# Homemade diet



## Sarah89 (May 5, 2013)

Hello 

I have 2 russian dwarves (jake and finn) and as of last night a rescued BECream syrian (lola). 

I am in my 2nd year studying nutrition and i am acutely aware of the amount of additives and pesticides and gmos in food, particularly animal food. Quite simply, i dont feed my boys or my girl, hamster food. And before anyone panics, i am also acutely aware of my own lack of complete understanding of what hamsters require. But the manufacturers of animal feeds are in the same boat. Also the 'fortified' foods u buy are done with such processed vitamins and minerals i highly doubt our wee fuzzys are able to assimilate much nutrition out of their feed. And the amount of corn, peanuts, sunflowers and the stuff they simply dont eat makes the whole point of feeding a 'fortified' food a bit of a hazard anyway, nvr mind the toxic chemicals! 

Ok, so basically what i am after is advice from people who make their own hamster food (surely i cant be the only one...any sue bee rat diet fans??) my boys have an organic diet of millet, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and oats with some red flax, sesame, poppy and golden linseeds. There is also some dried marigold, parsely, raspberry leaf, dandelion leaf and timothy hay in there. Every evening they get some fresh broccoli/asparagus/low gi fruit/brazil nut/celery/spinach/dandelion/courgette etc depending on what is in my fridge. I also keep back cooked buckwheat pasta too. On the rare occassion i eat meat or fish il keep them back some. They seem to be doing really well on this diet as their coats and eyes are shiny and they are always ready to come out and play. Obviously i monitor them daily for any signs or symptoms of malnutrition and i always check their poops and pee are normal too and so far, all is good. 

However dwarves do well on higher protein than syrians so this is where i am cautious. My syrian girl is extremely active and destructive and i know ive only had her less thn 24hrs but i think she has suffered mentally from being crammed into a tiny cage from [email protected]! Shes certainly not shy or cautious, she is full on and quite in your face bless her, and she actually give me a really deep nip thru the bars when i was just lifting her cage! Ouch! She had no food in her cage (!!!!!!!!) And is a little bony so i can hardly blame her. Shes about 4-5months. 

My dog is fed on simpsons premium 80/20 dog food - human grade meat, no grains etc. I was thinking i cud maybe add in some of this to their diet. Need to double check the protein but it is omega3:6 balanced and tbh is the only food my dog who is ridicously prone to colitis, thrives on. Also for lola i am going to buy some dried vegetables (carrots/peas etc) that my dwarves cannot have to lower the protein. 

Is there anything else anyone thinks i shud be aware of? Vitamin d is a concern i have as i know animal foods are fortufied with it, tho its usually d2 which is pretty much useless anyway not to mention toxic.... 

Anyway, hope no one thinks im niave or cruel with wat choices ive made. I genuinely inly want the best for my pets and i only eat real foods so i dont see why i shud do any different with my furries.


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## Katalyst (Aug 11, 2015)

I used to breed a lot of different speciesnof rodent ranging from duprasi to assorted species of spiny mice and always swore by my own diet. 
The only premade thing I added was orlux softbill bird food for the more insectivorous species.


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