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Feeding Baby Hamsters
What do you feed baby a hamster ? Once a baby hamster has been weaned you feed them the same as you would an adult hamster. His diet plays a big part in his well being not only now but also as he grows.
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Feed baby hamsters |
A good commercially packed complete hamster food is a good base for the diet. This will provide most of what is needed in the way of essential nutrients for your pet. If you acquired your baby hamster from a pet shop the chances are that he will have been fed on a dried hamster mix only.
By the time you acquire your baby hamster he will already be weaned from his mothers milk. Animals have no further nutritional need of milk once they have been weaned. The mother starts the weaning process when the pups reach around 7 days old. From here on the pups will begin to eat solid food as well as suckle from the mother. It is around this time the mother will begin to take solid food to the nest for the babies to eat, thus reducing the dependency on her milk. By the time the pups reach 19 - 21 days they are fully weaned. After this time they become lactose intolerant. Humans are the only mammals that find a need to consume milk after weaning.
Feeding milk will upset their tummy and may give them diarrhea the one thing you don't want with a new baby hamster.
Fresh vegetable may be added to their diet, but this must be done gradually over a period of time and added only in small quantities. Wash and peel all vegetables thoroughly before feeding to a baby hamster. Pesticides are used on most vegetables and these can upset a baby hamster’s tummy.
You can feed most vegetables to baby hamsters including carrots, cucumber etc: but no green leaf vegetables. Green leaf vegetables play no part in a hamster’s diet young or old, and certainly no lettuce. Lettuce is 90% water and has no nutritional value at all, it will give a hamster soft stools / diarrhea. Add fruit gradually small pieces of fruit should be given only as an odd occasional treat or preferably not at all. Fruit contains fructose: Fructose is a naturally occurring sugar found in fruit, this can cause loose stools or diarrhea depending on how much is eaten.
Feeding baby hamsters scrambled or boiled eggs can be very beneficial to them as well as chicken and cheese. Feeding an occasional small amount of 'live' yogurt will help to keep the good intestinal bacteria levels high. Once your baby hamster is weaned he is ready to eat almost anything. Tofu is an ideal food or treat for hamsters it is made from coagulated soy milk and this is very beneficial to nursing mums and young pups. Tofu is low in calories high in iron calcium and protein.
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