Homemade hamster diet - need input.

[Daisy]

The dried flowers and leaves I wouldn't really worry about as they don't contribute a lot nutritionally to the mix, which is not to say they aren't nutritious but almost all of the nutrition is coming from the seeds and insects.

Are you able to buy live black soldier fly larvae locally (or online)? Some Syrians will eat live insects even if they won't eat them dried. Otherwise see if there are maybe any horse/cattle/sheep pellets you can buy that are either naturally high in calcium (e.g alfalfa pellets) or fortified with it. Check on here that the ingredients are okay first though.

There isn't really any research on it, but I don't think Syrian hamsters necessarily need animal protein as long as they have enough protein in some form, as well as enough vitamins and minerals. But you can feed some egg or chicken etc just to cover that base.

 

[Angel's Teddybear]

Ok! So my idea is use those extra grams from the herbs and just put those grams to the other 2 herbs, and then do either shrimp or chicken instead of the bsfl! I will also be using the mineral stone, so hopefully that will work good. I can’t do live bsfl, just because it’s hard to find and it will also gross me out.. Thank you so much for the input!! That helped a lot.

 

[Angel's Teddybear]

Oh, also, would split peas and lentils be fine to have both? I would think so as they are both different things, but they are both part of the legume family. Maz said that I might not need both of them, so I wanted to ask to see if I needed it.

 

[Angel's Teddybear]

@Daisy @Maz

I FINISHED!!!

 

[Maz]

Well done. Hope your hammy eats it all! A tip about freeze dried chicken - it has a shelf life and can start to smell bad so probably best not to make huge batches all in one go. Don't know if that's the same with the shrimps but possibly.

 

[Daisy]

I'd recommend either feeding freeze-dried chicken separately or mixing it into the food in small batches that will last only a week or two.

Oh, also, would split peas and lentils be fine to have both? I would think so as they are both different things, but they are both part of the legume family. Maz said that I might not need both of them, so I wanted to ask to see if I needed it.

Yes, it's fine to have both lentils and peas. Peas aren't high in lectins like lentils are so you can feed those more freely. The only thing is that dried split peas are very hard and I've never known a rodent to eat them. I'd see if you can find dried peas (whole peas) instead.

 

[Angel's Teddybear]

Ok, so I altered a few things in the end. I don’t have the 2nd animal protein, and instead I will be supplementing her diet with extra meats. I also have increased and decreased the amounts of a few things. She likes split peas, so I left those in there. She didn’t like shrimp either, so now I have a ton of shrimp and bsfl that I don’t need! Yay..

In the end, here is a picture of the before and after of food. The before is on the right, and the after is on the left. It’s a small sample so it might not have all the seeds that have lower amounts, but this is an amazing improvement in my book. It’s also a bit blurry, so hopefully it still shows it enough!

 

[Angel's Teddybear]

I’ll be giving it in her food bowl while i transition, (just to make sure she is finding all the seeds she needs to) then I’ll start scatter feeding again.

 

[Angel's Teddybear]

I appreciate everyone’s help, @ponyo @Daisy @Maz Thank you so much for supporting me and my hamster on my journey!!