Can hamsters eat meat and fish (chicken, lard, sausages)

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07.04.2018

Before you feed your pets your lunch, you need to find out if they can eat these foods. For hamsters, special food is sold in the pet store, which consists of different grains. Buckwheat is especially useful for rodents; it contains many essential vitamins. Many people think that it is impossible to add other food, but this is not true. Domestic hamsters love to eat meat products, but not every type of such delicacy will be healthy. Can hamsters eat meat and sausage?

What to feed the dwarf: list

Let's get straight to the point. Below is a table that describes:

• What can you give your Djungarian hamster?
• What not to do
• What is possible, but carefully

Be sure to read to the end and understand why it is allowed to feed some things to the dwarf, but others are strictly prohibited. And how does this affect the health and life expectancy of the Djungarian pet.

In the “possible, but careful” column there are foods that should be given to dzhungarika no more than 1-2 times a week.

Do you want to give your hamster true culinary pleasure? :) Then read on what Djungarian hamsters readily eat.

Possible problems in the diet of dzhungarika

The Djungarian hamster is a tiny animal (the average weight of an adult is about 50 g). This somewhat shortens the list of what you can feed your pet: what is good for other rodents, but death for the dzhungarika. For example, almonds contain hydrocyanic acid, which is harmless for a larger pet, but can easily poison your hamster.

The second important point is that Djungarians are prone to obesity and diabetes. They should not be overfed, given sweets, or fed flour or very sweet fruits. Despite the fact that they love to eat, we put them on a strict diet.

I can handle it, I can handle it without cookies!

Prohibited meat products

Prohibited meat products include:

• Fatty meats (pork, lamb). These types of meat contain fat, mucus, histamines, substances that are not processed by the intestines and remain there to rot. All this becomes the cause of various types of infections and skin diseases (allergies, dermatitis). Eating pork is fraught with the development of arthritis and arthrosis in rodents.
• Sausages are a complex chemical product containing vegetable fats, stabilizers, nitrates, and flavor enhancers. This composition negatively affects the body of a small animal and shortens its life by half.
• Any raw meat. Leads to the development of helminthic infestations and various types of infections. It is poorly absorbed and causes diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
• Grilled meat. It is considered a high-calorie food due to its high fat content. With its regular use, the concentration of fat in the pet’s body will reach such proportions that it will not be able to cope with it. This will lead not only to obesity, but also to heart, liver, and vascular disease. In addition, after frying, the meat loses all the vitamins and amino acids it contains.
• Dried meat. Not suitable for feeding a hamster due to its high salt content. Salt corrodes the walls of the stomach and negatively affects the liver and kidneys.
• Smoked meat. It is dangerous because the liquid smoke used in its preparation contributes to the development of gastritis and ulcers.

Basic nutrition of the Djungarian hamster

In nature, the Djungarian hamster's diet consists mainly of seeds and cereals. Therefore, it is reasonable to feed the dwarf at home according to the same principle.

The ideal option is to feed ready-made food for Djungarian hamsters. All the necessary grains, seeds, and dried herbs are already mixed there. Often the manufacturer enriches the feed with minerals, trace elements and vitamins.

This mixture can be given to dzhungarika constantly, periodically adding fresh vegetables, fruits and berries (in season), plus protein (more on that below). But if for some reason you cannot feed ready-made food, then here is a detailed video on the topic “how to prepare food yourself.”

What else can Djungarian hamsters eat?

• Fruits (not exotic, but “local”) - eat no more than a couple of times a week, preferably 1.
• If your dry food does not contain greens, you can add them to the diet (dried).
• Non-starchy vegetables (cucumber, bell pepper) - can be eaten almost every day, alternating.
• Low-starch vegetables (zucchini, carrots, pumpkin) - it is enough to feed them to the dwarf 2 times a week.
• Protein – 1-2 times a week.
• Nuts, seeds - try to give them less often, as a treat (high fat content of the product).

The main emphasis in nutrition is on grains.

What fruits and berries can hamsters eat?

Fruits for the Djungarian hamster should not be too sweet (remember about diabetes!). It is for this reason that you should not feed the dzhungarik exotic foods at all. Occasionally, you can give a dried banana, but not more than once a week (formally, a banana is a berry, but that’s what we’re used to).

Be sure to remove large seeds and pits from the fruit. Many of them can be poisonous to the dwarf. The possibility that such a baby will simply choke on the seeds cannot be ruled out either.

Follow the same recommendations when choosing berries.

Lifehack. Use glycemic index tables for foods. Those with a high indicator should never be fed to the Djungarian hamster.

A few words about dried fruits. These are the same fruits, only the water has been removed from them. The composition remains virtually unchanged; we feed according to the same principles as fresh fruit.

Choose fruits that are as sweet as possible for your pet.

What vegetables can dzungaria eat?

Vegetables have the same problem - they increase the risk of diabetes. Here we are no longer talking about sweets (fructose), but about starch, which “works” in the same way as fructose or sugar - it increases the level of glucose in the blood.

Therefore, try to feed your hamster vegetables that are low in starch and high in fiber.

The less starch in vegetables, the better.

What do hamsters prefer from greens?

For greens, let's eat your usual salad, parsley and dill (1-2 times a week). From “improvised” (more precisely, pasture) plants, you can feed plantains and dandelions. Greens are a storehouse of vitamins, microelements and nutrients for the Djungarian rodent, do not neglect them.

Avoid greens that have a strong smell or taste. Those. any plants that have an imbalance in composition (too many essential oils or acids). That is why it is strictly forbidden to feed the Djungarian hamster with onion sprouts, garlic and sorrel.

Don't forget about greens - very healthy.

Animal protein for the carnivorous dwarf

In its natural environment, the dzhungarik is by no means a vegetarian, and is not averse to sometimes eating what passes by. These are mainly insects. Therefore, for proper nutrition, you need to add protein foods to your hamster’s menu.

Ideal for:

• Boiled egg whites
• Skim cheese
• Boiled white fish
• Lean boiled meat of other animals (beef, chicken, turkey)

You can feed protein once a week (pregnant and lactating females, babies - more often, but we have a separate conversation about this).

I'm a predator!!! Strong!!! But easy...

Peppermint treat

Ingredients:

• 1 medium overripe banana.
• 2 chicken eggs.
• 3 tbsp. spoons of honey.
• 3 tbsp. tablespoons of liquid coconut oil (can be replaced with sunflower oil in the same amount).
• 1/2 teaspoon mint flavoring.
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder.
• A quarter cup of carob (roasted carob powder). A small amount of cocoa can be substituted, but this is not recommended for animals. Therefore, try to find an original product.
• Oat flour.

Cooking procedure.

1. Mash the banana in a bowl.

2. Beat eggs into the resulting mass, add honey, baking powder, cinnamon and coconut (sunflower) oil.

3. Add oatmeal to the mixture to form a firm but slightly moist dough.

4. Divide the resulting volume into 2 equal parts.

5. Pour 1/4 cup of carob powder into one half, and add the same amount of flour to the second half. A hard lump should form that does not stick to your hands.

6. Roll out 2 rectangles, 9-10 mm thick.

7. Place the layers of dough on top of each other and roll along the long side. Wrap the resulting sausage in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator overnight.

8. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

9. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.

10. Remove the film and cut into 3-3.5 cm rounds.

11. Place on a baking sheet. During cooking, portions of dough will not increase in volume, so you can place them close to each other.

12. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

If you want to please your pet with a crunchier treat, cut the rolls into thin slices (about 1 cm), and after cooking, additionally dry them in a warm oven or even in a non-stick frying pan.

The finished product is stored for a long time in a dry place. So, by baking peppermint rolls once, you can treat your four-legged pupil with them for a long time.

Bon appetit to your dog!

I like it I don't like it

How to feed a Djungarian hamster

How many times a day should you feed the animal? Djungarians are nocturnal (like other hamsters), so the main meal should be in the evening. You can feed food only once a day, but it wouldn’t be a mistake to feed it twice (in this case, let’s eat 70% of the daily amount in the evening, and 30% in the morning). This is not done for gorging before bed, but so that during the day, when the animal periodically wakes up, it has something to eat - the dwarf has a very fast metabolism (an eternally hungry hamster).

An adult Djungarian hamster only needs a tablespoon of food per day (with a small heap). Even if the food quickly disappears from the bowl, this is not a reason to feed more: most likely, your pet took everything that it didn’t eat into the pantry in order to “hamster” it later. It is his instinct to stock up.

Add more rash or I’ll bite your nose off!

Don't forget to promptly remove leftover perishable foods, otherwise they will begin to rot in the pantry.

Place the bowl itself in the house as far as possible from the toilet (the hamster will determine where he will have a toilet himself, so it will not be possible to designate places for feeding and relief in advance).

Which meat do you prefer?

Not every type of meat is suitable for feeding an animal. The following are considered permitted:

• Beef liver. In addition to protein, it contains sodium, calcium, iron, phosphorus. The vitamin A it contains improves the condition of the rodent's fur, making it smooth and shiny. It is considered a dietary product. If your pet is overweight, beef liver will be beneficial for him in all respects.
• Beef heart. It is very useful for a hamster to eat after suffering from infectious diseases to restore strength and improve blood composition. Like liver, it is considered a low-calorie product.
• Chicken meat, preferably breast. White chicken meat is considered healthier, unlike red. It does not contain fats, cholesterol, or difficult-to-digest substances that negatively affect intestinal function.
• Lean beef. This includes the shoulder and tenderloin. Beef is good for a hamster, as it has a low calorie composition and a large amount of vitamins and microelements. Strengthens the immune system, restores strength, and prevents vitamin deficiency.

These products cannot be given to the hamster in their raw form. It is important that they are boiled in water without adding salt and spices. He will also benefit from low-fat meat broth with the addition of herbs - parsley or dill. You should only give your hamster fresh cooked meat to avoid causing stomach upset.