仓鼠 Tsang Shu

When you think about what hamsters eats in the wild you need to think about where each species comes from, in the semi arid steppes insects would be mostly small beetles & larvae, probably mostly beetle larvae, I doubt there would be much in the way of caterpillars as butterflies need vegetation & flowers which there would be little of.
In the wild they have to take what they can get, life is risky & often short, with our pet hamsters we generally want them to live as long & healthy a life as possible, this is why we talk about the best & most appropriate diet,

If you do want to feed live insects don’t feed live mealworms without removing the head first as they bite & your hamster could get injured.
As for ants I doubt she’d appreciate them crawling around her enclosure!
 
IMG_1318.jpegAnts would crawl up the walls and get into my house.

There are flowers on cacti in the desert in the American West. We birded Arizona one year. My wife was born in Tucson (Too-sahn). The desert is amazingly fertile.

In Arizona there are skunks, the shrew, the American beaver, porcupine gophers, pocket mice and kangaroo rats
voles, wood rats, cotton rats, and deer mice. Chipmunks, squirrels and prairie dogs.
 
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Not to belabor the point, but Mongolia has butterflies, hence caterpillars.
 
Arizona is a very different environment, there will be some butterflies in the areas where Chinese hamsters originate but few & far between.
There is an article here that might be of interest & give a more general idea of insect life in the area, you have to scroll down through all the other fauna to find it.
www.iranicaonline.org

Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica

The Encyclopaedia Iranica is a comprehensive research tool dedicated to the study of Iranian civilization in the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent
www.iranicaonline.org www.iranicaonline.org
 
Some caterpillars are poisonous.

I understand some concerns might seem neurotic, but I think it's necessary to strike a balance between avoiding almost everything due to theoretical harms, and doing things that could be risky when there's little real benefit. You can buy mealworms, crickets, locusts or waxworms from a pet shop so there's really no need to feed a wild caterpillar. You can even buy earthworms in cans if you want to feed those.
 
Maz said:
Crickets and insect larvae are the main hamster bug diet. You can get live crickets at reptile stores. But you'd probably only need 1! You can get freeze dried crickets, grasshoppers and mealworms here. You can also get freeze dried freshwater shrimps and slkworm pupaea. Not all hamsters will eat the insects. Mine turned their nose up at a dried cricket. They get to like the human food and veg! A live cricket - some hamsters would chase, others would ignore. I'm not sure I'd fancy having ants in a hamster cage. Some pet stores may sell live insect food as well.

Rodipet® Insect Mix Protein Snack 50 g

Freeze-dried mixed insects for omnivorous pets In the wild, hamsters, gerbils, steppe lemmings and other omnivorous rodents hunt for various insects to supplement their ...
www.rodipet.co.uk www.rodipet.co.uk
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Pete isn't going to get anything which wriggles not when there are other alternatives just as healthy he does like dried mealworms but I draw the line at the live ones as for ants I hate them they dug up my patio
 
My Package of Flax, Oat, etc Sprays came from Etsy, but the shipment originated in the Ukraine. It got all the way to Memphis. The federal government here is very incompetent. Their employment rules mean the workers can never be fired.

Someone claimed to have attempted to deliver my package. I am retired and disabled. I was obviously here.

The note said to go pick up your package. After waiting in a long line (I helped a Mexican lady understand what the clerk was saying) (another lady tried to sell me a Scented Candle) they finally told me that "someone" would try to deliver it once more.
 
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I feel your frustration! I had the same thing happen recently with DPD. When we were waiting for a parcel for a specific occasion and it was due on that day. We were literally waiting by the door - only to receive a text saying the driver tried to deliver your parcel but you weren't available. They are virtually impossible to contact as well if you want to complain! I think sometimes the drivers run behind time and just decide to go home for the day.
 
I put a small handful of beautiful fescue grass in her cage. Tsang Shu took the blades of grass and tucked them into her burrow. This is one of my experiments which was a great success. I shall do it again.
 
A personal note. This writer suffers from a nasty bout of influenza. Massive bidy aches, profuse sweating but no fever.

The sprays came in and something else. But I cannot get out of bed to open them.
 
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Robert said:
A personal note. This writer suffers from a nasty bout of influenza. Massive bidy aches, profuse sweating but no fever.

The sprays came in and something else. But I cannot get out of bed to open them.
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Sorry to hear that! I hope you feel better soon.
 
Also sorry to hear that. It's just time and rest. And paracetamol! (Tylenol). I had Covid recently and had to live on paracetamol for a couple of weeks. The sprays will wait!

Maybe get someone else to feed your hamster meanwhile - I had to do that too then I wore a mask when feeding (and washing hands first obviously) - hamsters are prone to catching these things from us! So you don't want two sickies at the same time :)
 
She devoured a peanut I put in her cage. I had nibbled through the shell on one end. Yum yum yum
 
My wife "falls on hand grenades" for me. I am the luckiest man in the world. She insisted that I take Tylenol. She opened the other package for me. It was "Hamsterpedia". She spread the sprays in the cage. I do the cooking here, so she went and got me lunch.

Me I just sleep and sweat.
 
My beloved opened the Sprays from Ukraine. She spread the Sprays in front of the six room hide.IMG_1408.jpeg
 
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Tsang Shu is investigating the seven flat stones that I placed around her hideout. This was to give her a different texture.

There is a log in front of the hideout. My hamster had uncovered the Tube. I didn't want her to start chewing up the Tube. The log solved this problem.
 
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Here she is drinking water from her tiny dish. There is a peanut in front of her. Next to that is a Cherry Tree stick she can chew on.
 
Cherry wood isn’t considered safe for hamsters so I would take that out & give her something else to chew, either a safe wood, a whimzee or make something out of cardboard.
What kind of log does she have there?
 
It was "grape wood" now that I read the squibbon Etsy.
 
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