Live insects?

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I tried some dried mealworms ... she eats them like French fries!!

What about live insects... can you buy those in most pets stores? Or online?
 
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:love: Some hamsters like them some don't :-) It's best not to let her have too many though at once though!

I am not sure if you can get live insects online or not, but yes, probably from pet stores or reptile stores. If they are live mealworms though, you need to break the heads off first, or they can bite the hamster's mouth. A live cricket - you want to make sure it can't escape the enclosure!
 
Maz said:
ú111 Some hamsters like them some don't :-) It's best not to let her have too many though at once though!

I am not sure if you can get live insects online or not, but yes, probably from pet stores or reptile stores. If they are live mealworms though, you need to break the heads off first, or they can bite the hamster's mouth. A live cricket - you want to make sure it can't escape the enclosure!
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LOL -- I've heard that can happen ... the cheek biting thing (disturbing on a few levels).

No. I don't want to give too many. And I certainly don't want her food escaping!

My motivation for live insects is ... kind of an enrichment thing. I mean, they eat then in the wild, so why not in captivity. And also it might be fun to watch her hunt. :)
 
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It'll be interesting to see her reaction. I saw quite a funny video of a dwarf hamster chasing a cricket. Other hamsters would just ignore it :ROFLMAO:
 
I can totally imagine my little Rose going, What the...???? if I put a cricket in her cage.


unrelated: put a piece of tomato in her cage and a piece of cucumber. can no longer locate the cucumber..i think it might be in her belly. Later on found her totally noshing on the tomato!!! Sooo cute to watch her!!
 
She sounds adorable - can't wait to see more of her. They do tend to eat fresh veg straight away :) The guideline is a piece no bigger than their ear daily - they don't eat very much really. I think if it's more they could pouch or hoard it and then it goes off. Or they might eat too much and get diarrhoea. I know some people do give a bit more but I stick with the piece no bigger than their ear :-)
 
These pieces were the size of... several hamster ears. I'll monitor her the next few days... :unsure:. I'll have to lay off the fresh veggies for a few days. I didn't consider that she would pouch any extra and take it back to her hoard. I saw in a video somewhere that hamster actually means hoarder. How apt!
 
Begs the question... how much does the average hamster eat every day?
 
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I'm not sure there is a clear answer to that! They pouch a lot and hoard a lot and tend to snack from their hoards. So we don't get to see how much they actually eat. But it is not very much. They are quite small! But they eat what they need for survival - I think they have an instinct with that.

It's why their hoards get so large. It's still important to put a heaped teaspoonful of mix out every day (for a dwarf hamster - a tablespoonful for a syrian) as it's also their instinct to forage, pouch and hoard and they get quite anxious if they can't build up a hoard. I guess this is hard wiring from the wild with food shortages. It's why they also sometimes eat their poops! Which is normal. They have two stomachs and can redigest nutrients from their poops if there's no food available. Although I wouldn't rely on that sustaining a hamster.

Hence it's not essential to remove ALL their poops when spot cleaning. They are just like little hard seeds really and not dirty or smelly - if they start taking over a bit they can be spot cleaned out but it's always best to leave some behind - so they have an emergency supply of poops :)
 
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