Safe and Unsafe Foods For Hamsters

[daisy]

This is a list of safe and unsafe foods for your hamster. It is not exhaustive, so please don't assume that because a food isn't on it that it is necessarily safe or unsafe. Ask on the forum if in doubt. Thanks to Kikya for allowing me to post this. I originally wrote this for The Gerbil Forum and have adapted it for hamsters.

Safe foods
The following foods are widely regarded as safe to feed:

Vegetables
Artichoke
Asparagus
Basil
Beetroot* (root and leaves)
Bok choy
Broccoli† (florets, stalk and leaves)
Brussels sprouts† (sprouts, plant leaves and flowers)
Cabbage†
Carrot (root and leaves)
Cauliflower†
Celery (stem and leaves)
Chickpeas (cooked)
Chicory
Collard greens
Cooked beans and pulses**
Coriander
Courgette
Cress
Cucumber
Dill
Endive
Green/runner beans
Kale†
Lentils (cooked)
Lettuce
Mint
Okra
Parsley††
Parsnip
Peas
Potato (cooked)
Pumpkin
Radicchio
Radish
Rocket/arugula
Spinach
Squash
Swede
Sweet pepper
Sweet potato (cooked)
Sweetcorn
Swiss chard
Thyme
Tomato (ripe only, no leaves)
Turnip
Watercress

* Beetroot may colour a hamster’s urine red or pink, which is harmless but could cause alarm!
† Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and brussels sprouts cause gas and have been reported to cause serious bloating in other animals. Feed in careful moderation, if you feed them at all.
** Some beans and pulses may also be safe to feed raw, but others are highly toxic. See the section on raw beans below for more information.
†† Parsley may be unsafe for pregnant hamsters. Large amounts of parsley can cause miscarriages in humans and parsley has been used in herbal medicine to induce abortions.(1)

Fruits
Please see the section on Russian dwarf and Chinese hamsters and sugars
Apple (no seeds)
Apricot (not the stone)
Banana
Blackberries
Blueberries
Cherries (not the stone)
Coconut
Cranberries
Currents
Dates
Figs
Goji berries
Gooseberries
Grapes
Kiwi
Mango
Melon
Papaya
Peaches (not the stone)
Pear
Pineapple
Plum (not the stone)
Pomegranate
Raisins
Raspberries
Strawberries
Watermelon

Other plants, flowers and leaves

Amaranth leaves
Apple leaves
Calendula/marigold petals
Chamomile leaves and stems
Chickweed
Cornflowers
Daisy flowers
Dandelion flowers, leaves or root
Echinacea/coneflower flowers and leaves
Hibiscus flowers
Mallow leaves
Melissa/lemon balm leaves
Pear leaves
Plantain
Raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, gooseberry or mulberry leaves
Redcurrant or blackcurrant leaves
Rose petals
Strawberry flowers and leaves
Sunflower leaves and petals
Wheat, oat or rye grass

Seeds and grains

Amaranth
Anise seeds
Barley
Buckwheat
Camelina seed
Canary seed
Caraway
Corn
Couscous
Cucumber seeds
Dill seed
Fennel seed
Flaxseed/linseed
Hemp seed
Melon seeds
Milk thistle seeds
Millet
Niger seed
Oats
Perilla seed
Pine nuts
Pumpkin or squash seeds
Quinoa
Rapeseed
Rice
Rye
Safflower seeds
Sesame seeds
Sorghum/dari/milo
Spelt
Sunflower seeds
Teff
Wheat

[Other foods
Bread, toast or crackers - no salt, seasoning, margarine or butter
Cereals (cheerios, shreddies etc) - stick to plain, unsweetened varieties
Cheese - hard cheeses such as cheddar are better as they are low in lactose. Most rodents have less lactose tolerance than humans. Avoid blue cheese, mould-ripened cheeses (e.g brie), most soft cheeses and unpasteurised cheeses. Cottage cheese is suitable as it is relatively low in lactose.
Cooked meats and fish, but avoid processed or preserved meats such as bacon, sausage, salami etc.
Cooked egg
Dried or live* insects - mealworms, waxworms, morio worms, calci worms, grasshoppers, locusts, crickets
Nuts - peanuts, almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, pecans, pistachios, walnuts, brazil nuts. Be especially moderate with brazil nuts as they are exceptionally high in selenium which can be harmful in overdose.(2) Choose unsalted, unseasoned nuts.
Pasta - dry or cooked
Tofu

* See section below on feeding live insects

Feeding live insects

Hamsters can be fed live insects for extra enrichment but you should bear in mind a few guidelines:

Never feed insects from outside to your hamster. They may be carrying bacteria or harmful chemicals. Only feed insects sold by a pet shop for animal consumption (or the offspring of these insects if you have bred them yourself at home).

Crickets and locusts should be in proportion to the size of your hamster. Don’t give a big 6 inch locust to your Robo. Choose a size your hamster can easily catch.

Mealworms can be fed live, but morio worms have very strong jaws which could hurt a hamster. Cut the head off a morio worm before feeding it.

Feed mealworms or other larvae in a bowl because otherwise they will burrow down into the bedding and get lost.

These lists are not necessarily exhaustive so if you’re wondering about a food not on them, ask on the forum for guidance.

Unsafe/unrecommended foods and controversial foods
This is the short list of foods that are considered unsafe for hamsters. Scroll down for more information on the reasons each food could be unsafe or best avoided.

Chilli/hot peppers
Raw potatoes, green potatoes or potatoes that taste bitter
Sprouted sorghum and millet
Rhubarb leaves
Poisonous plants
Most dairy products
Alliums - onion, garlic, leeks, chives
Tomato plants and unripe tomatoes
Avocado - especially the skin, flesh near the pit and unripe avocado
Raw kidney, tepary, butter/lima and winged beans. Also the raw mature seeds of the runner bean plant.

The following foods may not necessarily be poisonous, but they’re a bad idea to feed:
Fried and greasy foods
Foods high in sugar or artificial sweeteners: cake, biscuits/cookies, sweets/candy, chocolate
Very sticky foods such as peanut butter (unless spread thinly on something)
Foods high in salt: pickled foods, processed and preserved meats e.g salami, crisps/chips, salted nuts
In short, if it’s bad for you, it’s probably bad for your hamster too!

Contrary to common belief, grapes and raisins are completely safe for hamsters, as are dandelions in moderation. There are controversies over citrus fruits, mushrooms, iceberg lettuce and chocolate which you can read more about below.

Grapes and raisins
One of the biggest myths in rodent keeping is that grapes and raisins are poisonous to rodents. This idea appears to have originated from the fact that they are poisonous to dogs. In dogs, grapes can cause rapid onset of severe kidney disease. Dogs have different digestive systems to rodents and are more sensitive to various substances such as tartaric acid (a possible cause of canine grape toxicity(3) and theobromine. Grapes and raisins are very commonly fed to hamsters, and to other small animals such as gerbils and rats, and a sudden onset of illness shortly afterwards doesn’t appear to have been reported. It is safe to feed your hamster grapes and raisins, though as usual, everything should be fed in moderation. Raisins are one of the most popular hamster treats, though as they are very sugary they should be torn in half or even smaller. Please also see the section on Russian dwarf and Chinese hamsters and sugars.

Dandelions

Dandelion has been said to be carcinogenic due to its caffeic acid content. Rats and mice fed a diet containing 2% caffeic acid developed tumours at a significantly higher rate than controls fed 0% caffeic acid(24). However 2% caffeic acid is a huge amount. Assuming a rat eats 10g food per day, this equates to 200mg/day caffeic acid, which is equivalent to approximately 30g dandelions per day. (25) This is far more than a rat (or hamster) could ever eat. Dandelions fed in moderation should not be a problem for a healthy hamster.

These types of studies are intended to help us understand how diseases and tumours develop, and tend not to be so helpful in directly informing our animal husbandry. The study conditions (i.e in this case the quantity of caffeic acid fed) are simply too exaggerated and too unnatural to produce results that we can reliably apply to our pet care.

Dandelions are a well-known diuretic, so have the potential to cause dehydration if fed in excess. It probably isn’t a good idea to feed them to hamsters already at risk of dehydration, such as those suffering from diarrhea or kidney disease causing increased urination, or hamsters that are not drinking much.

Citrus fruits
Citrus fruits tend to be considered unsafe due to the acidity. In reality, most citrus fruits have a similar pH to other commonly fed fruits such as apple or banana. The exceptions are lemon and lime, which are very acidic, and which definitely shouldn’t be fed to hamsters.

Some have concerns that excessively acidic foods may damage hamsters’ teeth. Since hamsters’ teeth are continuously renewed through growth, it seems unlikely that some acidic fruit from time to time would have major implications. A regular diet containing lots of acidic fruit may be a problem. We know that if we eat a lot of acidic fruit, it can make our mouths slightly sore, so the same could happen to hamsters if fruit were fed in excess.

Fruit should not form a large part of your hamster's diet, not just because of the acidity, but because of the sugar and water content, and the fact that hamsters do not naturally eat lots of fruit.

There’s probably no particular reason why hamsters can’t eat a bit of orange, but there’s also no particular reason why they should. Berries tend to be the most nutritionally beneficial of fruits, so if you want to feed some fruit, consider feeding half a blueberry or cranberry, a piece of raspberry or a goji berry. Please also see the section on Russian dwarf and Chinese hamsters and sugars.

Mushrooms
Most people avoid feeding mushrooms as they seem a strange thing for a hamster to eat, and probably not something they would encounter in their natural habitat. However there is really no known reason why non-poisonous mushrooms would be unsafe for hamsters, and some people have fed them to hamsters and other rodents without any reported issues.

If you decide to feed mushrooms, stick to store-bought mushrooms. Even non-poisonous mushrooms can cause digestive issues if fed raw, so they should probably also be cooked before feeding.

Iceberg lettuce
Iceberg lettuce has often been said to be unsafe for small animals because it is mostly water, and has little nutritional value. Its inclusion on unsafe food lists (often without any reason given) has caused many misconceptions, with some even claiming it is poisonous for small animals. It is true that iceberg lettuce is around 96% water(8) but this is roughly consistent with other vegetables, such as romaine lettuce (95%, 9), spinach (92%, 10) and cucumber (95%, 11) which are all commonly fed to hamsters, and all still less watery than water, which we allow our hamsters free access too.

It’s possible that some hamsters might eat too much iceberg lettuce, ingesting too much water, causing diarrhea. This could happen with any watery vegetable, and can be easily prevented by feeding vegetables in moderation.

It is also true that compared to other leafy greens, iceberg lettuce does have less nutritional value. When compared to other leqfy greens, iceberg lettuce is a poor source of most nutrients. If iceberg lettuce formed a large part of your hamster's diet, they could be filling up on water and missing out on other nutrients, so don’t make it a large part of your hamster’s diet.

Iceberg lettuce isn’t toxic or inherently unsafe for hamsters, it’s just a poor choice of food. There are many more nutritious vegetables your hamster could be eating. A little bit of iceberg lettuce will do no harm, but ideally, opt for spinach or kale or some other nutritious vegetable instead.

Chocolate

Because chocolate is poisonous to dogs, it’s generally assumed to also be poisonous for rodents, however this probably isn’t true.

The compound that people are referencing when they say chocolate is toxic is theobromine, Theobromine is actually toxic to all animals and also to humans, but it depends on the dose (this is a vital principle to understand when talking about poisons - the dose makes the poison: all things are poisonous and nothing is poisonous, it all depends on the dose etc) Cats and dogs have a much lower tolerance to theobromine which means they can get very seriously ill after having consumed a smaller amount of chocolate proportional to their weight. Rodents have a tolerance to theobromine more similar to humans (15), which means they would have to eat a similar amount of chocolate proportional to their weight than we would have to eat, before getting symptoms, and that amount is a huge amount. Hamsters are especially tolerant of theobromine (28). So theobromine is probably not the reason to not feed chocolate, unless you also deny yourself chocolate for the same reason.

More of concern is the sugar, dairy and fat content, plus all the other things that are in more processed brands of chocolate. Too much fat is definitely not good, especially the saturated fat found in chocolate. Hamsters are more lactose intolerant than most humans so dairy isn’t a good idea for them, although dark chocolate can contain no dairy at all. Milk or white chocolate is very high in refined sugar, and that isn't healthy at all. Dark chocolate contains much less sugar, which is why it tastes more bitter. Rat owners even sometimes feed dark chocolate for respiratory issues. It's high in antioxidants and flavanols which are good for the heart. So chocolate is probably not deserving of its terrible reputation in hamster circles, but as with the citrus fruits, just because it can be fed, doesn’t necessarily mean it should be fed.

Chia seeds

When chia seeds are in contact with water, they swell up to 27 times their original weight and produce a thick gel. When eaten dry, they can stick to the throat, even causing blockages in rare cases(16), and may also cause stomach discomfort. For humans, it is usually recommended to soak them before eating to avoid these issues.

With hamsters, there is a risk that chia seeds when pouched may swell and cause impaction. Hence, they are perhaps best not fed.

Poppy seeds

Poppy seeds tend to not be advised for hamsters due to their rumoured opiate content. Poppy seeds don’t actually contain any opiates themselves, but during harvest they can be contaminated with other parts of the poppy plant which do contain opiates. Poppy seeds have even been reported to cause positive drug tests, although reports of health effects in humans are very rare.(4) However, most humans eat very low quantities of poppy seeds (a couple of grams on a bagel or bread roll), whereas in some cases they could comprise 1-5% or even more of a hamster seed mix.

Poppy seeds are sometimes included in rodent foods (especially German-style mixes e.g Rodipet) but it could not be guaranteed that residual opiates remaining on poppy seeds won’t have any effect on hamsters.

Claims that poppy seeds are toxic to rats appear to be based on a study where rats were fed a diet of 100% Mexican poppy (argemone mexicana) seeds died within 10 days.(5) Mexican poppy seeds are different to the poppy seeds sold for human or pet bird consumption, and the plant and seeds are known to be harmful to other animals as well.(6)

If you do choose to feed poppy seeds, they shouldn’t be fed in large quantities.

Avocado

Avocado contains a toxin called persin. It is present in the stone and skin, and also in the leaves and bark of the avocado tree. Persin is present in low concentrations in the flesh of the fruit, although as it leaches from the stone, nearby flesh will have higher concentrations.

In various animals, persin has been found to cause mastitis, decreased milk production and damage to the mammary glands, heart problems and gastrointestinal issues.(17)

There are safer choices of fruit for your hamster than avocado, but if you do decide to feed it, feed only the flesh without the skin, and avoid the flesh directly next to the stone. Don’t feed underripe avocado. It’s probably also a good idea to not risk feeding it to pregnant or nursing animals due to persin’s effects on lactation.

Chili peppers
The capsaicin in hot peppers can irritate the mouth and throat, and even cause abdominal pain and diarrhoea. If hamsters get chilli oil on their paws they will transfer it to their eyes, and if you’ve ever done that you’ll know how painful it is! Sweet/bell peppers are safe to feed.


Tomato plants and unripe tomatoes

Tomato stems and leaves, and to a lesser extent the unripe fruits, contain a glycoalkaloid toxin called tomatine. While tomatine is a relatively weak toxin(18), and accidental consumption of small quantities of tomato plants or unripe tomatoes is very unlikely to cause death, it is safer to stick to ripe tomatoes.

Raw, green or bitter potatoes

Raw potatoes have traditionally been considered unsafe due to containing a glycoalkaloid toxin called solanine, which can cause serious illness even in fairly small quantities, and even death. However cooking actually has little effect on alkaloid levels.(19) Potatoes usually only contain unsafe levels of solanine if improperly stored. Nevertheless, raw potatoes taste bad, and can cause digestive issues, so there’s no reason to feed them.

Also avoid feeding green potatoes and potatoes that taste bitter. A bitter taste is a sign of high glycoalkaloid levels. Potatoes turn green after exposure to sunlight, which also increases toxic glycoalkaloid levels.

Alliums - onion, garlic, leeks, chives etc.

Alliums are generally considered unsafe for small animals. This is probably because they are unsafe for dogs and cats. In dogs and cats alliums can damage red blood cells, causing dangerous anaemia, as well as gastrointestinal problems.(20)

While toxicity in one species is not a reliable indicator of toxicity in another (as with the grapes issue), there doesn't appear to be anecdotal data of alliums being fed to hamsters safely, so it is safest to avoid them.

Rhubarb leaves

Rhubarb leaves contain very high levels of oxalic acid (21), which causes kidney stones, and in large quantities, death. Never feed rhubarb leaves to hamsters (or yourself). Rhubarb stalks are safe for humans to eat, and therefore may be fine for hamsters, but I haven’t ever heard of anyone feeding them.

Sprouted sorghum and millet

Sprouted millet and sorghum contain cyanide. The exact concentration depends on the variety, with sorghum being the most dangerous. 100g of dry sorghum seed sprouted for 3 days could contain enough cyanide to kill an adult human (22), so I would recommend not feeding sprouted sorghum to your hamster. Sprouted millet tends to contain much less cyanide (23) and is likely to be less dangerous, but to be absolutely safe, it may be best avoided along with sprouted sorghum.

Dairy

Most rodents are considered lactose-intolerant, which means they have low levels of the enzyme needed to break down lactose. When lactose isn’t broken down, it remains in the gut fermenting and could cause pain, bloating and diarrhea. However Syrian hamsters have been found to be less lactose intolerant than other rodents, possibly because they possess a pregastric pouch where lactose can be broken down (29). Hard cheeses have very low lactose levels, and Greek yogurt is sometimes fed to small animals because it is lower in lactose. Milk, cream, most soft cheeses and most yogurts are high in lactose.

Raw beans and pulses
Some raw beans contain high levels of lectins and other compounds which affect nutrient absorption, making them unsafe to feed.

The following information is derived from A survey of the nutritional and haemagglutination properties of legume seeds generally available in the UK, published in the British Journal of Nutrition.(26)

Unsafe to feed raw are:
- Kidney beans
- Tepary beans
- Butter or lima beans
- Winged beans
- Mature runner beans. Note that the vegetable known as runner bean is the young pods containing immature seeds. These are safe to feed raw or cooked, but not the purplish seeds/mature beans.

Likely safe to feed raw in moderation are:
- Lentils
- Peas
- Chickpeas
- Blackeyed peas
- Pigeon peas
- Mung beans
- Broad beans
- Adzuki beans
- Soya beans
- Pinto beans

Although the beans listed above are considered essentially non-toxic, they have been observed to depress growth when fed in very large quantities (as 50% of the diet of young rats). While you will clearly not be feeding them in this quantity it is probably worth feeding them in moderate quantities. All raw beans and pulses contain some level of anti-nutrient compounds.

Another important point is that it is apparently fairly common for bags of beans sold commercially to contain a few misidentified beans. This means an individual bean fed to your hamster could be more toxic that the label on the bag would suggest. Only feed beans that you are sure are correctly identified.

Russian dwarf & Chinese hamsters and sugars

Whether the diabetes-prone species (Russian dwarfs and Chinese) should be fed fruits is a debated topic. The below is simply my opinion based on my understanding and research. If you have anything to add or any different ideas, or you disagree with anything, please do comment below.

Firstly, note that we don’t have a firm understanding of what causes diabetes in hamsters, that is, by what mechanism they suffer from chronically high blood sugar. In humans, diabetes is categorized into:
Type 1, insufficient insulin production due to autoimmune damage to the pancreas.
Type 2, the pancreas can produce insulin normally but the body has developed a resistance to it.
There are also mixed forms and other rare forms of diabetes.

Diabetes in hamsters has mostly been studied with regard to Chinese hamsters rather than Russian dwarfs. Diabetic Chinese hamsters have reduced insulin production. (27) We should not necessarily assume that diabetes in Russian dwarfs is similar.

Some argue that since sugars do not cause diabetes, it is fine to feed fruits to a non-diabetic hamster, however I find this position problematic. A hamster may be diabetic or prediabetic without us knowing. Humans can often have type 2 diabetes or prediabetes (insulin resistance) for years before diagnosis and during those years, chronically high blood sugar levels are still causing damage to organs. Regularly feeding fruits and other sugary foods to a hamster with impaired insulin sensitivity or insufficient insulin production will cause regular blood sugar spikes, and increase the risk of them suffering organ damage, which in a hamster may mean the difference between living 15 months and living 18 months. Not much time, perhaps, but still valuable in a pet with such a short lifespan to begin with.

Urine tests are also not a highly reliable way of diagnosing diabetes. Glucose is only found in urine when blood sugar levels are moderately to very elevated. Urine testing will detect the most severe cases of diabetes, especially if you do multiple tests, don’t assume that because your dwarf or Chinese hamster has a negative urine glucose test that they can safely eat sugars.

Hence, my approach is that all Chinese and Russian dwarf hamsters should be considered prediabetic (having either reduced insulin production or insulin resistance) unless from a line with no incidence of diabetes and should be fed with that in mind. I do not recommend making fruits a regular part of the diet of these hamsters and sugary treats are never a good idea.

Poisonous plants

Many garden or wild plants are poisonous to you and/or your hamsters. Assume that any plant is dangerous until you can find definite evidence to the contrary. Also, never feed unidentified plants. Some of the most common poisonous plants are:

Aconitum/wolfsbane
Aloe vera
Angel’s trumpet
Buttercups
Daffodils
Deadly nightshade
Desert rose
Elderberry
Foxgloves
Hyacinths
Hydrangeas
Lilies
Lords-and-ladies
Mandrake
Mistletoe
Monkshood
Oak
Oleander
Pennyroyal
Philodendron
Poison hemlock
Ragwort
Rhododendron
Tulips
Water hemlock
Wisteria
Yew

This list is very much not exhaustive!


1. Parsley, WebMD
2. Selenium, National Institutes of Health
3. What causes grape toxicity in dogs? Playdough might have led to a breakthrough, American Animal Hospital Association
4. Update of the Scientific Opinion on opium alkaloids in poppy seeds, European Food Safety Authority
5. The toxicity of Mexican poppy (Argemone mexicana L) seeds to rats, Veterinary and human toxicology
6. Mexican poppy: What you should know, Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development
7. What Are the PH Levels of Some Common Fruits?, Reference.com
8.Lettuce, iceberg (includes crisphead types), raw, USDA FoodData Central
9. Lettuce, cos or romaine, raw, USDA FoodData Central
10. Spinach, raw, USDA FoodData Central
11. Cucumber, with peel, raw, USDA FoodData Central
12. Kale, raw, USDA FoodData Central
13. Cabbage, chinese (pak-choi), raw, USDA FoodData Central
14. Arugula, raw, USDA FoodData Central
15. Theobromine poisoning, Wikipedia
16. Watch It Grow: Esophageal Impaction With Chia Seeds, Official journal of the American College of Gastroenterology
17. Persin, Wikipedia
18. Tomatine, Wikipedia
19. Solanine, Wikipedia
20. Onions Are Toxic To Dogs, Pet Poison Helpline
21. Rhubarb Uses, Benefits & Dosage, Drugs.com Herbal Database
22. Cyanide Content of Sorghum Sprouts, Journal of Food Science
23. Cyanide content of two Nigerian local sprouted millet cultivars, International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition
24. Forestomach and Kidney Carcinogenicity of Caffeic Acid in F344 Rats and C57BL/6N × C3H/HeN F1 Mice, Cancer Research Journal
25.Optimization of extraction technology for determination of caffeic and chlorogenic acid in dandelion, Banat’s Journal of Biotechnology
26. A survey of the nutritional and haemagglutination properties of legume seeds generally available in the UK, British Journal of Nutrition
27. The Chinese Hamster as a Model for the Study of Diabetes Mellitus
28. Short-term effects of graded levels of theobromine in laboratory rodents
29. Surgical removal of the pregastric pouch reduces voluntary lactose consumption in golden hamsters

[WorldofHamsters]

Oh wow great job! This is a wonderful resource

Two things I’d like to add is that hamsters have a pre gastric pouch that breaks down lactose https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8451306/ and that hamsters are actually more resistant to theobromine than rats

“ Hamsters and mice were much more resistant to theobromine than were rats. A decrease in growth and in thymic weights occurred only at the highest dose levels of theobromine and testicular and thymic changes were completely absent in hamsters. Testicular changes in mice were seen only at dietary theobromine concentrations which produced considerable mortality.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 8X79902850

[daisy]

Oh wow great job! This is a wonderful resource

Two things I’d like to add is that hamsters have a pre gastric pouch that breaks down lactose https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8451306/ and that hamsters are actually more resistant to theobromine than rats

“ Hamsters and mice were much more resistant to theobromine than were rats. A decrease in growth and in thymic weights occurred only at the highest dose levels of theobromine and testicular and thymic changes were completely absent in hamsters. Testicular changes in mice were seen only at dietary theobromine concentrations which produced considerable mortality.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 8X79902850

Thank you! I will have a look at those articles and update the post when I get a chance.

[Kikya]

Daisy, thank you for this terrific post! Stickied!

Here is a LIST of available seed mixes too.

[Little Hammy Moon]

Thank you so much, Daisy! This list will be my go to one every time I wonder if something is safe for Justin

[asterism]

A little while back I compiled a spreadsheet of things I can feed my hamster (Snowpea), based on HamsterHideout's safe foods list-- I just learned that the site closed, so I figured I'd send the spreadsheet here just in case any information was missing!

Here it is, let me know if the link doesn't work!

[Little Hammy Moon]

A little while back I compiled a spreadsheet of things I can feed my hamster (Snowpea), based on HamsterHideout's safe foods list-- I just learned that the site closed, so I figured I'd send the spreadsheet here just in case any information was missing!

Here it is, let me know if the link doesn't work!

The link works perfectly fine

[daisy]

I have incorporated the papers linked by WorldofHamsters into the article and also added a section on the diabetic-prone species and sugars. Please comment if you have any suggestions, comments, criticisms or disagreements!

[Happyhammies26]

This is a list of safe and unsafe foods for your hamster. It is not exhaustive, so please don't assume that because a food isn't on it that it is necessarily safe or unsafe. Ask on the forum if in doubt. Thanks to Kikya for allowing me to post this. I originally wrote this for The Gerbil Forum and have adapted it for hamsters.

Hi! This is amazing! I also know that nectarines are safe every week or so (has higher sugar content so I believe it is recommended 1 slice per month for robo and Chinese)

[xanderxue]

Safe foods

Seeds and grains

Millet

Unsafe/unrecommended foods and controversial foods

Sprouted sorghum and millet

Sprouted sorghum and millet

Sprouted millet and sorghum contain cyanide. The exact concentration depends on the variety, with sorghum being the most dangerous. 100g of dry sorghum seed sprouted for 3 days could contain enough cyanide to kill an adult human (22), so I would recommend not feeding sprouted sorghum to your hamster. Sprouted millet tends to contain much less cyanide (23) and is likely to be less dangerous, but to be absolutely safe, it may be best avoided along with sprouted sorghum.

Oh no, I just bought millet spray! Can you go into more details about this?