My hamster's sunflower seeds!?

Question

My pet hamster, Panda, is like madly in love with sunflower seeds. His food is like a fruit, vegetable, seed mix. But he always seems to take the sunflower seeds first. And when I play with him one-on-one, I always pick the sunflower seeds out and give it to him, but they're running out. So today, I went to the supermarket and bought two packs of sunflower seeds. I didn't notice this till I got home though: Salted & Roasted. I'm going to wipe all the salt off the shells with wet paper towels, but is it okay for Panda if they're roasted? Please help! 10 points, of course.

Answer 1

dont feed your hamster more sunflower seeds. that means the hamster is adicted if it eats only those. if  your hamster eats only the sunflower seeds than leave the other food in the dish and wait till your hamster eats the other stuff, that way your hamster will learn to eat the other stuff. keep doing that. never feed your hamster roasted seeds, just plain ones.

Answer 2

just give him the sunflower seeds the way tehy are...its okay...my hamster dose the same thing she always eats the sunflower seeds fisrt...she loves it when i buy her sunflower seeds and feed them to her....i would just give himthe seeds the way they are in the package...he will be fine..im pretty sure...like i said i give my hamster salted sunflower seeds all the time i dont think it will make a difference if they r roasted or not...

Answer 3

Right thinking, you don't want to oversalt the little guy!

I'd even wash them off...and dry them in the oven again....

but if he can eat the whole ones like I give to the birds, if he can peel the black shell off with his teeth, then the grocery has a boatload in the bird section, 4 pounds for 2.99 or so....maybe that natural one will be okay, after all, the squirrels peel 'em, and so do the birdies!

Sorry, I never had a little hamster!

Good luck!

Answer 4

DON"T make Panda eat only sunflower seeds. It has lots of fat in it and is totally bad for his health. It is our version of KFC. Imagine if we were to eat fried chicken everyday!!!! Panda will have major health problems if he does not eat other balanced food.

Sunflower seeds should be given only as treats to hamsters, not more than 5-10 pieces a day. Most of his food should come from balanced nutritious mix as available in pet shops.

It is okay to give him roasted seeds as treats but never salted seeds. To remove the salt from seeds, put them in water, wash out all the salt and dry them out in the sun or in the oven to remove all dampness.

My hamsters too used to have only sunflower seeds and I broke them out of that habit in the following way -

Firstly, I picked out all sunflower seeds from their commercial food mix which I put in their cages. My hamsters were agitated for a few days over this, they used to dig the whole cage looking for seeds but after a week they got over this habit.

During the week when they were agitated without their seeds, I put in lots of other treats in their cage like small bits of cheese, cornflakes, carrots and rice crispies to distract them from their seeds.

My playtime with them is an hour in the night and during this time, I used to give them the sunflower seeds as treats from my hand (not more than 5 seeds a day)

Slowly but surely, after two weeks, my hammies had gotten over their habit of eating only seeds and had started eating other food as well. They now associate seeds only with playtime.

You do this with your hamster too and you can be sure to have a hale and healthy hamster in your house!

Answer 5

i dont think that your hamster can take roasted sunflower seeds, it would be better if you buy another, processed seeds(like roasted, and any other heat treated seeds)  have their natural properties altered, i would suggest that it would be better if you buy it in pet stores. they usually have those sunflower seeds for your hamster.

Answer 6

dont give him any more sunflower seeds. they are very high in fat and they wont do much good for your hamster except to help it gain weight.  

also, its better if the sunflower seeds werent roasted.

i pick out the sunflower seeds from the seed mix and never give them any, but only once in a while as a treat.