Natural Hamster Food

Hamsters have been successfully domesticated for less than a hundred years, so the best diet for your hamster is one that’s similar to what they would eat in the wild. Hamsters are omnivores, meaning they eat both plant and meat-based foods, but plant-based foods usually predominate, with the odd burrowing insect to add protein!

This means that a natural hamster food should contain a diverse selection of:

• Seeds like sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds
• Nuts such as peanuts
• Fruits such as berries
• Vegetables such as flaked peas
• Grains and cereals such as oats, wheat and barley

If the natural hamster food you choose contains no animal protein, you should sometimes add an animal protein source such as egg or mealworms too.

The Best Natural Hamster Food

Like many rodents, hamsters can be very choosy when presented with a ‘mix’ or muesli-style food, picking the sweeter, lower-fibre ingredients. The best way to ensure your hamster gets a nutritionally complete and balanced diet is to ensure that at least some of the time, you are feeding them a pelleted natural hamster food—or a mix that contains nutritionally complete pellets or biscuit. This means that they’re getting all the nutrients they need rather than leaving some in the bowl in the form of their least favourite vegetable, grain or seed!

Give Your Hamster Variety

To add texture and variety to your hamster’s diet and ensure they get all the nutrients they need, swap out your hamster’s dry food now and then for items such as boiled eggs, peanuts and fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs such as:

• Carrot, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, sweet pepper, cucumber, cress or courgette
• Apple, pear, peach or melon (don’t give citrus fruits)
• Basil, sage, parsley or coriander

You can also encourage natural foraging behaviour and give them a reward by sprinkling or hiding a few small animal treats around their enclosure.