Make Hamster Food, Water and Bedding Choices

There are a lot of hamster products out there and a lot of ways to give them to your hamster. This page will help you make the right decisions and make sure your hamster lives a long and healthy life!

Steps

  1. Choose good bedding. The best bedding is shredded toilet paper or a type of soft bedding (like carefresh), or aspen bedding. All three are practically harmless.
    • Some types of bedding can be hazardous to your hamster. Any fluffy bedding, such as cotton, can KILL your hamster.
    • If you use wood shavings, avoid cedar and pine. It releases aromatic oils that can be fatal to your hamster(s). aspen is probably your best choice
  2. Spread the bedding thickly enough that your hamster can burrow in in it. About two inches should be enough
  3. Pick appropriate food. Never try to make your own food, because your hamsters will miss out on some of the essential nutrients they need to survive. They like variety, so try to buy food with different food types. Pellets work well too.
  4. Feed your hamster every day. Remove old or stale food regularly.
  5. Maintain a steady diet. Do not change your hamsters food or diet suddenly; take it slow. Add a little more of the new food every couple of days until all your hamster's food is the new kind.
  6. Play with your hamster. Hide the food around the cage for them to find. Don't do this too much, though, as they may not be able to find it, and the food will go stale. Remove any leftover hidden food when you change the bedding. Also have them run around on the ground freely but you must be watching them. Always keep them away from corners and wires.
  7. Try hand feeding occasionally; it will build a trust bond between you and your little friend.
  8. Give your hamster water, ideally in a plastic bottle.
    • If you use a plastic bottle, make sure that the ball is metal, not plastic. Bottles are easier to handle and keep the water cleaner.
    • If you use a bowl, choose one that is about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} tall and fill it about halfway.
  9. Hamsters prefer bottled water, but it isn't necessary for them to survive.
  10. Place something in the cage that the hamsters can chew on. Because they are rodents, their teeth continue to grow. They must chew something to wear down this growth. Hamster-safe wood is good.

Tips

  • Make sure that you try to take out all of the corn and dried peas out of a dwarf hamster's diet because dwarves are prone to diabetes and corn and dried peas are very sugary. Once or twice a week you can give them fresh corn and peas, but in small amounts.
  • For their bedding, and instead of wood shavings, hamsters love torn up tissue paper they love it!!!
  • DO NOT give guinea pig, rabbit, rat or other rodent food to hamsters.
  • It's fine to feed your hamster gerbil food, but it's still best to buy hamster food. Some shops sell hamster AND gerbil food, which is also fine.
  • Do not use Super Pet starter cage bottle because it strains your hamsters neck. Buy a different bottle, or use a bowl, instead. Make sure the bowl is heavy so they can't tip the bowl over!
  • Some hamsters refuse to drink out of water bottles. So if this happens get them a bowl. (You can tell because you won't have to refill your hamster's water, because it's still in there!) MAKE SURE THE BOWL IS NOT PLASTIC! It needs to be metal, ceramic or glass. You can get stainless steel ones at WALMART for around 97 cents; they work GREAT. The metal cannot rust either.
  • Carefresh and Critter Care are good brands for bedding.
  • Don't use ripped newspaper as bedding because the ink can harm your hamster.
  • Do not use pine or cedar bedding. Don't use unmarked bedding either. Those won't tell you what kind of wood is in the product, and it could be dangerous for your hamster.

Warnings

  • Cedar or pine wood shavings can be harmful to your pet and cause respiratory infections so buy aspen instead!
  • Even if fluffy bedding says it is safe, or the pet store claims it is safe, do not believe it. Buy a hamster book or go to www.hamsterhideout.com to figure out what is safe or not. Hamsterhideout has professional hamster breeders and caretakers so they can help you.
  • Do not use newspaper either as it can harm your hamster

Things You'll Need

  • Food bowl
  • Water bottle/dish
  • Good quality food
  • Water
  • Chews for hamster teeth
  • Proper bedding

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