10 Best Hamster Foods in 2025 – Reviews & Top Picks

Although they’re rodents, hamsters must follow a strict diet and nutrition schedule. Failure to do so can lead to illnesses such as GI infections, diabetes, or death.

Hamsters are omnivores and require a delicate balance of carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and protein. The real challenge is ensuring the proportions are right for their little bodies. Too much of any one element can lead to complications.

Fortunately, you don’t have to handcraft your hamster’s diet. Plenty of suitable hamster foods are available, but which is best for your hamster? It can be a pretty tough choice with so many options. However, we’ve done the hard work for you and compiled a list of reviews of the best hamster foods. You’re sure to find the best choice for your hamster here.

A Quick Glance at our Favorites in 2025

Rating	Image	Product	Details
Best Overall		Higgins Sunburst Gourmet Blend Hamster Food	Hamster-specific food mix No artificial flavors, coloring, or preservatives Made with real all-natural ingredients	CHECK PRICE
Best Value		Kaytee Forti-Diet Pro Health Hamster Food	Cheap and bulk buy options are available Provides omega-3 fatty acids Hamster-specific food	CHECK PRICE
Premium Choice		Oxbow Garden Select Hamster Food	Non-GMO Complete and balanced mix Has yellow peas, carrots, banana, and spinach	CHECK PRICE
		Oxbow Essentials Healthy Handfuls Hamster Food	Assorted hays and grains help to maintain hamster digestive health Fortified with extra essential vitamins	CHECK PRICE
		Kaytee Fiesta Gourmet Variety Diet Hamster Food	Full of variety Rich in omega-3 fatty acids	CHECK PRICE

The 10 Best Hamster Foods

1. Higgins Sunburst Gourmet Blend Hamster Food – Best Overall

When taking care of your hamster’s nutrition, you can trust Higgins Sunburst Gourmet Blend Hamster Food to do the trick. It tops our list for a few reasons. First, it’s an all-plant-based blend of assorted flaked fruits, veggies, seeds, hay, and pre-cooked legumes.

This provides healthy DHA omega-3 fatty acids your hamster needs to maintain tip-top health. Second, there are no artificial preservatives or flavors. That way, you can feel confident about giving Higgins Sunburst to your hamster daily.

Also, an excellent textural mix with pellets and seeds ensures that your hamster stays engaged. Hamsters can be picky eaters, and this mix seems to target and eliminate that issue. Higgins is affordable and comes in a 2.5-pound bag that will last a long time.

All in all, we think this is the best overall hamster food available this year.

2. Kaytee Forti-Diet Pro Health Hamster Food – Best Value

If you’re looking for the best hamster food for the money, you’ll find it with Kaytee Forti-Diet Pro Health Hamster Food. You can buy a single 3-pound bag for cheaper than most other formulas that weigh less. You can also buy it in bulk if you’re raising a large number of hamsters with Kaytee’s 25-pound bag option.

This hamster food also provides excellent nutrition for your little furballs. It is fortified with healthy omega-3 fatty acids to promote good brain, heart, and eye health. Each component in the bag has an easy-to-eat texture for all hamsters.

3. Oxbow Garden Select Hamster Food – Premium Choice

Your hamsters deserve the best you can give them. So, it doesn’t hurt to provide them with a premium option. That’s when we turn to Oxbow Garden Select Hamster Food. It’s specially formulated hamster food that gives your little pets a balanced meal. Each flavor is picked to simulate a natural foraging environment. It’s non-GMO certified and fully developed in the United States.

However, Oxbow’s Garden Select is only for special occasions for a couple of reasons. First, it’s expensive. A 1.5-pound bag costs more than our top pick, which comes in a 2.5-pound bag. Second, its number one ingredient is Timothy hay. Timothy hay is more of a filler ingredient, and for the price point, we believe that there should be less filler.

4. Oxbow Essentials Healthy Handfuls Hamster Food

This is our second selection from Oxbow on this list. It’s crafted to mirror a hamster’s diet out in the wild. It’s a blend of Timothy hay, oats, and barley to help maintain a hamster’s proper nutrition and digestive function.

It’s also been fortified with vitamins C, A, and B-12 to boost your hamster’s immune system. While this mix is pretty good, we found it just a bit lacking. Like the other Oxbow formulas on this list, it’s primarily made up of Timothy hay. However, the Healthy Handfuls blend doesn’t incorporate the extra premium ingredients.

5. Kaytee Fiesta Gourmet Variety Diet Hamster Food

If you have a picky hamster, this might be your best option. Kaytee Fiesta Gourmet Variety Diet hamster food is chock full of variety that will appeal to even the pickiest eaters. Hamsters enjoy variety in their diets in the wild.

Kaytee Fiesta contains sunflower seeds, peanuts, bananas, corn, and much more. It’s all naturally preserved and rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which hamsters need for healthy heart and brain function.

However, this exciting blend isn’t necessarily hamster-specific. It’s more of a general mix for all rodents.

6. Tiny Friends Farm Hazel Hamster Food

Tiny Friends Farm Hazel Hamster Food is another excellent formula if your hamster is a picky eater. It includes dried maize, peanuts, seeds, peas, and pumpkins. It’s also suitable for diabetic hamsters since there’s no added sugar. Obese hamsters can also take advantage of this.

However, the Tiny Friends blend needs a little help in the nutrition department. To ensure your hamster gets everything it needs, you’ll need to supplement this food with protein blocks.

7. Brown’s Tropical Carnival Food & Treat Hamster Food

As far as your hamster is concerned, this may be the most delicious food on the list. Brown’s Tropical Carnival Food & Treat is advertised as an all-in-one combo with all the essential vitamins and minerals needed. And while this is sure to entice almost any hamster, it is more of a treat than real food.

The blend has added beneficial bacteria to help support proper digestion and vitamins and nutrients to make it healthier than other treats. However, you may be turned off by the artificial coloring agents and dyes used in this mix.

8. Brown’s Tropical Carnival Natural Fortified Daily Hamster Food

Brown’s Tropical Carnival Natural Fortified hamster food is a pretty decent option for hamsters. Unlike Brown’s previous entry on this list, it’s more food than a treat. However, it doesn’t contain any filler seeds or hay.

Instead, the mix contains ZOO-Vital biscuits crafted with natural antioxidants and nutrients. It doesn’t contain any artificial dyes or flavors. However, this blend contains a large amount of sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds are high in fat and can be attributed to hamster obesity.

9. Vitakraft VitaSmart Complete Nutrition Hamster Food

Vitakraft VitaSmart Complete Nutrition isn’t necessarily the most attractive or nutritious hamster food. It’s a more generic blend that might not appeal to picky eaters. However, it has plenty of great fiber that your hamster needs.

The real issue with Vitakraft is a significant lack of protein. To ensure your hamster receives the proper nutrition, you must supplement VitaKraft with lab blocks.

10. Kaytee Food From the Wild Hamster Food

This hamster food claims to be inspired by a hamster’s ancestral feeding habits. Kaytee’s Food From the Wild blend contains hand-selected rose petals, sunflower seeds, pumpkin, and more. And the price tag agrees — it’s a relatively expensive hamster food.

That’s why it’s so disappointing that it’s primarily dusty pellets. The formula has very little variety in shape, color, or ingredient. Also, in an attempt to keep things “all-natural,” there’s too little protein and too much fiber. However, there are no added sugars, which could make this a suitable food for diabetic hamsters.

Buyer’s Guide: Finding the Best Hamster Food

Hamsters can be picky eaters. Your hamster will ignore the food if something isn’t shaped right or tastes a bit off, and some will do it to the point of starvation. Other hamsters will throw their food around if they don’t like it.

So, how do you know which formula they’ll enjoy? Finding the ideal brand is tough, but we’ll discuss some of the various types available and what makes up a good hamster food.

Different Types of Hamster Food

There are two primary types of hamster food you should be aware of when shopping around.

Hamster Pellets

Pellets are a pretty standard option when it comes to feeding your hamsters. They’re pre-formed to fit comfortably in your hamster’s hands and textured to entice eating. However, they lack the variety that many hamsters crave. This could turn hamsters off from eating them, but pellets can be your best bet for ensuring your hamster gets all of their daily nutrition. Because they are a single pellet, there is no chance for hamsters to pick and choose specific components.

Seed Mix

Seed mixes are great options for more selective eaters. They often provide a wide variety of seeds, nuts, hays, and other nibbles for your hamster to enjoy. There’s bound to be at least one component of seed mix your little hammy will take to.

Seed mixes can provide essential nutrients to your hamster. However, if your hamster only picks through and eats specific components, they will not receive the proper intake. Your hamster may overload on fats but not fulfill their protein requirements.

What To Look For In A Hamster Food?

What makes good hamster food great? Well, there are several factors that you should be on the lookout for when shopping for your next hamster food.

Protein

Hamsters need at least 16%-17% protein to sustain a healthy lifestyle. However, they are more likely to reject higher protein food, so you must find a way to sneak it into their diet.

Fat

Hamsters also need a little bit of fat in their diets. If proteins are the hardest for your hamster to eat, fats are generally the easiest. Nuts and seeds are loaded with fat, and most hamsters love them. However, they should only be occasional treats since serving too many can lead to weight gain and obesity.

Fiber

Fiber is crucial to keep the hamster’s digestive system healthy, and it’s particularly important for older hamsters. Hay and oats are loaded with fiber.

Salt

You may think that hamsters need to minimize their salt intake. However, it helps your hamster retain water, and most pellets have the recommended amount. If you buy salt-free food, you must equip your hamster’s cage with a salt lick.

Sugar

Hamsters are prone to diabetes, but some breeds are more susceptible than others. That’s why you need to be careful when regulating their sugar intake. Fruits contain a lot of sugar and should only be offered occasionally.

Variety

In the wild, hamsters thrive on many types of food. They’re omnivores that consume plants and meat, and most enjoy having a large variety. Choosing a hamster food with good variety may encourage your hamster to eat more than blends with little to no variation.

Our Hamster Foods Selection Process

The hamster foods we reviewed in this article were chosen by PangoVet’s writers and editors, in collaboration with our experienced veterinary team, based on personal experience with the product, knowledge and expertise about the pet’s care needs, brand reputation, and reviews across multiple retail outlets from other customers that have purchased and used the product. The combination of these factors allows us to gather a wide range of information to help you choose only the best hamster foods and ensure you have the most accurate information about these products to promote proper care, health, and well-being of your beloved pets.

Why Trust PangoVet?

PangoVet’s licensed and experienced veterinarians have a knowledge base that extends to all kinds of pets—furry, scaly, and feathered—and want only the best for pets of all shapes and sizes. We also have experienced writers and editors who are pet owners with a variety of different pets, and we love our pets as much as you do. We recognize pets as part of our family. We make sure to only choose products from reputable brands highly rated by customers as well as products that we have personal experience with, to ensure that every hamster food featured in this review is high-quality and safe for your pets.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, we’ve helped you find a hamster food for your furry friend. Our top overall pick, Higgins Sunburst Gourmet Blend Hamster Food, is an all-natural formula with essential nutrients, and the Kaytee Forti-Diet Pro Health Hamster Food is an affordable alternative.  Finding the right food for your hamster requires a lot of trial and error. By understanding your hamster’s personality and preferences, you can find a nutritious formula they’ll love!

See Also:

• Best Dwarf Hamster Foods – Reviews & Top Picks
• Can Hamsters Eat Popcorn? Vet-Approved Nutritional Safety Information

Featured Image Credit: justus_joseph, Pixabay