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We all love to spoil our pets (some of us a little too much!), and often that takes the form of tasty little treats to brighten up their day and vary up their diet. This is especially true for hamsters, where giving your furry little friend a snack like this can serve as a valuable bonding experience to help you feel closer to them, and them to you.
What you always want to know when giving them that extra treat though is whether they even can eat them safely, whether they are good for them, and whether they would even want them in the first place.
Are walnuts safe for hamsters to eat?
Well good news first off, hamsters definitely can eat walnuts. Natural unadded to walnuts are completely safe for hamsters to eat, just make sure you give them a quick wash in case any nasty pesticides were used in their growing and you are good to go.
You do though want to make sure you only give your cuddly companion only walnuts that haven’t got additional flavouring or salting, and you don’t want to give them any walnut based products like walnut butter. These can all have added ingredients that are harmful to hamsters and so it is best to stay well clear. Stick to plain walnuts like these and you will be absolutely fine!
Are walnuts good for hamsters?
Like all things in life, this is a question of moderation. Walnuts as an occasional treat are absolutely wonderful sources of nutrients for your hamster and form an excellent addition to a healthy diet.
However, walnuts are high in fats, and so you want to make sure you do not overfeed your hamster with them, or they may end putting on a bit too much weight!
How much is too much will depend very much on your individual hamster, the rest of their diet and their breed, but in general larger breeds like Syrians can have walnuts a couple of times a week while you shouldn’t be feeding them to smaller dwarf hamsters more than once every two weeks or so. Just make sure to pay attention to your pet and adjust their diet based on how they are responding, and you will be absolutely fine.
Do hamsters like walnuts?
All of this wouldn’t mean much if hamsters didn’t actually enjoy this nutty treat in the first place. Thankfully though, they do!
They absolutely love tucking into walnuts, and you don’t have to worry about taking the shells off for them either, as they have great fun gnawing through them to get to the nut beneath. It is good for their teeth as well! No, simply give them whole walnuts in their shells like these and enjoy watching them feel absolutely spoilt. It’s what we do with ours and they just can’t get enough.
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