Like all animals, hamsters need to eat. It is easy to just buy the first hamster food you see in the store and give it to a hamster, though the hamster will not like this; we like to have a variety of foods and hamsters do too. Well, who can blame them?

Store-bought foods are a good starting base for a hamster’s diet. In the realm of store-bought foods are two main types of food: mixed food and pellets. Hamsters should be fed 75% pellets and 25% mixed food. Although lots of commercial food claim to be a full diet, they are not healthy diets.

Along with store-bought foods, hamsters should be fed fresh foods. Hamsters can eat carrots, tomatoes, apples, lettuce, and much more. A small portion of fresh fruits should be given often, though fresh veggies should be given only once a week. Also, hamsters can have milk, sugar-free yogurt, and yeast. Some hamsters can have insects such as moths, though some people think that if hamsters are not vegetarians, they will become wild and bite their owners. However, I have fed my Syrian hamster moths several times and he is still tame.

By now you may be thinking that hamsters can eat about anything, but that is not true. Hamsters cannot eat any sugar whatsoever since they are very prone to diabetes. Also, no citrus fruits such as oranges are edible to hamsters. Sticky things are not edible, either.        Somewhat obviously, hamsters cannot eat alcohol, caffeine, or any type of sweet or candy.

Hamsters love treats. There is a wide variety of store-bought treats, ranging from dried fruit to yogurt drops. Treats are the main way to gain hamsters’ trust, and they can be fed up to 20% of their diet per day. Hamsters love treats, but if they are given too much, they will not eat their regular food because they will think they have enough treats to live on. The packages on the treats normally say how much to feed.

Hamsters have food pouches in their cheeks that can expand even farther than his shoulders. Hamsters use this in the wild to bring food to their food stores in their burrows.