What do golden hamsters eat at home. What do hamsters eat at home: proper nutrition for pets

The birthplace of a charming domestic hamster is the steppe regions. These are harsh regions with winds and droughts. The steppes do not have a variety of vegetation, so the natural diet of a hamster is quite limited. In the wild, the animal is not easy to survive. The environment left its mark on the feeding habits of the animals and adapted them to the surrounding conditions.

Hamsters in nature are distinguished by excellent appetite and are almost omnivorous. Its menu includes all kinds of seeds, cereals, nuts. He will gladly eat a berry, gnaw on tree branches. A thrifty animal stores several kilograms of various seeds in its pantry, carefully sorting them by type.

By spring, the food supply is running out. After hibernation, a hungry animal happily leans on protein food. Snails, worms, insects, small animals help him recover and gain strength. However, in the fall, he also will not refuse to have a bite to eat with a worm or a caterpillar. Another addition to the spring diet is young greens.

Fluffy wants to indulge in delicious, but first you should consider whether he has access to such products in natural environment habitat, and whether new treats for hamsters will damage it.

How to feed a hamster at home - we start from a natural diet

The main food of a hamster is cereals. Almost everything will suit him: wheat, barley, buckwheat, oats and flakes from them. The hamster will also like legumes - peas, beans. Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, nuts from hazelnuts to cashews.

Greens will be a useful and pleasant addition. Clover leaves, dandelion leaves, young nettles and lettuce leaves are loved by pets.

Berries, fruits and vegetables will please the hamster. Bulgarian pepper, carrot, apple - very a good choice. You can give thawed berries. Dried fruits are also suitable, as long as they are homemade, without the use of sugar and preservatives.

As a protein component, a hamster from time to time can be offered an earthworm, a piece of boiled chicken without salt and spices, a shrimp.

Important: seeds and nuts can only be raw and dried. It is necessary to exclude fried, salted, candied, with additives, dyes and spices. The hamster's liver is not adapted for such tests.

controversial points

IN various sources There are conflicting dietary recommendations. Let's take a closer look at the controversial products.

• parsley. Hamsters need greens in their diet, but parsley has a powerful diuretic and laxative effect. It is used as a powerful element of all kinds of cleansing diets. It is unlikely that a branch of this greenery will kill little beast, but she will provide him with suffering from diarrhea and dehydration.
• fermented milk products and cottage cheese also cause controversy. You can try with a small amount and look at individual tolerance.
• beets are often recommended as a source of vitamins. A number of sources indicate that, as a hamster's food, it is useless, although it does not bring harm either.

Is it possible for hamsters to eat controversial foods, and what can happen, it is better not to check. There are many allowed components, they are available, you should not experiment on a dependent little creature.

Important: many allowed vegetables in supermarkets are treated with chemicals, they should not be fed to hamsters. Pets die from poisoning with ordinary lettuce or cucumber every year. If there is no confidence in store-bought vegetables, you can sprout wheat or lettuce on your own windowsill.

Hamster Sanctions: Foods Hazardous to Health

From the hamster menu should be excluded

• fatty. Allowed nuts and seeds should also be limited due to their high fat content;
• salty. The common image of a mouse with a piece of lard has killed many domestic rodents. Salt is a slow poison for a hamster.
• smoked. Digestive system a small pet is not intended for culinary delights. No need to share with a hamster, generosity is inappropriate here.
• sweets. Everything sweet - sugar, honey, maple and Jerusalem artichoke syrups, raisins and other healthy food not for a hamster. Sweets unbalance the work of his body and provide a slow painful death. Watermelons, grapes, melons and other very sweet foods are also banned. Here we add potatoes with excess starch.
• sour: citruses, sorrel, rhubarb, Exotic fruits, tomatoes.
• acute. Garlic, onion, their greens. Spices, seasonings, wild garlic - all this is not for a hamster.
• vegetables and fruits, causing flatulence cause the hamster to suffer from bloating and diarrhea. From the diet you need to remove cabbage, fresh peas.

How to pamper your pet?

If almost all products from the human table are banned, how can you please your fluffy?

Hamster tastes peculiar.

1. Branches of fruit and fruit trees. A hamster's teeth grow throughout his life, he needs to grind them. solid food, added to the hamster's diet, allows you to maintain the desired length. Branches should be cut away from the roads, in a clean place. At home, pour boiling water over them and rinse from dust and dirt.
2. Chumiza, or capitate millet.
3. Moth and moth larvae.
4. milk thistle
5. Flax seed
6. Home dried fruits.
7. Bulgarian pepper.

Ready feed

Figuring out how to feed a hamster outside of nature at home is not so easy. Sometimes the organization of proper feeding becomes inconvenient.

Ready mixes for hamsters from the pet store solve the nutrition problem once and for all. They are compiled by specialist zoologists, and provide the little animals with everything they need.

There are separate rations for Dzungarian and Syrian hamsters. You can offer the hamster several types to choose from and stop at the one that suits him best.

Tip: if you carefully observe which component of the mixture the hamster chooses first of all, you can understand how to treat him.

Vitamin supplements and additional components can be used, but first you need to study the composition on the packaging with food. An overdose of some vitamins can lead to disease and baldness.

Drinking regime

A drinking bowl with fresh water should always be in the cage. The water should be clean, offer the hamster milk, yogurt or herbal infusions do not do it. The exception is the direct instructions of the veterinarian.

Behavioral features and feeding of hamsters

The hamster closely monitors the change of season. He tries to hide some of the offered food behind his cheeks and keep it in his pantry for the winter. In winter, grains, nuts, dried herbs. Unfortunately for the animal, its stocks in the cage must be destroyed periodically. At home, he stores pieces of fruits and vegetables, on which mold and rot appear. After cleaning, the hamster is very upset, but he will be consoled by nuts and seeds that can be left in return for the lost good.

The change of seasons in nature implies a change in diet. At home, the hamster does not fall into hibernation. Protein food he is offered a couple of times a week. The exception is a pregnant female, she needs protein daily.

Feed the hamster once a day, in the evening. In the morning, you can offer something non-caloric, a piece of apple or carrot. How much to feed a hamster is indicated on the food packaging. You can look at the well-being of the pet. If there is a lot of food left, or if excess weight menu needs to be adjusted.

Important: in nature, a hamster can run several kilometers, collecting supplies. Living at home, the animals are prone to obesity. The running wheel will help him keep fit and stay healthy all his life.

Many pet lovers keep fluffy, small rodents - hamsters - in their apartments and houses. Taking care of these animals at home is quite simple. But in order for the animal to be healthy and energetic, it should be properly fed.

Therefore, before acquiring a new pet, you should find out what you can and cannot feed a hamster with?

Types of domestic hamsters

In nature, there are about sixty species of hamsters, but at home they contain only three or four species. An ordinary hamster has a length of up to thirty centimeters, and the smallest - up to six centimeters.

Syrian hamsters

Animals with red-sandy hair grow up to eighteen centimeters in length. At proper care and feeding, pets live an average of two to three years. Initially, Syrian or golden hamsters were bred for laboratories, but soon pet lovers liked them and began to live successfully at home.

Dzungaria

The most popular rodents among hamster lovers, which are distinguished by a black stripe on the ridge, an ocher-gray color and a brownish-gray back. The length of the animals good feeding and care grow up to ten centimeters. Unlike other types of hamsters, dzungaria can be kept in pairs. When they reach the age of three months, they are already able to reproduce.

Siberian hamsters

Rodents of this species have a light brownish-gray back in summer period time, which turns white by winter. In nature, they live on hilly and flat terrain in the steppes of Tuva. At home, with the onset of cold weather, Siberian hamsters burrow into the bedding and hibernate.

angora hamsters

A variety of Syrian rodents has a fluffy beautiful coat, which can be different color. The hair on the back can be silver, gray, white, spotted or tortoiseshell. Angora hamsters can give birth to babies with smooth hair, despite the fact that their parents have a fluffy fur coat.

It doesn't matter what kind of hamster lives in your house. The diet for Syrian, Siberian, Angora hamsters and Dzungaria is the same.

What can you feed hamsters at home?

In nature, rodents feed mainly on grain crops therefore, mixtures of grains should be included in the diet of indoor hamsters. Such formulations are sold in pet stores, where you should choose grain mixtures intended for rodents. They contain corn, wheat, oats, peas, vitamins and treats in the form of nuts and pumpkin seeds.

When choosing a mixture, you need to make sure that it does not contain a lot of sunflower. Animals love him, but he's too fat for them. Instead of sunflower, it is better to give to a pet peanuts, hazelnuts or Walnut . Before giving nuts to a rodent, the peel should be peeled off so that the pet does not damage its small teeth on it.

Cherry and apricot kernels toxic and harmful to the health of animals, so they cannot be fed to hamsters.

The mixture should be chosen according to the age of the animal. You can buy food on a stick, which will be a treat for your pet. Such sticks with delicious grains stuck on them can be given no more than once a month.

Grain feed in the feeder should always be. It is poured into a special separate feeder, which must always be filled. Hamsters are not prone to overeating, so portions of grain can not be limited. With a lack of food, the animal will begin to stock up and will be malnourished.

Hamsters can be fed in autumn and winter whole grain bread. But in this case, it is necessary to monitor the pet's stool, because bread in the diet can lead to constipation.

Animal products

For normal life Animals need protein, which is found in animal products. Of these, hamsters can be fed:

All these foods are added to the diet two times a week. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that portions are moderate.

Vegetables for hamsters

Vegetables contain many vitamins, so they should be included in the pet's diet. From vegetables, hamsters can be given:

1. zucchini, pumpkins, fresh cucumbers . Pumpkin can be given only from the age of two weeks of the pet. And zucchini can only be fed young.
2. It will be useful for a sweet animal bell pepper . It can be given in unlimited quantities.
3. Tomatoes possible in small quantities. Before giving a tomato, it should be peeled.
4. Some owners of pet hamsters believe that cabbage makes their stomach swell from animals, while others say that this vegetable is very useful. Therefore, it is possible to feed a rodent with cabbage, but only broccoli or colored.
5. The presence of potatoes in the diet of a pet is not recommended, as it contains a lot of starch.
6. If there is a desire, then you can treat the animal boiled green peas.
7. Rich in vitamins and good for animals radish and carrot.
8. You can offer a hamster beets which he will happily eat.

Vegetables are pre-peeled and cut into pieces.

Green feed

Rodents are very fond of greens, which are useful for the body of animals, because they contain a lot of vitamins. But you should collect only those herbs and greens that grow away from highways. Green fodder must be thoroughly washed and dried before use. Juicy greenery is able to absorb harmful substances from the soil and air, so it can be harmful. Having eaten such food, the hamster can get sick. Therefore, it is better to tear green crops for suburban area located far from roads.

From greenery hamsters can:

Do not feed rodents:

• shoots of garlic and onions;
• sorrel;
• juicy celery, which may contain a large number of harmful substances;
• parsley is not recommended for females during pregnancy and lactation;
• branches coniferous trees are excluded from the diet, as they contain resin harmful to animals.

Fruits and berries

Hamsters are very fond of sweet fruits and berries rich in vitamins. Their pre-followed well wash and de-stone. This is especially true of cherries, the seeds of which contain substances harmful to rodents.

From fruit hamsters will be useful:

1. Sweet fresh apples without traces of decay. Newborn pets up to two weeks of age can develop ascites from eating apples, so this fruit is contraindicated for them.
2. Pears in small quantities, as they weaken.
3. Once a week, in a small amount, the pulp of cherries, sweet cherries, plums, peaches and apricots.
4. Strawberries or strawberries.
5. Raspberry weakens, so it is given in small quantities.
6. Ripe grapes. Fermented and unripe fruits are harmful to hamsters.
7. You can feed the animals with bananas, but in limited quantities.
8. In winter, when not fresh berries and fruits, it is recommended to pamper your pet with dried fruits in the form of dried pears and apples, banana chips, dried apricots, raisins. Dried fruits are preliminarily soaked in water for two to four hours.

Fruits should be pre-washed, freed from the peel and seeds. They need to be put in a separate feeder, and if after a while the pet does not eat the treat, the pieces of fruit are removed. It is impossible that they stale and rot in the cage.

From the diet of a rodent should be excluded the following types berries and fruits:

• exotic and citrus fruits, the use of which can lead to indigestion;
• melons and watermelons, which can be high in nitrates;
• sea ​​buckthorn, barberry and other sour berries.

Prohibited Products

In addition to the above products, hamsters should be completely excluded from the diet:

• fresh milk;
• raw meat and fish;
• any spices;
• brazil nuts;
• red beans;
• acorns;
• fresh bread;
• prepared feed for birds;
• fatty cheeses;
• garlic and onions;
• ice cream;
• chocolate;
• tulip bulbs;
• wild-caught moths and insects;
• sweet cookies;
• mushrooms;
• fried and spicy food;
• muesli;
• dry pasta;
• sausages, sausages;
• mint;
• fruit juices.

If you gave your pet a banned product once, then nothing bad will happen. But it's not worth risking the health of a little hamster anymore.

Hamster Feeding Rules

Rodents should be fed several times a day. During the day, one pet is able to eat one to three teaspoons of the grain mixture, which he should always have freely available. Hamsters are nocturnal, so at night they are given more high-calorie food.

A pet in the house should always have a container with fresh, clean water. So that the drinker does not tip over and debris does not get into the water, it is best to use nipple devices. These closed-type drinkers have a nipple nipple in the form of a ball, on which the animal must tap with its tongue to get water. Of these, water does not spill and always remains clean.

Syrian, Siberian, Angora and Dzhugan hamsters are easy to keep at home. They are picky in food and unpretentious in care. However, like any other pet, rodents should be cared for and fed only approved foods.

Have you thought about what you can and cannot feed hamsters? If not, then be sure to devote some of your time to this issue. The diet of these funny and restless animals in the wild consists of cereals, seeds, and other products, but what to feed the baby at home?

There is an opinion that hamsters are omnivores. However, not all products that you can offer them are equally useful for a hamster. Failure to follow the diet can significantly reduce the life expectancy of a pet. Violations at work gastrointestinal tract, allergies, obesity are not uncommon in unbalanced diet. To keep your pets healthy, be sure to remember that hamsters should not eat.

Eliminate the following foods from your hamster's diet:

• all products that contain spices;
• milk (and milk porridges), cheeses, cream, sour cream;
• butter (both butter and vegetable), lard, fatty meat;
• dried fish, dried jerky, salted crackers, etc.;
• honey, other bee products, sugar, sweets;
• garlic and onions;
• potato peelings and potato eyes;

Attention! Potato eyes are poisonous to hamsters.

• food intended for dogs and cats;
• some (for example, red pumped);
• sorrel, kiwi, pineapple, watermelon;
• pasta, (white and black except for crackers) cakes, pastries;
• mushrooms;
• gozinaki;
• pits of plums, peaches, apricots, cherries;
• spruce and Pine cones;

What not to give hamsters:

• acute;
• salty;
• fatty;
• sweet;
• flour;
• canned;
• roast;
• food intended for other animals.

Separately, it must be said about dwarf rodents. The most common type today is Djungarian hamsters. Let us dwell on what you can not feed the Djungarian hamster.

These cute babies should not eat all the foods that were listed above. In addition, they are prone to diabetes and therefore fruits should be given to them with caution. It is better to shift the emphasis in the nutrition of jungars from fruits to vegetables (except potatoes).

It is important to understand that twigs, herbs and grass for hamsters must be bought at a pet store. Do not use products that have been processed by specialized chemical solutions, growth promoters or preservatives. Even people can get poisoned by eating such products, and for a tiny homie, this is very dangerous.

Hard food. Very convenient way feeding. As a rule, this ready-made feed mixture can be purchased at the store. It contains nuts, wheat, pea seeds, corn, oats and sunflower seeds. To combine the process of feeding a hamster with the process of grinding down long teeth, which is also necessary for him, it is recommended to buy sticks covered with grains. So the hamster will train the skills of self-foraging and have healthy teeth. When choosing food in the store, you should pay attention to the presence of vitamin supplements in it and, of course, the expiration date. Then for normal growth and the development of the hamster can not worry.

Fresh feed. IN daily diet pet must include fresh and, best of all, green food. From fruits hamsters will benefit from apples, peaches, bananas, dried fruits - dried apricots, raisins. In the season of fresh greens, it is useful to pamper your hamster with a leafy mixture of dandelions, parsley, lettuce and tree leaves.

Proteins of animal origin. Hamsters are non-vegetarians and by nature require animal protein. For these purposes, dairy products with 0 or 1% fat content are well suited: kefir, cottage cheese, yogurt without additives. Occasionally, you can give boiled chicken meat without salt and peeled shrimp. The stores offer special fodder insects in dried form, but not all pets like them.

Thin twigs and hay. Suitable as, rather, entertainment or additional food. Hamsters use hay to build a nest, and twigs (best from fruit trees) are well suited for grinding down rapidly growing incisors.

Vitamins and minerals. Usually special feed for hamsters contain, in addition to the grain component, vitamin complex. But in the winter-spring period, or for females during pregnancy and feeding, it is advisable to introduce independent vitamins into the diet. Preferably vitamins in packages. Among the loose ones, poor-quality, expired products often come across.

Water. Hamsters drink quite a bit, but it doesn’t hurt to hang a special drinker in the cage. The pet can drink as much and whenever he wants. It is undesirable to put a bowl of water - most likely, the animal will turn it over and the litter will get wet.

forbidden food

Of course, you want to pamper your beloved animal with many goodies, but you can’t. What is normal for humans can cause serious damage to the health of the animal. It is impossible: fatty and fried, breakfast cereals and pasta, sausages, milk. Salt-sugar and other spices, sour cream, cream and butter, onions, garlic and potatoes. Cabbage can be given rarely and in small quantities - it causes flatulence in most animals.

Exotic fruits like kiwi, avocado, pineapple, as well as any fruit juices are contraindicated for a hamster. All flour and sweet products, including sweets, chocolate, marmalade, etc., should be excluded from the animal's diet. Mushrooms, citrus fruits, coniferous tree branches should also not appear in the feeder.

What to feed a hamster

The diet of domestic hamsters is different from the diet of wild hamsters in nature. And, of course, from the human diet: the food from our table is unbearable for the delicate hamster body. Rodents are deadly processed food with fats, sugar, salt, spices. And especially sweet, although they love it. Hamsters do not know which foods are good for them and which are bad, they eat everything. But since you know about it, then you will take care of your pets!

Dry food for hamsters

The main and constantly present in the feeder should be dry balanced fortified food, which is sold in the store. Only in factories that produce special meals, make up feeds that have been carefully selected and processed, fully meeting the needs of hamsters.

In grain feed for parrots, rats, guinea pigs and other rodents and birds, a completely different composition - you can’t buy it for hamsters!

Wet food for hamsters

The diet of hamsters must necessarily and daily include juicy and green food - only fresh and washed!

Vegetables. Carrots, zucchini, pumpkin, beets, lettuce and other vegetables from the list of allowed foods. Cabbage, potatoes, watermelons are prohibited!

Fruits. Apples (starting from 2 months), grapes, currants, in small quantities - pears, apricots, bananas are rare, as a treat. Dried fruits- dried apricots, raisins, apples (except prunes). Exotic (kiwi, avocado, persimmon, pomegranate, etc.) and citrus fruits (oranges, tangerines) are prohibited!

Greenery. Hamsters can be given green grass in small quantities (which one - read in the list of allowed products - here), in particular, lettuce, parsley, dill, dandelion, yellow clover, which grow far from the city and highways. It is not recommended to give hay to a hamster, except for short stalks (there is a danger that the foot will get entangled in a long stalk and die). You can grow grass for hamsters on the windowsill, sowing uneaten grains in a pot of earth.

Nuts and seeds. Some texts on the Internet contain advice to add shelled nuts and stones from apricots, peaches and plums, pine cones to the hamster's food. This is absolutely impossible to do! Animals can injure their mouths, cheek pouches, break teeth, and treating hamsters is much more difficult than taking precautions. In addition, the grains of stone fruits (plums, peaches, apricots) are bitter and toxic to hamsters. Nuts and sunflower seeds, pumpkins are in the main food, so they are additionally given to hamsters only as a treat, no more than 2 times a week.

Daily protein supplement: curd no more than 2% fat, boiled egg, boiled chicken breast without salt and spices, mung bean sprouts or oats - everything alternates after 2 days.

There should be a chewing stick in the cage (hamsters need to rub long teeth): it can be prepared from a sprig of birch, apple, hazel, beech - trees growing outside the city. The stick is boiled for an hour and a half before use and dried.

Water for hamsters

Many people think that since hamsters do not drink the entire drinker per day, they do not drink water. But hamsters are not elephants, you just won’t notice the amount you drink. Therefore, a drinker with fresh (every day!) Water should always be ready. Not in a bowl "underfoot", but in a clean hanging drinker.

Many people ask: what kind of water to give hamsters? Not boiled, not distilled, because useful ones are “killed” in them active substances. Feel free to give the water that you drink yourself: well, tap, spring, passed through an aqua filter, etc.

Vitamins for hamsters

Sold in pet stores special vitamins for hamsters. But if you buy good, expensive food for more than 100 rubles per 400 g, it already contains vitamin supplements, and that's enough for a hamster.

If you buy domestic inexpensive food, then sprinkle it with a vitamin-calcium supplement purchased at the store several times a week. human vitamins they are not suitable for hamsters: the composition in them is intended for people and is detrimental to animals.

Many stores offer drops and crackers as "vitamins". It's nothing more than a treat Low quality- with chemical additives. Be careful!

Food for elderly, sick and debilitated hamsters

When a hamster becomes old, his teeth weaken, so you need to notice in time that he is no longer eating as actively as before, and offer him (without fanaticism!) ground food and nuts, pureed vegetables, as well as children's dairy-free cereals and mashed potatoes (no sugar, no salt, no starch, no potatoes, no rice). The hamster will eat such food with pleasure. But the main grain feed must be constantly with him in order to prevent intestinal upset.

It is convenient to add medicines and vitamins for sick and weakened hamsters to such cereals and purees. Just remember that the opened jar of puree should not be in the refrigerator for more than 2 days.

Warm chamomile serves as a drink for the sick and weakened. It is brewed 2 times a day, because. the broth deteriorates quickly. Milk and honey, contrary to some advice, are prohibited!

Often in a situation where a hamster is sick and refuses to eat, you need to force-feed him, and as often as possible, otherwise he will not recover. Then you can soak the ground food hot water to the state of sour cream and feed warm from a syringe without a needle, holding a syringe in one hand, and a hamster in the other at a slight inclination. In the same way, baby cereals are fed. You need to feed and water carefully so that the hamster does not choke.

What does a hamster eat in nature and at home

Since wild hamsters are steppe and plain inhabitants, their natural diet includes seeds of cereals and legumes: rye, wheat, oats, buckwheat, peas, corn, sunflower and other crops. And, of course, dry herbs, root vegetables, berries, nuts, fruits and vegetables.

Under natural conditions, hamsters fully eat only in warm months, the rest of the time their food is stocks that are brought to underground storage with the help of cheek pouches.

For domestic hamsters, the food is the same, only it should be borne in mind that they are domesticated, not wild, and not so hardy as to eat natural supplies and grain from bags. For hamsters, their delicate body, balanced nutritious and fortified foods are prepared, which are sold in pet stores.

The owner should not try to make feed mixtures on his own: he will not be able to provide the required composition of a complete basic feed, which includes various cereals and legumes, vegetable granules - in the amount that is needed for normal development the hamster's body and keeping it in shape.

On the Internet, you can find advice to soak large grains and seeds for dwarf hamsters in milk. You can’t do this: milk is too poorly absorbed in the hamster’s body and leads to an imbalance in the intestines. Store-bought food is quite suitable for dwarf hamsters, which has all the necessary ingredients.

The main grain food should always be in the hamster's feeder. Ignore the recommendations to give out a tablespoon a day, pour in handfuls. It is impossible to save on a hamster diet. A hamster whose feeder empties quickly becomes distressed by the lack of food, begins to build up supplies from a meager diet, and as a result becomes malnourished and falls ill.

Basic basic hamster food can be bought at pet stores in boxes with one of the following names written on it: JR Farm, Vitapol, Vitakraft, Beaphar, Benelux, Fiory, Versele-Laga, Little One - imported, best and fortified foods; "Homka", "Animals", "Rodent", "Sultan", "Vaka" - Russian, of low quality.

Treats in the form of spikelets (a stick covered with grains with a sweet substance) should not replace the main food. You need to give such a stick once a month. Other "sweets" - nuts, seeds, dried apricots, raisins, biscuits for rodents, crunchy granular supplements - should be given infrequently and in small quantities, for example, alternating every 2-3 days. The body of a hamster does not tolerate sweet, fatty, spicy, starchy foods and quickly fails.