Peanut & TreeNut Free Seedmix

[blueturtle]

Hi Everyone!

I'm new to the forum and proper hamster care but not new to hamsters. I had them throughout my teen years and didn't know how bad the small crittertrail was for them. Well now I'm in my mid 30's with google at my fingertips and I realize how wrong I was despite my good intentions. That being said, I'm here looking for help in creating a homemade seed mix that will work for a dwarf hamster while also being safe for my daughter with life-threatening food allergies to peanuts and tree nuts. Most quality mixes contain nuts of some kind or at the very least are manufactured on shared lines. She has had reactions in the past from cross-contamination so as with most food things, I prefer to make at home for safety and peace of mind. If we get a hamster will depend solely on if I can make a seed mix that would work for the both of them.

I intend to make a batch of 1,000g so the recipe I've come up with is as follows:

Barley: 90g
Buckwheat: 90g
Millet: 90g
Alfalfa: 70g
Canary: 70g
Groats: 70g
Quinoa: 70g
Sorghum: 70g
Spelt: 70g
Amaranth: 60g
Mealworms: 50g
BSFL: 50g
Fennel: 30g
Dill: 20g
Hemp: 20g
Milk thistle: 20g
Pumpkin: 20g
Chia: 10g
Flax seed: 10g
Sunflower: 10g

I used a calculator I found on a forum for gerbils and it gave me the following values per 100g:
Protein: 17.85%
Fat: 11.07%
Fiber: 8.62%

I'm unsure of the starch to oil ratio as I'm not sure which seeds would be considered starch and which considered oil.
Does this works for a dwarf? If not, what/how should I change? If so, how could I tweak it to work for a syrian?

[Kikya]

There's nothing wrong with having a legume free or nut free mix. Some people stay away from them completely or feed separately.

I would start with this article: viewtopic.php?t=416 and this:
viewtopic.php?t=409

and there is a link to a German website (in the first link) that lists flour/oil seeds in categories. Typically, you see ranges from 60:40-80:20 on ratios of flour to oil seeds, with dwarves trending on the lower end and Syrians trending on the higher end. Anything in between is fine.

I would say you need a bit more fiber in your mix but I find that once I get the flour/oil ratio in the right range that the GAs tend to line up. I don't tend to put chia seeds in my mix for the reasons listed here: https://hamsterclubhouse.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22 but that's up to you.

As you go on you may need to tweak your recipe if you find your hamster just refuses to eat certain things, that's normal. Just be aware any changes you make will affect the overall proportions of the recipe.