110 replies to this topic

[Hamster Heart]

Okay, thanks a lot this definitely helped me. I will be switching my hamsters diet very soon. 

[Hamster Heart]

Thanks this helped.

[Trixie]

Awesome job very informative!!

[Crafty hammies ♥️]

I bought kaytee nature's harvest and now I would need to have my proportions be 30-40% seed mix and 60-70% lab pellets for the GA to be balanced. Will my hamsters even eat all the lab pellets since it takes up such a large portion?

[No Longer Active]

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Edited by Pandas Pets, 06 December 2018 - 12:11 AM.

[Firas]

HI im a new hamster owner. i live in a country where hamsters are kept as pets in abundance but supplies are next to none. shipping from other countries is too expensive. i wanted to know what are the main seeds/grains in a hamster seed mix so i can make my own. 

thanks in advance

[Lemmiwinks]

Is it safe for my hamster to eat fresh fruits and veggies, as treats, daily?

[SpringHamster]

Hi I will be feeding oxbow to my robo. Is it ok that I feed it a pinch of oats most days, mealworms on alternate days and fruit and sunflower seed on other alternative days? Because I know oxbow is Low on protein and variety. Help!

[nebit]

Hi I will be feeding oxbow to my robo. Is it ok that I feed it a pinch of oats most days, mealworms on alternate days and fruit and sunflower seed on other alternative days? Because I know oxbow is Low on protein and variety. Help!

Is there a reason you have chosen Oxbow?

 

None of those things are going to be enough to boost the protein or the variety here, particularly not for a robo who should ideally have protein on the higher end (I'd aim for 19-22% for an adult, 20-24% for a pup). Plus, many hamsters dislike Oxbow.

 

If you have other foods available to you, we may be able to figure out a better choice.

[SunHam]

I have looked around on this forum, and I couldn't find anything referring to just feeding a seed mix, without lab blocks. What I mean is boosting protein with Purebites and/or mealworms, rather than using lab blocks. I know it said that lab blocks provide a steady source of nutrition, but is it worth the sacrifice of variety? There aren't any lab blocks with protein about 24% (to my knowledge, please correct me if I am wrong), so most mixes will need more than 30% lab blocks. This is quite an amount. On the other hand, seed mixes might not contain enough minerals, and there is the issue of selective feeding. Obvious, lab blocks will help with these issues. 

 

In short, my question is: are lab blocks necessary in boosting protein and creating an adequate diet, or is using other protein supplements sufficient?

 

I posted this here because I thought it would be related to food mixing, but I will create another topic if necessary.

Edited by SunHam, 12 May 2017 - 07:51 AM.

[nebit]

I have looked around on this forum, and I couldn't find anything referring to just feeding a seed mix, without lab blocks. What I mean is boosting protein with Purebites and/or mealworms, rather than using lab blocks. I know it said that lab blocks provide a steady source of nutrition, but is it worth the sacrifice of variety? There aren't any lab blocks with protein about 24% (to my knowledge, please correct me if I am wrong), so most mixes will need more than 30% lab blocks. This is quite an amount. On the other hand, seed mixes might not contain enough minerals, and there is the issue of selective feeding. Obvious, lab blocks will help with these issues. 

 

In short, my question is: are lab blocks necessary in boosting protein and creating an adequate diet, or is using other protein supplements sufficient?

 

I posted this here because I thought it would be related to food mixing, but I will create another topic if necessary.

I think this would be an excellent topic for a new post.

 

You certainly can make a mix without blocks, just purebites or mealworms. The concern is that you tend to need to make 10% or more of the food a single ingredient. When it's fortified like a block, that's not a problem, but when it's a single ingredient, that's a bit more worrisome. It also tends to be fairly expensive. Purebites run $10-20 for enough to fortify one batch of food.

 

What I do is split the protein boost- my current mix is about 72.5% Higgins, 15% Mazuri, 7.5% Zilla Omnivore (a high protein, high variety insect/veggie mix), and 5% Purebites. If you dropped the Zilla, it would be roughly 22% Mazuri.

 

There is one lab block with protein in the 24% range- Harlan Teklad 8604. It's difficult to find these days though. Mazuri of course is 23%.

There's also ProLab RMH 2400 which is 24% protein (http://www.labdiet.com/cs/groups/lolweb/@labdiet/documents/web_content/mdrf/mdi4/~edisp/ducm04_028419.pdf ) and Laboratory Rodent Diet 5001 which is 25% protein (http://www.labdiet.com/cs/groups/lolweb/@labdiet/documents/web_content/mdrf/mdi4/~edisp/ducm04_028021.pdf ) I wouldn't reccomend the last two because of inferior ingredients though, and I'm unsure here you could buy them.

[SunHam]

I think this would be an excellent topic for a new post.

 

You certainly can make a mix without blocks, just purebites or mealworms. The concern is that you tend to need to make 10% or more of the food a single ingredient. When it's fortified like a block, that's not a problem, but when it's a single ingredient, that's a bit more worrisome. It also tends to be fairly expensive. Purebites run $10-20 for enough to fortify one batch of food.

 

What I do is split the protein boost- my current mix is about 72.5% Higgins, 15% Mazuri, 7.5% Zilla Omnivore (a high protein, high variety insect/veggie mix), and 5% Purebites. If you dropped the Zilla, it would be roughly 22% Mazuri.

 

There is one lab block with protein in the 24% range- Harlan Teklad 8604. It's difficult to find these days though. Mazuri of course is 23%.

There's also ProLab RMH 2400 which is 24% protein (http://www.labdiet.com/cs/groups/lolweb/@labdiet/documents/web_content/mdrf/mdi4/~edisp/ducm04_028419.pdf ) and Laboratory Rodent Diet 5001 which is 25% protein (http://www.labdiet.com/cs/groups/lolweb/@labdiet/documents/web_content/mdrf/mdi4/~edisp/ducm04_028021.pdf ) I wouldn't reccomend the last two because of inferior ingredients though, and I'm unsure here you could buy them.

 

Ok, I'll create a new topic about this. Thanks for the input! I actually have tried to work out diets with only Purebites or mealworms as the protein booster, and I'll post those recipes on the new topic, which will include more details.

 

Ugh sorry, I was almost done with writing the topic, but I accidentally closed the tab and it got deleted. I'll retype it later. 

Edited by SunHam, 13 May 2017 - 09:10 AM.

[beanthehammy]

[quote name="nebit" post="1271109" timestamp="1448341233"]

I can see you're trying really hard to give your hamster a good diet!

A few small things-

The only way to figure out the protein/fat/fiber of a diet is if the diet is mixed together by weight. I can't figure it out if you're going to mix it together by teaspoons, cups, number of pieces etc. There's just no way to accurately figure it out without weighing each ingredient/mix.

Hazel is an ok food, but it's chunky and has low protein, and some quality issues It also only has about 8 whole ingredients, so not a ton of variety.

Oxbow is a nice food, but it's got no variety, and it's low protein. It can be really useful in SOME mixes, but it can also be a really bad addition to others.

Bonanza is so low protein it will be nearly impossible to work with. It's also got some quality issues.

Here's what I recommend. If you have a Petco near you, buy a 2.5 pound bag of Higgins Sunburst. And a 2 pound bag of Mazuri Rat/Mouse blocks. Higgins is a VERY high quality mix, and it has TONS of variety. it has 17 whole ingredients, many of them unique, compared to Hazel's 8. Mazuri is a high quality pellet that pairs really well with the Higgins. And if you just mix two full bags together you get a GA of-
TOTAL PROTEIN 18.00%
TOTAL FAT 6.78%
TOTAL FIBER 7.28%

If you don't have a Petco and can't order from them, there are some other mixes, but that's a really nice one, probably one of the best, and fairly easy too. [/quote i live in singapore so I'm nowhere close to somewhere with petco :/ any reccomendations?]

[nebit]

 i live in singapore so I'm nowhere close to somewhere with petco :/ any reccomendations?]

This would be a great topic for a new post! We have a few other members from Singapore who could help. Unfortunately I'm not as familiar with the foods that are available there, but could help once we figure out what is there, and what the nutritional information for those foods are.

[hamsterlena]

at the moment, i am mixing hazel hamster, higgins sunburst, and mazuri rat and mouse diet. is that a good mix? if so, what amounts should i mix of each?