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Hamsters have a hearty urge for food for varied meals, however fruits appear to be one in every of their favorites. Most hamsters won’t ever flip down a candy and engaging fruit, even when it’s not that good for them to eat.
Pomegranate is a sort of berry that has a whole lot of edible seeds (arils) recognized for his or her candy, but barely tart style. Though pomegranate is excessive in important nutritional vitamins and minerals, hamster homeowners would possibly need to suppose twice earlier than feeding this fruit. Pomegranates are excessive in natural acids, making them a much less superb fruit for hamsters to eat.
What Ought to Hamsters Eat?
As omnivorous rodents, hamsters take pleasure in consuming a different weight loss program containing completely different plant and animal-based elements. They need to be getting round 70% of their nutrient consumption from a industrial weight loss program that has been specifically formulated for hamsters. 20% of their weight loss program may be made up of recent greens, hay and a few proteins like mealworms or boiled egg. The ultimate 10% is for treats, comparable to recent fruit, seeds or nuts.
Though fruits look like a wholesome snack or deal with, they’re typically very excessive in sugar, which is why they need to solely be fed in very small portions to your tiny hamster pal.
Is Pomegranate Protected?
The seeds and pores and skin of the pomegranate aren’t recognized to have any poisonous properties that might make them unsafe for hamsters to eat. Subsequently, your hamster is unlikely to die or fall severely sick in the event that they ate a couple of pomegranate seeds. Regardless of pomegranates being non-toxic for hamsters to eat, it nonetheless doesn’t make the fruit good for them to eat repeatedly.
Why Ought to You Keep away from Feeding It?
Pomegranates are comparatively excessive in sugar, fructose, and water which could be troublesome on your hamster to digest. This is the reason some hamsters could expertise a bout of diarrhea and digestive upset after consuming pomegranate seeds. Remember the fact that diarrhea places your hamster vulnerable to dehydration, so monitor your hamster for indicators of diarrhea a couple of hours after they eat pomegranate.
The juice of the fruit is excessive in natural acids comparable to oxalic, punicic, citric, and malic acid, which aren’t good for hamsters to ingest. These acids may be irritating to your hamster’s mouth and may erode their tooth enamel over time. Hamsters shouldn’t be consuming extremely acidic fruits like lemon, grapefruit, pomegranates, and limes as a result of they might trigger digestive upset.
Well being Advantages
One of many predominant causes you may need deliberate to feed pomegranate to your hamster is due to the fruit’s potential well being advantages and dietary worth.
Dietary Worth of 0.5 cup (87 grams) of pomegranate:
| Water: | 67.8 grams (g) |
| Carbohydrates: | 16.3 g |
| Fiber: | 3.48 g |
| Vitamin C: | 8.87 milligrams (mg) |
| Vitamin E: | 0.522 mg |
| Potassium: | 205 mg |
| Zinc: | 0.304 mg |
As we are able to see from the desk above, pomegranates are a pure supply of important nutritional vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and insoluble fiber. Though these vitamins are helpful to hamsters, they need to be obtained from their predominant weight loss program somewhat than from acidic fruits.
Higher and Safer Alternate options
If you wish to provide fruit to your hamster as a nutritious snack, there are higher and extra importantly safer alternate options to pomegranates. Small pieces of apples, bananas, strawberries, and blueberries are among the many many fruits secure for hamsters to eat carefully. These fruits are additionally wealthy in nutritional vitamins and minerals, however decrease in natural acids than pomegranates.
Conclusion
Pomegranates could be non-toxic for hamsters to eat, however they don’t seem to be really helpful to feed contemplating there are higher alternate options. Much like citrus fruits, which must also be prevented when feeding your hamster, pomegranates are very acidic. As they don’t seem to be important to your hamster’s well being, we’d suggest selecting from one of many many hamster-safe fruit choices on the market, and hold that pomegranate for your self.
Featured Picture Credit score: Peggy_Marco, Pixabay
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