# Dried vegetables for hamsters?



## Nyah626 (Jul 23, 2017)

Hi,
So I've been thinking about making my own food for when i get my next hamster and a friend of mine gave me a recipe to use, (i still want to do a lot more research about hamster food before i definitely use this recipe) but in the ingredients it says i need dried vegetables (and then it lists some hamster safe veggies). I've never really heard of giving hamsters dried vegetables before (but i think it does make sense? if there was fresh veg in the recipe it would expire in about a week.)
So if i do use dried vegetables to make my own food mix do i need to dry the vegetables myself? If so how do i dry the veg? Or do i buy them somewhere? Where?
Sorry for so many questions, i don't really know much right now


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## Engel98 (Oct 7, 2018)

I will say this first.One thing I've learnt is always use a commercial mix because you won't get all the vitamins and minerals right. Honestly you'll need 30+ ingredients, a ton of research and they a lot of faffing about. I would strongly advise using a combination of commercial and your own mix in a ratio of 50/50 max to make it balanced. It's really difficult. I've tried and failed many, many times. While it is possible there's a huge risk involved!

Right, dried veggies and herbs can be purchased already dehydrated from [email protected] if you have one. I add them to my mix a lot and my Syrians LOVE the parsnip and beetroot. Easiest way to dehydrate them is with a dehydrator. Alternatively you could put slices in the oven on a low heat for a couple of hours. Each oven is different so you'll have to work that out yourself for your own oven. I tried dehydrating sweet potato and it took 4-5hrs on 100°C in a fan oven. Each ingredient is different though. A lot of it is trial and error. Hope that helps. Good luck!


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## Nyah626 (Jul 23, 2017)

Thanks so much! This is really helpful. While I've been trying to learn more about making my own mix I've stumbled on a fair amount of info about mixing commercial foods, I'll definitely seriously consider mixing with commercial now.
As for the dried veg, I don't buy from [email protected] anymore but i will definitely look into dehydrators or at least test some slices of something in the oven. I definitely still have a long way to go but I think I'm starting to better understand how to mix a good food so that my next hamster can have the best diet i can give


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## Engel98 (Oct 7, 2018)

Nyah626 said:


> Thanks so much! This is really helpful. While I've been trying to learn more about making my own mix I've stumbled on a fair amount of info about mixing commercial foods, I'll definitely seriously consider mixing with commercial now.
> As for the dried veg, I don't buy from [email protected] anymore but i will definitely look into dehydrators or at least test some slices of something in the oven. I definitely still have a long way to go but I think I'm starting to better understand how to mix a good food so that my next hamster can have the best diet i can give


I'm currently mixing Harry hamster with a variety of seeds as well as millet, mealworms and veggies. You can use fresh veggies. In fact I think that may be better as a lot of nutrients can be burnt out by cooking/dehydrating it.

Ingredients I've added to my 'mix'
-sesame seeds
-flaxseeds
-chai seeds
-lentils
-millet (different varieties)
-oat flakes
-wheat flakes
-barley flakes
-mealworms
-pistachios every now and again

Veggies and herbs I feed regularly
-kale
-spinach
-rocket
-celery
-basil
-thyme
-parsley
-parsnip
-swede
-beetroot
-peas
-broccoli
-carrots (got quite a bit of sugar in them. While you should watch the sugar intake of all hamsters, special care should be taken with dwarf species, especially Campbell's as they're prone to diabetes).

Small quantities are always best. No bigger than a 5p. May take your hamster a while to adjust. Too much water or b vitamins can cause loose stools. My hams (I have 4) have fresh veggies every day. What isn't eaten gets thrown within 24hrs but to be honest there's hardly any and I do check the nests. I had to do it gradually. Like twice a week them 3-4 times a week.

Is there anything else you need any help with? I'll be happy to help


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## Nyah626 (Jul 23, 2017)

Engel98 said:


> I'm currently mixing Harry hamster with a variety of seeds as well as millet, mealworms and veggies. You can use fresh veggies. In fact I think that may be better as a lot of nutrients can be burnt out by cooking/dehydrating it.
> 
> Ingredients I've added to my 'mix'
> -sesame seeds
> ...


Thanks again, i was wondering, how do you calculate the nutrients of a mixed food? I've read about how to find the GA of 2 mixed commercial brands but how do you know what the GA is of a mixed diet with your own seeds, grains etc?


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## Engel98 (Oct 7, 2018)

I let the commercial mix be at least 50% of their diet. So that covers the vitamins and minerals. In Harry hamster the fibre is a tad low for my liking so I add things that add fibre like lentils. But that can upset protein and fat percentages so you've got to adjust them too.

Here's what I use 
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAQegQICBAB&usg=AOvVaw3ah5mhEkOtT7EUhaxlcjrk


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## Nalathehamster (7 mo ago)

Hiya, I know this was posted a while ago so sorry.
but I’m looking into making my own food mix for a hamster I’m getting soon. I’ve already reserved her she’s a female Syrian hamster, and I thought it would be best to make the mix before I get her so I can get her on it ASAP. I just have a few questions as I’m not 100% sure on how to make the mix appropriate and I don’t want to give it her if it’s going to do more harm than good. I’ve heard that homemade mixes are a lot better since you can add more variety, and customise it to the hamsters preferences so they get all the nutrients they need, but I just want to make sure my mix is safe to feed.

my first question is is it okay to feed hamsters fresh vegetables instead of dehydrated vegetables? I read taxonomist’s forum post when I first began planning what I was going to put into the mix and she recommended including dehydrated vegetables as 30% of the mix. I’m from the uk and I’m finding it difficult to source dehydrated vegetables at a reasonable cost. Obviously I know that homemade mixes aren’t cheap but the prices here are just extortionate! I was wondering whether I could just make the rest of the mix (seeds, legumes and animal protein) which would make up 70% of the homemade diet and then just prepare fresh vegetables daily and put them in with the mix, since they would obviously go off/bad if I just put them straight in the mix wouldn’t they? I’m just not sure if it’s the same as including dehydrated vegetables into the mix, and I don’t want to be feeding him a mix without enough fibre in it. I know fibre can be sourced from other ingredients like lentils, but on the posts I’ve read dehydrated veggies are listed as “required”. To be honest I thought that giving them fresh vegetables would be better but I just want to check since there is obviously more educated people on these forums than me lol!

I watched a Victoria raechel video a while ago too and she suggested 17-19% protein, 4-7% fat and 6-15% fibre. I also plan on mixing my homemade mix with the Harry hamster mix so (I’m sorry if I word this terribly ) but the harry hamster mix has 18% protein in it which is already in the reccommended range for the protein amount, but if i feed my hamster 50/50 on the harry hamster and home made diet, how much protein would i include? Like would the harry hamster mix only have 9% protein in it now that ive halved the mix, so id have to include 9% protein in my homemade diet? Or would the harry hamster mix still have 18% protein if i haved it? Im sorry if i worded that horribly im just slighty confused also would I physically halve the Harry hamster mix and then mix it together with my homemade diet or? For example if I was to feed my hamster a teaspoon of food every other day, would I put half a teaspoon of the Harry hamster mix and half a teaspoon of my home made mix?

my last question is about the calculations i have to make, its literally where i am the most confused! For example when I was choosing my ingredients I chose dried red lentils and dried chickpeas. My mix is going to be 20% legumes so 10% of each ingredient. The forum post I read said that I have to calculate the c-protein, c-fat and c-fibre for each ingredient, so do I have to find out how much protein is in 50 grams of red lentils for example and then times that by the percentage of the mix that red lentils will be (10%). And also once I have calculated the c-fibre,c-fat and c-protein for each ingredient and then added them up, should this be equal to half of the recommended percentages that Victoria raechel gave? I’m just so confused on how to mix the ingredients appropriately any help will be appreciated thank you


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## Calvine (Aug 20, 2012)

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