Sugar-free hamster food

dudara

I have a pair of dwarf hamsters, approx a year old. One of them has recently lost weight, is weeing a lot more than usual and is drinking a lot of water. I've been keeping dwarves for over 10 years and I'm pretty sure he's diabetic (I've had it once before).

Back then the vet recommended using sugar-free hamster food, and I think I was able to buy the Vitakraft brand.

Has anyone seen this, or equivalent, around Dublin pet shops? None of my local stores seem to have it

VonVix

Is Zooplus.ie any use for you? http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/rodents/food/hamster_food/jr_farm/330417

Don't have hamsters myself, hopefully someone else here has some ideas and can point you in the right direction.

Flibble

I use Burgess brand for my Syrian- it's the best quality I've i could find and I'm pretty sure there's no added sugar. You can only get it from Petstop I think, it's the only place I've seen it. They have one for dwarf hamsters too.

ForestFire

I get this one for our little fellow. Pretty sure it's sugar free but I'll check again. They have it in pet mania in galway but sometimes they only have the hamster version. I think a few of the online places do it too but minimum orders are normally about 25euro.

Burgess Dwarf Hamster Harvest Complete Food Mix 700g

Flibble

Snap forestfire

dudara

Thanks all. I'll be out and about tomorrow to try and find some.

I'm actually using Burgess at the moment, but it's not explicitly sugar-free (IIRC). I had great success last time with Vitakraft so I'm hoping to find find that again. Green bag, something like this

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01LZ80IR1/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1492376388&sr=8-5&keywords=sugar+free+hamster+food&dpPl=1&dpID=51K4OUMtU3L&ref=plSrch#immersive-view_1492376394916

Silverfish

The Vitakraft food has cane molasses in it, which is sugar - I used Harry hamster food

https://www.omlet.ie/shop/hamsters_and_gerbils/hamster_and_gerbil__food/11982/harry_hamster_food/

dudara

There is an explicitly sugar-free version, which is what I'm hoping to track down. The regular Vitalkraft is, as you say sugary.

ForestFire

It's probable not what your looking for but here is the ingredients from the one I have. It does not say sugar free anywhere, but I can't see sugar anywhere on ingredients, but I'm sure it's hidden in there somewhere, or naturally occurring.

dudara

I'm planning to drive to a few stores tomorrow, will let you all know how I get on

ForestFire

She's just up for the night now too

dudara

Gorgeous, love those mink coloured ones. Here's one of mine, eating some mealworms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVoSll2Xr_Q

dudara

Update, I found some sugar-free food for degus today in Petstop Nutgrove. I'll supplement it with mealworms etc for added protein. Let's see how he gets on.

Cherry Blossom

Good idea. Degus are very prone to diabetis and a normal degu diet should ideally be very low in sugar.

dudara

Just an update for anyone interested. He's been on the sugar free food now for two weeks and he's physically looking better. His coat is smoother, he's put on a bit of weight and he's not drinking as much water. He's also full of beans, even livelier than before.