The majority of rodents that are commonly kept as pets really have seen a surge in their popularity over the last couple of months with rats, mice, and hamsters all seeing their demand as pets increasing.
Hamsters in general have been seeing a slight upward trend in their popularity for a number of years now too resulting in more and more people who are first time hamster owners asking various questions about their pet hamsters.
The majority of the questions that we do see from the community about caring for pet hamsters do tend to be about what you can and can’t feed your pet hamsters with a commonly asked question being if hamsters can eat cheerios or not.
We have seen a number of discussions on social media about feeding hamsters cheerios and other types of cereal with most of the information in these discussions on social media being incorrect and potentially causing your pet hamster harm if you follow it.
With so many people who have a pet hamster reaching out and asking for advice about giving their hamster cheerios and much of the advice that we see offered on social media being incorrect, we decided to go over the topic in our own dedicated article.
Our hope is that we will be able to offer more accurate information on the advantages and disadvantages of feeding your pet hamsters cheerios.
Can Hamsters Eat Cheerios?
The majority of hamsters healthy adult hamsters are able to have a small number of cheerios each week without issue with cheerios often making an excellent treat food option for hamsters.
Most hamsters seem to really enjoy the taste of cheerios and will often be visibly excited when they know that they are about to be given cheerios to eat.
The problem with cheerios is that they do have a huge amount of refined sugar in them that is far too high for a hamster to be eating them on a regular basis.
This is why we feel that regular hamster treats are a much better option than cheerios for your pet hamster as they have a much lower change of causing problems with your hamster’s blood sugar levels.
Still, due to cheerios being such a popular breakfast cereal for so many people, many of our readers will have cheerios to hand and be able to give them to their pet hamster without having to order a new product in.
This is why so many people use cheerios as a treat food for their hamster as a part of a balanced diet when the bulk of their pet hamsters food is made up of a high-quality hamster food that can meet your hamster’s nutritional needs.
How Many Cheerios Can A Hamster Eat?
A hamster should be given a maximum of ten cheerios per week with the cheerios being spread out throughout the week with no more than three cheerios being given to a hamster in a single sitting.
This keeps the blood sugar levels of your hamster more stable while also allowing your hamster to eat regular hamster foods to get the vitamins and minerals it requires.
One common strategy that can work is to just give your hamster one cheerio per day and max its cheerio intake out at seven cheerios per week. This usually allows you to integrate other suitable hamster treats into your pet hamsters diet as required too.
Some staple hamster foods are often deficient in the vitamins and minerals that hamsters require too with many pet hamsters being nutritionally deficient so people add hamster multivitamin into their pets diets too.
If you are looking to add something like cheerios to your hamster’s diet, even just as a treat with a single cheerio being given to your hamster each day then looking to integrate a multivitamin into your hamster’s diet can be worth it.
Although cheerios are calorie-dense, they have minimal vitamins and minerals in them creating a problem as the more cheerios your hamster eats, the less regular food it is likely to eat.
What Should You Feed Your Hamster Instead Of Cheerios?
Cheerios can fit into your hamster’s diet without any major issues if you plan out the diet of your hamster and base it around a weekly food plan.
Still, there are much better treat options for your pet hamster that have a better nutrient profile such as apple, carrot, spinach, cucumber, cress, pear, and melon.
All of them tend to offer a better treat food for your pet hamster due to being just as tasty as cheerios while also containing their own vitamins and minerals too.
You can also go with regular hamster treats if you want something particularly tasty for your pet hamster as a treat instead of cheerios that still offers it some nutritional value too with a better macronutrient profile.
If you do go with one of the main fruit or vegetable alternatives to cheerios for your hamster’s diet then some people will chop the food up and add it to their hamster’s main food.
This can sometimes offer the advantage of encouraging your hamster to eat more of its main meals due to having it treat foods mixed in there but some hamsters are crafty enough to pick the treat foods out of the other food and just eat that.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over if hamsters can eat cheerios or not to a close. We hope that we have been able to help clear up how often you should give your hamster cheerios as well as how many cheerios you should give your pet hamster each week. Just keep in mind though, just because your pet hamster can eat cheerios, does not mean that it should as they are a tasty treat but offer little to nothing in terms of vitamins and minerals compared to other suitable food sources.
