Page:The Golden Hamster Manual.djvu/45

 IV

Hamsters thrive on varied foods and feeding schedules. Since it is their habit to eat in small amounts many times during the 24 hours, they may be fed at any time of day or night. OMNIVOROUS in diet, their food is readily obtainable. No expensive commercially prepared special hamster food is necessary. In proportion to income from offspring, hamsters may be most cheaply fed of the domesticated small animals. Some writings by the ill-informed have led novices to believe the hamster to be vegetarian in dietary requirements. Strangely, such writings frequently claim highly cannibalistic tendencies of the animals under certain dietary deficiencies, etc. To those who desire to learn the true nature of the creature’s hunger, the author of this book recommends that you offer a pen of hamsters some meat, either raw or cooked, and see how they relish it. They eat meat more greedily than any other food, unless perhaps tender crisp green foods when deprived of same for long periods. Meats do well as a part of their diet, but should not be the main food on their schedule. Governed by hunger and food availability, native life hamsters eat bugs, grubs, eggs, small birds and smaller animals, and gnaw bones left by beasts of prey. However, raw meats should not be ted to females, since raw meats may induce cannibalistic tendencies and encourage a per cent of mothers to eat their young. Were they vegetarian, this tendency would be absent, except in a negligible per cent of abnormals. Therefore, all meats to be fed to hamsters should be cooked or otherwise processed to eliminate fresh blood and live flesh or raw flesh odor and appearance. Bones remaining from meats baked, boiled, fried or grilled make excellent gnawing pieces for hamsters of all ages. Low cost commercial animal food pressed into blocks, cubes, chunks or pellets such as fed to dogs, rabbits, mink, foxes, calves, etc., and the better grades of breeder laying mash (pellet form) or poultry hatching egg mash (pellet form), containing approximately 20 to 25 per cent protein, are convenient foods, which animal and poultry foods furnish fish oil, wheat germ oil, minerals, etc., essential to best propagation. Some such convenient food should be included in any regular feeding schedule. Hamsters need to exercise their teeth, and these hard block and pellet foods furnish such exercise while bringing into the body essential minerals and vitamins conveniently and safely at minimum cost. Total feeding cost is small, for an adult eats only about a tablespoon of food per day, or 12 to 16 oz. per month. The fact that hamsters wean and sell at such an early age provides a food cost saving rather remarkable when compared to other small stock.

To keep hamsters in best appetite and condition, feeding schedules may be varied. A 3-day schedule may be followed for a few weeks; then changed to a 2-day schedule. After a time, a balanced daily feeding of both green and animal food may be employed, with grains added once or twice per week for variety. Whenever animals appear fed-up or any one food, change feeding schedule and their keen interest in eating is instantaneous. Rapid growth of young requires steadiness of feeding habits, and young