Is it okay if my hamster eats rabbit treats? And how can I get her to stop climbing on her water bottle?

Question

I got a new hamster today, a teddy bear hamster, named Sniffles.

Well, my brother was rushing me through the store, and I didn't have time to read over all the different treat bags..

And I had read about some wildberry yogurt-hammie treats.

Well, silly me, saw the wildberry yogurt on the bag and I grabbed it.. But it was wildberry yogurt bunny treats.

Will it hurt her? Or is it safe to feed them to her?

And I just got her today, and I have her in a 20 gallon aqarium, with one of the hammie water bottle holders that hands off the side of the cage..

Well, I accidently bought a bigger size of that too, and now the water bottle is a little crooked, but she still drinks out of it (she is right now actually) and it stays in place.

But she tries to climb up on it to escape, and I'm afraid she's gonna get hurt by getting her foot caught or getting stuck, or falling and getting hurt.

Anyone have any suggestions so she cant get on it anymore?

Answer 1

dont' worry. she wont get hurt.

if she eats the rabbit food, then sure give it to her. it won't harm her. i fed my lil hammie bread and he was fine.

and ur lil cage, she'll get used to it. after a while, she'll get used to her new home and she won't try to escape. just be careful when you try to take her out, because then she'll become territorial and bite you.

Answer 2

Firstly it is ok to give your hamster rabbit treats in proportion with hamster food not rabbit food. The quantity of protien/ash/fibre/oils etc is totally different to a rabbits food. also some rabbit foods contain coccidiostats that prevent coccidiosis in rabbits. This ingredient could be harmful to your hamster as it would a guinea pig.

It is not the best thing to keep a hamster in an aquarium. As with rats there can be a high level of ammoina nad bacteria build up quickly, especially in the warm weather and the heat could stress your hamster and cause respiratory infections. Along with this your hamster could develop a intestinal bacterial condition called wettail which can be fatal.

Change to an open barred hamster cage.

Aquariums are for fish not hamsters as some pet shops suggest

Answer 3

it's OK she wont hurt herself i have gerbils that do it all the time and they always land on their feet lol that's cats lol haha but seriously they do lol and the rabbit treats is fine just make sure they are soft enough cuz you can never be sure of choking your good no problem take care

Answer 4

It depends on the type of rabbit treats really.

If they are fed in small amounts they will probably be ok because most treats are designed for small animals. If your hamster looks ill afterwards or shows no interest in them then I would avoid feeding it them.

You should also remember that Hamsters need a balanced diet with a good variety of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Some of the fruit and vegetables that your Hamster will enjoy are:

Carrot

Cucumber

Broccoli

Celery

Apple

Grape

Parsley

Sweetcorn

NEVER FEED YOUR HAMSTER ANY CHOCOLATE AS THIS CAN CAUSE SERIOUS DAMAGE TO YOUR PET'S HEALTH.

Your Hamster should be fed the fruit & veg chopped up quite small, every day along with some dried pet food from your pet shop.

The dried food should be kept in a small earthenware/ pot bowl to avoid it tipping over and causing a mess! You might want to put the fruit/vegetables in a separate bowl to keep the hamster food dry too.

You will need to make sure you use a specific small pet water bottle instead of the one you have because it sounds unsafe. You could try and find a way of placing some plastic over it so that it is harder to climb on but so long as your hamster hasnt hurt  itself it should be ok.

Another way of solving this could be to give your hamster other safer things to climb on so that it gets bored og climbing on its waterbottle.

Good luck!

Answer 5

DON'T FEED HER ANYTHING THAT'S FOR RABBITS!!!!

Rabbit food (and treats) usually has something or other in it which is very beneficial for rabbits but harmful to other small animals.

If you look up more information on hamsters on the Internet I'm sure you'll come across what I'm talking about.  I've answered your question in a hurry without looking it up again which would have enabled me to explain it better.

I'm not really sure what you can do about the water bottle problem.  Maybe you could invest a few pennies more and get the smaller sized one if you think that it being too big is the problem.