Cashews are delicious and loved by one and all. Your hamster is not going to be the odd one out, though. Any nut is a very popular snack, and people love snacking on nuts.
But, Can Hamsters Eat Cashews?
YES! You can feed cashews to your Hamsters. Though giving nuts to the hamsters is not very recommended. It may not be significantly safe as hamsters are tiny creatures and do not have a vast digestive system like humans. Still, you can give 1 or 2 non-flavored cashews to your hamster as a treat.
Cashews are usually bumped up with a lot of fats, so checking the quantity will keep your hamster healthy and safe.
Please do not give them vast amounts of cashews. This may lead them to gain a lot of weight and make your hamster unhealthy. Nuts and seeds are an essential part of the hamster diet.
Benefits of Cashews for your Hamsters
Every food has some good and bad effects, the same with cashews. Now let’s learn the benefits and risks of feeding cashews to your hamsters.
- Cashews are stuffed with Vitamin B, which gives your hamster a prolific amount of energy to play all day long and remain active and, in turn, healthy.
- Cashews come with excellent Vitamin K, which helps blood clotting and protects your hamster even if they have some cuts or protect them internally.
- Cashews also contain Vitamin E, contributing to excellent skin quality. Vitamins are essential in any creature’s life.
- It comes with Iron which helps in the easy transportation of oxygen by the red blood cells in your hamster’s little body.
- Cashews are equipped with Copper, and it helps to protect the heart of your little furry ball.
Cashews help to strengthen the hamster’s vision and prevent any night blindness or cataract. Cashews help get rid of toxins from the body and prevent diseases like arthritis, cancer, etc.
Risk of Feeding Cashew To Hamsters
If you are learning about so many benefits, then it will be best to learn about all the risks involved in intaking cashews.
- Hamsters will love to have cashews, but you have to take care of a few things, like the constraint of obesity, diabetes, and nutrient problems. Your hamster can likely become obese by intaking a lot of cashews as it has a lot of calories.
- If it grows fat, it will become lazy, not move much, and feel lethargic enough to do anything, which may cause diabetes. Moderating the number of cashews may reduce the risk of damage.
- Cashew is quite heavy as food; hence, they may fill the tummy of your hamster and not let them eat anything else, causing a lack of nutrients in the body.
How To Serve Cashews To Your Hamsters?
First, remember one thing, you can easily give food to your little hamster from a plate, but it will be great if you feed it from your hand sometimes. The cashew nuts you want to serve your hamster should be unsalted, unsweetened, and natural.
Give them treats from your hands, and they will love you more. They will start feeling secure around you. For any creature in this world, happiness starts from the stomach.
You should make your hamster feed on cashews so that they can understand that you are close to them, love them, and start loving you, which will help them socialize more.
If you are introducing them to the cashew for the first time, feed them a very small quantity and see if they like it.
Sometimes they just keep the food in the pouches of their cheeks; check that as well.
If they like the food, give them more but not exceed a certain proportion they should get. If they don’t like it, they will not eat it, and you should not force them to eat cashew anymore.
Another important factor is washing away the things you give them to eat. The cashews must be washed to remove toxins or chemicals in their body.
Though this is highly unlikely, being safe is better than being sorry. You should wash off the cashews once before feeding them so that no harmful things go to their stomach and cause stomach sickness.
How Many Cashews To Serve a Hamster?
The amount of cashew you feed the hamsters depends on their species, size, health conditions, and how hungry your hammy is. There are Syrians and Dwarfs. Syrian Hamsters are the biggest ones with the largest appetite and capability to digest.
So, giving them the most amount is best, like an entire cashew a week. If you talk, the dwarf variety can be given one cashew a month.
Though these are very safe limits, there may be little variations in the amount. But the variation can be very, very little.
The dwarf varieties like Winter white dwarf, Chinese hamster, and Campbell Dwarf Hamster should not be provided many cashews because they are small and they won’t be able to handle too much food.
Can Hamsters Eat Salted Cashews?
NO! Salted Cashews are not at all suitable for the hamsters. It is not good to feed salt to your little hamsters or any other flavor of cashews. You should never feed them any salted nuts, not only cashews.
Salts increase the risk of heart and vascular diseases and hence reduce any hamster’s lifespan by a minimum of 30%, which is never expected and wanted.
Salt can even cause enormous problems in digestion, and once they are given the taste of salt, they will keep on wanting salted food, which will result in massive damage to your hamster.
Stick to the plain roasted variety without adding salts or flavors.
Can Hamsters Eat Raw Cashews?
No, never think of feeding your hamster raw cashews from the plants. That is not only harmful to a hamster, but it is poisonous enough for humans as well. So, be careful not to give completely raw cashews to your hamsters. Raw cashew contains a poisonous substance named urushiol.
But if you are talking about the raw cashews sold in stores for eating, then you can feed that to your furry friend because that is some way processed to remove anything harmful and has been steamed.
These types of cashews are very healthy and one of the varieties most preferable by the hamsters. Give this to your little ball of fur so they can enjoy and get all nutritional value without any problem.
- Read More: Can Hamsters have Carrots?