The 5 Biggest Hamster Meals of 2024

Whereas hamsters get pleasure from quite a lot of meals, particularly formulated hamster pellets current full and full weight-reduction plan, and will variety the premise of your hamster’s consuming routine.

“Rodent blocks and pelleted diets should make up practically all the consuming routine,” Dr. Steven Zary, DVM and Medical Director at VCA West Suburban Veterinary Hospital suggested The Spruce Pets. “Greens and greens just like carrots, squash, broccoli, spinach, and collard greens is likely to be fed in small portions.”

Hamsters love foraging and choice, nonetheless an extreme quantity of choice can cause them to decide their favorite meals and move over completely different devices. Uniform pellets ensure that hamsters aren’t getting an extreme quantity of or too little of any necessary nutrient. Nonetheless considerably timothy hay or completely different treats might be a very good change of tempo too.

The 5 Biggest Hamster Meals of 2024
PHOTO: Amazon

Pellets are the best approach to feed your hamster, giving them a nutritious foundation that will operate their main consuming routine, with room for supplementation with vegatables and fruits. Oxbow pellets embrace timothy grass meal, barley, oat groats, to provide quite a lot of grains for clear energy absorption. Each pellet moreover consists of all required fiber, dietary nutritional vitamins, and minerals, together with antioxidants and prebiotics for gut effectively being.

Oxbow Requirements Hamster & Gerbil Meals is nutrient dense, with out extraneous fillers or preservatives. An eighth of a cup in the event that they’re small (dwarf hamsters or juveniles) or a third for grownup hamsters are generally ample to take care of your hamster healthful all by means of their lifespan. Oxbow Requirements Hamster & Gerbil Meals is accessible in a single pound and 15-pound baggage.

Substances: Timothy meal, pearled barley (rolled), oat groats, canola meal, millet, canola oil | Food regimen: 15% crude protein (min), 4.5% crude fat (min), 10% crude fiber (min) | Serving Dimension: ⅛ cup for dwarf and juvenile hamsters, ⅓ cup for grownup and full-size hamsters

Chewy Kaytee Food from The Wild Natural Snack
PHOTO: Chewy
What We Like

  • Quite a few variety of snacks

  • Trusted, 150-year-old mannequin

  • No added sugar

What We Don’t Like

  • Hamsters are probably to select their favorites

  • Extreme in fat, so that you just shouldn’t serve higher than a teaspoon per day

This combine includes numerous varied seeds and nuts, packed to the brim with protein and crude fat. Pumpkin seeds, dehydrated carrots, peanuts, sunflower seeds, and dried rose petals provide quite a lot of foraging selections. Stuffed barley and puffed wheat moreover current carbohydrate energy sources.

This snack mix is very useful along with a pellet consuming routine, and will current that last 20 p.c of your hamster’s every day weight-reduction plan. Nonetheless, it’s easy to go overboard with this snack, given that mix is extreme in fat content material materials—hamsters shouldn’t be fed higher than a teaspoon every day.

Kaytee Meals from The Wild Pure Snack is accessible in two-ounce baggage. There’s moreover a additional nutritionally full mannequin that comes with pellets into the combination.

Substances: Dehydrated carrot, pumpkin seed, peanuts, dried rose petal, sunflower seed, puffed barley, puffed wheat | Food regimen: 16% crude protein (min), 18% crude fat (min) | Serving Dimension: one teaspoon

Amazon Mazuri Hamster & Gerbil Food
PHOTO: Amazon

Mazuri has created a singular mixture of wheat, soybean, and corn reworked proper right into a pellet that encourages chewing for wonderful dental effectively being. Stuffed with extreme fiber and probiotics, it’s designed to help your hamster digest the nutritional vitamins packed inside. There usually are not any added colors or artificial flavors, the whole thing inside is completely pure. There’s even omega 3 and vitamin E, a provide of antioxidants for added effectively being. In case you are ready to spend solely a bit extra and desire a pellet, then it’s a good risk. We significantly like that the pellets can be found in quite a lot of shapes to stimulate your hamster’s foraging instincts.

Substances: Wheat middlings, flooring timothy hay, dehulled soybean meal, flooring soybean hulls, flooring corn | Food regimen: 17% crude protein (min), 4% crude fat (min), 10% crude fiber (min) | Serving Dimension: 20 to 25 grams per day

Amazon Vitakraft Drops Treats for Hamsters
PHOTO: Amazon

Vitakraft Drops Treats are sugary morsels on the market in a lot of flavors like milk and honey, banana and strawberry, and yogurt. These treats embrace precise fruit, nonetheless are primarily sugar-based and extreme in fat, so it is necessary to be very cautious about serving sizes. Grownup hamsters should solely be given 1–3 drops per day.

There’s moreover a smaller mannequin on the market for dwarf hamsters. Keep in mind the truth that these treats can soften in extreme heat.

Substances: Sugar, vegetable oil, dried whey, dried skimmed milk, dried strawberries | Food regimen: 3.7% crude protein (min), 19% crude fat (min), 3% crude fiber (max) | Serving Dimension: 1–3 drops per day

Amazon Oxbow Animal Health Western Timothy Hay
PHOTO: Amazon
What We Like

  • Good provide of fiber

  • Easy to offer

  • Helps digestive growth

Alongside pellets and grains, hay is an effective meals provide in your hamster. Oxbow has a delicious Timothy hay that is packed full of fiber that will help your hamster’s digestive effectively being. The hay won’t be solely good for chewing, nevertheless it certainly moreover helps masks a couple of of the smells that your hamster will produce. Cultivated with out artificial flavors or preservatives, inserting a handful of hay of their enclosure each single day mixed in with their widespread meals will make your hamster the happiest pet it could be.

Substances: Timothy grass hay | Food regimen: 7% crude protein (min), 1.5% crude fat (min), 32% crude fiber (max)

A pellet meals like Oxbow’s Vital Hamster Meals should variety the premise in your hamster’s consuming routine. Nonetheless about 20 p.c of their every day meals can also come from modern greens, fruits, or maybe a foraging mix like our favorite, Kaytee Meals from The Wild Pure Snack.

What to Look For In Hamster Meals

Substances

Hamster pellets are primarily made with grains like barley, oats, and barley, which have the required nutritional vitamins to take care of them full of life and safe. In step with Dr. Steven Zary of VCA West Suburban Veterinary Hospital, a hamster’s consuming routine should consist largely of pellets, with a minimal amount of vegatables and fruits on the side. Do you have to give them solely nuts and seeds, they’ll gorge themselves on the tastier selections and will develop to be malnourished.

Serving Dimension

Hamsters should eat 9 to 12 grams of meals per day primarily based on Dr. Zary. You’ll actually really feel the need to present them additional since they’ll shove as quite a bit as they’ll of their cheeks to eat later. Nonetheless it’s needed to grasp that they’ll hoard the whole thing they’ll, so that you just’ll want to monitor their weight to make sure they aren’t getting chubby.

FAQ

  • “It is best to stay away from feeding nut and seed mixes as these are extreme in fat and will set off weight issues,” Dr. Zary suggested The Spruce Pets. “Hamsters will preferentially eat the nuts and seeds over pellets, so if offered on the same time, they might selectively choose these meals devices instead of the additional well-balanced pellets. It is also best to stay away from fruits and yogurt treats as these additionally may end up in weight issues.”

    There are quite a few kinds of human meals that are unhealthy and even toxic for hamsters as properly. Hamsters should certainly not be fed alcohol, caffeine, chocolate, or very fatty meals.

Why Perception The Spruce Pets?

This textual content was written by Steven Asarch, a writer and product skilled for The Spruce Pets. A spiritual cat dad of two, he has moreover owned dozens of hamsters. Steven has researched the perfect litter subject furnishings, cat litter disposal methods, and catnip toys.

To get the perfect understanding of what makes an excellent hamster meals, we spoke with Dr. Steven Zary, DVM and Medical Director at VCA West Suburban Veterinary Hospital.

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