A seed mix should be the basis for your hamster’s diet. Along with treats you feed throughout the week, such as fresh veggies, nuts, animal proteins. Homemade means that you have acquired each ingredient in the mix separately and are measuring them out in exact proportions to meet the minimum nutritional requirements for a hamster. (See Basic Hamster Nutrition)
Why create your own homemade mix?
Creating your own seed mix can be a very rewarding and enjoyable experience as well as help you gain knowledge about hamster diets in general. Homemade mixes allow for much more variety than you would get with commercial mixes (excluding German commercial mixes). It also allows you to control the quality of each ingredient being put in the mix or to adjust to your hamster’s preferences, such as your Syrian hamster not liking millet. Most commercial mixes have very little variety and are made of poor quality ingredients. This is why they need to add artificial vitamins and minerals because the food itself is deficient.
Can I feed a homemade mix without pellets or mixing with a commercial food?
Yes, you can, and many owners have. Many years ago, people didn’t understand what kind of diet a hamster needed to have or how important variety was so it was advised to never feed a homemade mix alone. There have been a couple of incidents, many years back, where a homemade diet was made incorrectly and caused some nutritional deficiencies. Those mixes had serious flaws such as only using a very limited amount of ingredients, or using ingredients that weren’t suitable, etc. We have much more research and experience available to us now than we had even 5 years ago. High variety and high quality are key to having a happy, healthy hamster.
Is it easier or cheaper than buying a mix?
The short answer is no. The long answer is: it’s not typically cheaper and there is a lot of learning and time spent that goes into making your own mix. I would only do this if you have some time on your hands and you have the money to source all the ingredients. I have probably spent 500-600 dollars on the ingredients for my mix (not including my mistakes). However, the ingredients will last you a while as dried ingredients keep for a long time. You should do a lot of research first before buying the ingredients, so you know what you are getting into. If you would rather buy a homemade mix, here’s some information on choosing a seed mix.
Can I just follow a recipe?
You can, though it seems as most hamster keepers don't want to share their recipes. Probably because they are nervous that their own mix may not work for someone else or because they want to sell it. The main issue with following a recipe that has so many ingredients, if you have to make a tweak because you ran out of something, you may not be able to recreate it very easily since each ingredient has a different nutritional profile.
There are probably a lot of ways to go about making a homemade mix, but I will start with some basic ideas. You will undoubtedly find the best way for you.
What will I need to make a mix?
You’ll need a food grade kitchen scale that can measure in grams, preferably with a decimal point or two
You’ll need some various sized bowls to weigh/hold your ingredients
You’ll need room to store your seeds
You’ll need airtight containers for long term storage of the seeds and of the mix once it’s finished.
Seeds, lots and lots of seeds…
What should I add to my mix?
Your mix should be made up of grains, grass seeds, and oil seeds. Also, legumes, nuts, and an animal protein, if you don’t feed those separately. If you prefer to feed your mealworms as a taming treat or just because it’s adorable to watch them eat it, either take the mealworm from the daily amount of seed mix or don’t mix it into your seed mix and feed separately. Be careful that you do not add seeds that have been chemically treated to grow faster or have pesticides sprayed on them.
Where do I start?
Start by making a list of seeds that you want to include. Ideally, you want something in the range of 30-40 ingredients (not including dehydrated veggies). Hamsters can eat many foods being omnivorous but it’s a good idea to check the Safe Foods list as well.
If you have any trouble coming up with a list of seeds, you can translate this German website.
It divides the seeds up into Flour vs Oil and has a large list of ingredients. You can create your own mix and they will ship it to you. This service is not available outside of a few countries in Europe, but you can use their tool to help give you ideas for your own mix.
Once you have a list of the ingredients, you should organize them based on what kind of ingredient they are. Meaning is it a Flour Seed or an Oil Seed, is it a Legume or Nut? I personally like using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my ingredients and it helps if you color code them too. You want more flour seeds then oil seeds, because of the higher fat content. There's a lot of debate about what the ideal range is and there's even more debate about for which species, but boiled down in simple terms, you want something between 60/40 flour and oil and 80/20. So that means, if you have a 500g mix around 300g+ of it will be flour seeds. Remember, try not to use more than 10% of any one ingredient.
Generally speaking, you want 16%-20% protein, 6%-12% fat, and 10%-15% fiber in adult hamsters. With hamsters that have higher growth needs, such as young hamsters (under 6 months) or pregnant or nursing hamsters, the protein needs increase to a range of 18%-24%. However, GAs or Guaranteed Analysis can be off by 20% in either direction so it’s a good guideline but don’t get hung up on exact numbers.
Should I include dehydrated veggies?
I prefer to keep veggies out of my mix because of two reasons, because dehydrated veggies lose some of their nutritional value. Veggies are better served fresh. That's not saying dehydrated veggies are bad but that should not be the only veggies you feed. If you are already feeding a lot of dehydrated in your seed mix, your hamster will be missing out on his seeds and fresh veggies. I like to keep the dehydrated veggies count low and give fresh veggies 2-5 times a week instead.
Now what?
When you list all your ingredients in the spreadsheet, you’ll want to add how much of each value you are tracking (carb, protein, fat, fiber) in a set weight. For me, I used 28g because that equates to 1 oz and it helps me conceptualize the amounts since I am used to cooking that way. I can also adjust based on how much of the ingredient I put in the mix. If I put in 56g in the mix, I know to double the amounts of c/p/f/fib. I use the excel spreadsheet to make a formula so I don’t need to calculate it each time.
Here is a sample spreadsheet that you could use starting out (provided by Katkin):
For example, the values of Pumpkin seeds:
10g of Pumpkin seeds: Carbs 1g, Protein 3g, Fat 5g, and Fiber 1g
You need to figure out how much of Pumpkin seeds are protein. Pumpkin seeds are 3g/10g or 30% protein.
You also have to figure out how much of the mix is pumpkin seeds (also known as the proportion of ingredients), so if I had 10g of pumpkin seeds in my mix of 500g, pumpkin seeds would make up 10/500 = .02 or 2% of my mix. If the pumpkin seeds are 2% of the mix, at 30% protein (.02 x .3 = .006) then pumpkin seeds make up .6% of the total amount of protein in the mix. So adding up all the %s of each ingredient, you get the final total % of protein. Another way to do this is by adding up all the grams of protein and dividing by the total weight in grams to get the final % of protein. (ex. I have a total of 90 grams of protein in my 500g mix, that means I have 90/500 = .18 or 18% protein)
When you input all the information, you can play around with the amount of each ingredient and the ratios. This is the part you learn the most from. Changing the amount of ingredients in the mix will affect the nutritional value as a whole. It’s good to play around with it for a while and ask for some input from your fellow hamster enthusiasts or compare it to some other mixes.
Where do I get the ingredients?
You'll have to source your own seeds. I strongly recommend organic in the US but at the very least the seeds need to be untreated or sprouting seeds. Some you can order online from bulk seed sellers or from Etsy, some you may be able to source locally, depending on your area. Once you receive your seeds, it’s a good idea to freeze them for 24-48 hours before use. You can take it a step further and freeze for 48 hours then thaw for 48 hours and then freeze for 48 again. You may have to change some ingredients as you go along because some things may be out of season or too expensive, so you’ll want to play around with your ingredient list.
I hope that helps you get a start. It is a bit of a learning curve. Once you understand it, you can adjust more easily. Keep in mind, GAs can be off by 20% either way so focus more on ratios, variety and quality and the GA usually takes care of itself. Use the GA as a guideline to see if you are on the right track.
Happy mixing!
