Hello. If you're new to hamsters, I'd suggest giving them a tablespoon of a good hamster mix every day and putting most of that in a bowl and scattering a bit of it on the substrate for them to forage. Hamsters vary, and I find with some of them, if you scatter all the food you end up with a cage full of food! They don't eat it all, they take what they want - pouch it usually and then hoard it and then they snack from their hoards - like having breakfast in bed
In terms of veg, give them a very small piece daily - no bigger than the hamster's ear. It helps to put that in a separate place to their hamster mix - eg on a shelf or a separate little dish like a jar lid. Because it keeps life interesting for them and they like to go and find it. They LOVE fresh veg, but they only eat really tiny amounts each day so too much and they could either get diarrhoea or it could get hoarded and go off.
Generally they tend not to hoard fresh food like veg but eat it or nibble at it where you put it. If you give a piece no bigger than the hamster's ear it will just get eaten. Favourites tend to be a tiny broccoli floret or cucumber here but you can give carrot (not so popular here - they like the green veg), cauliflower and various other types of veg. I've linked our safe fruit and veg guide which also lists all the other safe and unsafe foods for hamsters. Hope that helps!
I'm guessing you're in the US if you mentioned Mazuri. Mazuri is basically soya for protein and while protein is needed, Mazuri or lab blocks aren't really recommended these days. You need a good hamster mix that contains enough protein. Some don't contain enough protein and then it needs supplementing a bit, so to supplement you can just give "fresh" extras, like half a walnut twice a week, or a bit of chopped hard boiled egg. Again only a TINY piece of chopped egg about ear-sized again so they eat it all. They LOVE human food!
For a mix, Higgins Vita Garden is probably the better commercial mix that's easy available, as it's sugar free and has a reasonable variety of ingredients. Some hamster owners now buy Getzoo mixes from Germany - and buy them on Etsy - but they can work out more expensive.
To keep it simple to start with, you could just get a bag of Higgins Vita Garden and then look into alternatives when you've got used to the hamster care. Also freeze any hamster food, treats or sprays or hay for a week to avoid any bugs hatching out! If you haven't done that don't worry it'll probably be fine, but ongoing it's best to freeze them for a week.
Sprays are good for enrichment but don't worry about getting everything all at once when you've just rescued three hamsters! The main thing is to get them settled so it's less stress for them and for you.
So the main things are
1) An enclosure that's large enough
2) Plenty of bedding - ideally paper bedding - at least 6" deep but 8" or more is better
3) A large house that's dark inside - a shoebox house is fine - cut the base out of a shoebox, keep the lid as a lift-off roof and cut a hole for a door. It helps to cut the hole for the door on one of the long sides, near one end/corner, rather than in the middle, as that means the other end is darker - light doesn't go round corners.
4) Additional hides and tunnels at floor level - these can just be cardboard as well like a square tissue box or a wiped out pringles tube. Tubes need to be at least 7cm diameter for a Syrian and 5 to 6cm diameter for a dwarf hamster.
5) A wheel that's large enough. For chinese and dwarf hamsters, 9" is good or 10" is fine as well. For Syrians 11" or 12". Don't spend a fortune on the wheels if you have three to buy for. In the US you can get the 9" or 12" silent runner wheels from exotic nutrition and they are reasonable prices.
If they;ve just arrived with you and the cages or enclosures have the basics above, then just leave them to themselves for 2 or 3 days, so they can adjust to their environment. Just put food out or talk to them throught he enclosure. Hamsters are sensitive little things. It can be 10 days to 2 weeks before they're fully confident in a new enclosure so don't go changing things around or cleaning anything out. They just need stability that first couple of weeks.
After a week you could "spot clean" the pee - ie take a handful of substrate out and replace it with another handful. The more bedding you have, the less often they need cleaning out. If you can't smell anything don't worry! Let your nose guide you. They are clean little things and it's only their pee that is unhgyienic. Don't worry about poops just yet - they can actually eat those (which is normal). They are not dirty or smelly. They're like little hard seeds.
Many human foods are safe for hamsters, but some are toxic to hamsters. Our hamster site has a researched and referenced food list gives up to date information on safe and unsafe foods for hamsters.
www.thehamsterforum.com
