What to feed your golden hamster?
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For his 6th birthday, Lyons Cub got a 9-week-old male golden hamster. He will have to care for “Centex” by himself, to learn responsibility for a pet (of course, with mommy’s help), so he has been watching several educational videos of what to feed a golden hamster. He learned that his hamster likes pellets, as well as dried mealworms with seeds and dried fruits and veggies, which is the prepared hamster food we get from a local pet store or order from Amazon. We put part of it in hamster enrichment foraging toys, so Centex keeps active and goes searching for food. Two table spoons full we put in his hamster dish in the front of his cage, next to his water bowl and bottle and his salt stone. In the evening, when he gets active, we can observe him munching there.
However, his golden hamster also likes fresh food. Once or twice a week, so as not to overfeed him (we limit it to the weekend), hamsty gets tiny slices of apples, blueberries, grapes, cucumbers, and hard-boiled egg white (careful, hamsters must not eat the yolk since it is not healthy for them due to it being high in cholesterol. Careful, hamsters should not get kiwi since they contain too much acid. Every other evening, he gets some carrot and zucchini slices. Lyons Cub also provides a permanent pile of fresh Timothy hay for his hamster. He uses it for building his nest (which is to be found inside his hamster labyrinth that he loves).
Lyons Cub does a good job of talking to his hamster in a quiet voice while he is eating. He wants to tame him, but he needs to gain his trust first, so that one day, he can feed him by hand and eventually hold him.