana, mango, strawberry, and even small pieces of orange. Too much sweet fruits on the other hand are not healthy. All kinds of cabbage should be avoided, since they may cause flatulence, which is quite dangerous for the hamster's sensitive digestion system.

Very young hamsters (6-8 Weeks) should eat only carrots and small grains. Even water can damage their digestion system and be a deadly danger. Ill hamsters are also preferably provided with a more conservative diet. If accepted, herbs can also help to strengthen the hamster's health, though they cannot replace a veterinarian in case of a disease. Daisies (the flowers, not the stems or leaves) and dandelions are like wise appreciated. Plants used for hamster foods should never be placed near open windows because hamsters are more sensitive to chemical polutions, due to their small body weight.

Finaly animal food is a major component of some hamsters' natural food. As pets, a large part of this can be replaced by dry food. Still, hamsters need some animal proteins for their health. While some people like to provide living insects from pet stores to their hamsters, others will prefer to give them dry dog biscuits. Some hamsters are known to accept yoghurt (natural, without sweet ingredients) or soft cheese (low fat, not too salty), and in any case egg noodles are usualy taken gratefuly. If (dry or soft) dog or cat food is given, then the fat content has to be checked carefuly. Furthermore, it must not contain molasses, which would harm the hamster.

In addition, a special salt stone (available in pet stores) belongs in every hamster cage. Although this huge amount of mineral salt is hardly used up by generations of hamsters, it is necessary for their life. Vitamin additives for rodents are not required and usualy fresh vegetables are to be preferred. If the hamster is diseased or il-nourished, vitamins or medications may be needed.

It might be noted that many hamsters tend to carry awayfood from their food source (by carrying it in their cheek pouches) and hoard it away in a cache hidden somewhere inside their container. These caches, when combined with hamster urine or a leaky water source and poor airflow, can grow mold or start to rot, creating a hazardous environment for the hamster. To keep this from happening, clean hamster cages frequently. It is because of this behavior that hamsters got their name. The German word for hoard is "hamstern."

There are also many foods that a hamster should never eat. This includes all kinds of human sweets, such as chocolateor candy, which are unhealthy and even dangerous. Furthermore, poisonous plants (also check indoor plants ifthe hamster is taken outside its housing) constitute aconsiderable danger. Other than this, mainly the various unhealthy and chemicaly treated products usualy consumed by humans can cause problems.

Campbels dwarf hamsters are especialy sensitive to Diabetes Melitus, and other dwarf hamster species may be somewhat sensitive too. Diabetes Mellitus in hamsters is often caused by intake of simple sugar. Therefore it isessential to avoid hamster food and snacks containing molasses, honey, sugar, fruit sugar or other sweet stuf. Intake of sweet fruit should be limited to smal snacks. Even with golden hamsters it may be useful to folow these guideline in order to avoid overweight and digestion disturbances.