re feeding

Question
Hi Jedediah,
 we are new owners of a hamster-no previous experience of having hamsters or other pets.We have a russian dwarf who is now 11 weeks old-we got her when she was 9 weeks old.Our problem is we don't think she is eating enough.She is perfectly lively and seems well but she seems to hoard all the food we give her and doesn't seem to eat very much of it at all.We are giving her a commercial mixed feed called "Harry hamster food" and give her approx 10grms per day.We have also offered her lettuce,carrot,cucumber,apple and banana but she had absolutely no interest in these-we left them in her cage but then as she didn't eat them I had to remove them for fear they would go off.Is this abnormal?? She also seems to have multiple beds/sleeping places-sometimes she sleeps in her house but she has also made  2 other little nests for herself with tissue-is this usual.Help!! Thanks for your time.
                   Helen and Lily Rafferty

Answer
Dear Helen,
thank you for your question.
I looked up the food you offer and I would recommend switching to another brand or mixing the basic food yourself, it's not hard. The Harry hamster food contains a lot of stuff dwarf hamsters shouldn't have on a daily basis or at least not in that amount (peanuts, sunflower seeds, corn) and there are no small seeds.
Dwarf hamsters should have a diet that is mainly small seeds with only about 1/3 grains. You can mix your own by using one part parakeet seeds, one part canary food and one part grains, like a six grain mixture you can buy at health food shops. Here's a picture of the homemade mix I feed to my dwarf hamster, one teaspoon per day (about 5 grams):
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r294/jedediah667/hamster/IMG_3145.jpg

Many dwarf hamsters are not that interested in fresh food. I have had better luck with leafy greens and wild plants and flowers like dandelion, daisies, ribwort, goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria), marigolds, pansies, nasturtiums ect. than with vegetables. Since dwarf hamsters are susceptible to diabetes and other disease that may be promoted by too much sugar in their diet, they shouldn't have any fruit at all (it's also not part of their natural diet). Animal protein should be offered daily, for example live or dried insects (mealworms, silkworms, locusts, crickets).

I would recommend that you monitor her weight. A healthy adult dwarf hamster weighs between 30 and 40 grams, although very small or very big hamsters may of course weigh less/more. It's normal that hamsters store a big amount of their food and if you clean out her cage, it's better to just leave the food store alone or just check it for anything that may have spoiled. It stresses them out very much when it's removed.

The multiple sleeping places are also normal. If she stores her food in the house, make sure it's big enough that she still fits in comfortably with her nest, but otherwise I wouldn't worry about this. I don't know if you can get them in Ireland, but there are hamster houses with several chambers that allow the hamster to have separated "rooms" for the food store and for the nest like they would have in the wild. Here's a picture:
http://img1.imagebanana.com/img/727f1ke/ksc324.JPG
You can build such a house yourself if you can't buy one.

I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer