Picky Hamster?

Question

I recently adopted a hamster and I bought the feed the people at petco were feeding her before I got her. But I noticed she is very picky and will ONLY eat the sunflower seeds and leave everything else, I know this can't be healthy for her, and I've tried feeding her other fruits and veggies, and she nibbles at it then doesnt touch it.

Any suggestions or what I should do?

Answer 1

This is a very common problem with hamsters.

I have two winter white hamsters too and I faced the same trouble with them. They used to eat only sunflower seeds and leave the rest of the food. It is their version of KFC and can make them fat and unhealthy since sunflower seeds have a lot of fat in them. Slowly I have turned around their eating habits 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.

Hope this helps! Remember they are also like us who take to junk food so be very patient with them until they learn to eat other food too.

Answer 2

Maybe it just looks like she is only eating the sunflower seeds because they are her favorite and what she eats first. Hamsters rarely will like everything in the mix. I would start by picking out the sunflower seeds (they are very fattening and its not good for her to eat them in large quantities everyday) and then see if she will eat anything else. My guess is she will

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Ok so I own mice and in my experience rodents can be very picky eaters. You have a few options. The pet store may sell lab blocks for hamsters which look like large dog kibble. That will have have the essential nutrients for the animal. You could change the mix by doing some proper research and making your own mix that you think your hammie will like. Otherwise what a lot of other rodent owners have told me is that leave the remaining parts of there food in there and only give them more when they have actually eaten the rest. This is not cruel because you are still providing them with food ....but don't give in no matter how much they beg. Eventually they will become less picky.

I though my mice were weird too because they just nibble on their veg rather than eat it all but remember they are very small so a few bites is more than you think

Answer 4

you can take the sunflower seeds out or try lab blocks or pellets.