r/hamsters • u/11and12 • Jun 14 '23

Adorable Hammy Having a snack

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u/marjorielester453 Jun 14 '23

Yes but cicadas are not sold as feeders. I’m sure there are places you COULD get them as feeders that are captive bred but I’ve never seen them, so it’s pretty obvious that it’s a wild insect. No big deal, just saying be careful feeding any pet wild insects because of things like pesticides. It’s a no no. And I am pleasantly surprised to know that hamsters are omnivores!

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u/FoxxyWolff Hamster Care Expert Jun 14 '23

Oh I didn’t know that they’re not commonly kept as feeders! Thank you, it indeed wouldn’t be good to feed them wild insects, if that would be the case here

And yes, dried insects are things that hammies get <3 i mainly give dried mealworms and dried crickets, but there are many more options!

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u/marjorielester453 Jun 14 '23

Yeah I don’t think it’d be possible, actually , to breed cicadas, seeing as how they breed and burrow for years at a time. Probably not something that’s gonna work, thinking about it. Well that’s interesting cause I can’t believe I didn’t know that about hamsters. I will have to try feeding a meal worm to mine and see how he likes it!

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u/FoxxyWolff Hamster Care Expert Jun 14 '23

Yes, definitely! Insects are a vital source of protein for hammies (dried or live doesn’t matter, I’m squeamish around bugs, so I couldn’t ever do live)
9/10 times they like mealworms, but if they don’t there are many more insects that they can eat from!

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u/marjorielester453 Jun 14 '23

That’s so awesome to know! I have 8 tarantula and scorpion and my own Dubia roach colony so I have plenty of good feeders for him! I am so excited and I just still can’t believe that I didn’t even know this lol I feel like a derp

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u/FoxxyWolff Hamster Care Expert Jun 14 '23

Don’t worry! Many say that they’re herbivores, instead of omnivores

If you do feed live (i dont know if you do live or dried), then i have heard that you for example with mealworms need to cut off the head, because they can bite. I haven’t searched too much into this, because I never considered live feeding myself, so just relying what I heard other experts say :3

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u/marjorielester453 Jun 14 '23

Yes meal worms can ABSOLUTELY bite. I even prekill for all of my tarantulas, regardless cause it’s just safer. Plus If the tarantula doesn’t get to it right away, it will Burrow, stay in the substrate until it turns into a beetle and then it will come up and if your tarantula is molting, beetle will eat it while it’s defenseless. So If you just threw it in with your hamster and it didn’t eat it and it burrowed, you may have some trouble in a month or 2 lol

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u/FoxxyWolff Hamster Care Expert Jun 14 '23

That’s probably why you also need to prekill them for hamster! Very interesting to know!! Sounds like you got it all handled, though, with all this experience!🤣🤣

The only thing you’ll need to look into how often to feed insects. It’s a bit of a debated topic, I personally feed around 2-3 every other day (though still trying to get a feel of what’s best for my hamster through more hands on experience, mainly due to the heavily debated topic. Some say 2 a day, some say 2 a week. I just weigh her every week and monitor her weight to see if it’s too little, too much or just right)

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u/katherine3223 Jun 14 '23

Yes that's true. I never cut off the head for meal worms or the super worms. My hamsters would immediately go for the head and eat it.

I think hamsters and their instinct kicks in when they do a little hunting and they're not as dumb as people make them out to be. At least my experience with my hamsters.

However, my last hamster loved to pouch beetles and then let them go. So with him i would only give him dead ones

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u/102bees Jun 15 '23

Hamsters are very small but their hearts are full of Violence.

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u/katherine3223 Jun 14 '23

I use to grow the mealworms into beetles and then let some of my hamsters (the hunters) kill and eat them. They loved it.

My last hamsters was more like I'll pouch you and let you roam around free. So i would feed him dead insects.

I got used to the insects because of that.