UK Food Mix Help.

[RavingRodents]

I apologise for the formatting immediately, I'm on mobile.

Used to keep hamsters from 2017-2021 and care standards have changed quite a bit which is brilliant.

However, back in the day it was believed around 19% protein and 5% fat was good nutrition for a food mix, however, I've noticed, especially with the more natural seed mixes commercially available, this is consistently not being met? Currently feeding Harry Hamster but have been told that's not brilliant.

Have the nutritional values changed or am I right in thinking largely a lot of these seed based mixes are too high in fat/ too low in protein for hamsters?

Thanks

 

[Maz]

Hi. Harry Hamster is fine. It contains everything needed. It's maybe not the greatest variety, but it was all you could get during the pandemic and my hamsters did fine on it! Both lived to a grand age. They also love the monkey nuts. What I did for a while was mix it 50/50 with Bunny Dream Syrian food for a bit more variety.

A lot of mixes vary enormously these days and many also rely on you supplementing the protein (as do some commercial mixes like Bunny Dream). What hamsters need hasn't changed - 18% to 22% protein in their first year. By the second year, less is ok - maybe 15%.

I will admit I am not that up on fat levels but 5% sounds about right. @Daisy is our food guru So if she's around she might be able to help more.

My concern with some of the natural mixes is they rely on lentils for protein and I'm not keen on the idea of giving hamsters lentils. Firstly they might not eat them so not get the protein and secondly lentils aren't good for their digestion. There are some that don't have lentils though.

Mixerama and Hamster Helper foods don't have lentils. The Mixerama Syrian Gourmet mix is quite good and I use that mixed with the Bunny dream now. To be honest it doesn't look that great in the packet! Not as nice as on the pictures. But our Syrian likes it!

It's now sold in the Uk by Hopes Healthy Treats. Prior to that it meant ordering from Germany and the shipping was very expensive. Bunny Dream is only available from Vetsend (Netherlands) and ebay now as well I think.

I would carry on with the Harry Hamster for now and you can always think about changing if you want to later. But you can also give things like white pumpkin seeds as treats to scatter so that adds variety and enrichment as well.