Oxbow Essentials Healthy Handfuls Gerbil & Hamster Food

By Oxbow
Rated 4.1083 out of 5 stars
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$40.21Chewy Price
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$46.99Chewy Price
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About This Item

  • Specially formulated to mirror a hamster/gerbils diet. This will ensure that your pet lives a healthy lifestyle. Completely balanced and nutritious.
  • Fortified with stabilized Vitamin C, A and B12. This helps ensure that your pet's health and immunity system are in tip-top shape.
  • Includes high-fiber Timothy hay meal that promotes healthy gastrointestinal health. Keep your pet's health at optimal level.
  • Hamsters and gerbils are omnivores, which means they eat meat and plant material.
  • This product uses farm-fresh timothy hay to provide the fiber content necessary to maintain intestinal health and prevent digestive upset.

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About Oxbow Essentials Food Treats

Oxbow's Flagship Line

Oxbow's Essentials line is the diet that set the bar for today's small pet nutrition. There's a unique food for a variety of small animals—chinchillas, guinea pigs, rabbits, mice, rats, hamsters and gerbils. These uniform pellets provide the right nutrients for each species with no artificial preservatives, colors or flavors.

Treats for Enrichment

In addition to their foods, Oxbow's healthy treats are rewarding for small animals and their owners. Simple Rewards are made with wholesome, natural ingredients like freeze-dried fruits and veggies, Timothy hay, and aromatic herbs. They're great for training, bonding or simply adding a little variety.

The Gold Standard of Small Pet Nutrition

An ideal small animal diet includes 20% fortified foods for herbivores and 75% for omnivores for essential vitamins and micronutrients. Oxbow's three fortified food lines are recommended by veterinarians worldwide because they're specially formulated to meet the unique needs of small animals—a true gold standard of nutrition.

More Premium Diets From Oxbow

NATURAL SCIENCE: INDIVIDUALIZED NUTRITION

Adult guinea pigs and rabbits can benefit from individualized maintenance diets with novel ingredients for variety and long-strand fiber from three grass hays.

BENE TERRA: AWARD-WINNING ORGANIC FOOD

Gives rabbits and guinea pigs the nutrients they would find in their natural environment with ingredients that come from certified organic farmers.

Shop Natural Science

Shop Bene Terra

About Oxbow

Family-owned and operated, Oxbow is passionately committed to helping small animals lead longer, healthier lives. Grown by experts on Oxbow's family of farms, their formulas and life-staged diets have defined the way small animals are fed today. From plant to pet, Oxbow products meet the highest standards time and time again.
Shop Oxbow Animal Health

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This Item - Oxbow Essentials Hamster Food & Gerbil Food All Natural Hamster & Gerbil Food, 15-lb bag
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Customer Rating
Rated 4.1083 out of 5 stars
120
Rated 3.3125 out of 5 stars
16
Rated 4.2647 out of 5 stars
34
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Price
$40.21Chewy Price
$23.15Chewy Price
$35.40Chewy Price
$49.99Chewy Price
$32.82Chewy Price
Autoship
$38.20Chewy Price
$21.99Chewy Price
$33.63Chewy Price
$47.49Chewy Price
$31.18Chewy Price
Top IngredientsTimothy Meal, Pearled Barley (Rolled), Oat Groats...Rolled Corn, Rolled Oat Groats, Rolled Barley...Timothy Grass Meal, Soybean Hulls, Wheat Middlings...Whole Brown Rice, Oat Groats, Wheat Bran...Alfalfa Meal, Soybean Hulls, Wheat Middlings...
Food FormPelletsSeeds, Grains, MixPelletsPelletsPellets
Health FeatureVitamins & Minerals, Digestive HealthDental & Breath Care—Vitamins & Minerals—
Small Pet TypeGerbil, HamsterHamster, GerbilRabbit, Guinea Pig, HamsterRatGuinea Pig
Special DietHigh Fiber——Low FatHigh Fiber, High-Protein

Questions & Answers

11 Customer Questions

How many servings per bag?
Answer by Chewy • Jun 30, 2017
The number of servings for your furry little one will depend on their size and age. For a small adult hamster, Oxbow recommends 1/8 cup per day, so the 1-pound bag would last about a month. For a large adult hamster or gerbil, they recommend 1/3 cup per day, so a 1-pound bag would provide about 2 weeks worth of servings. Little ones under 6 months, or pregnant or nursing hamsters or gerbils should be allowed unlimited access to food, so the servings would vary.
So I feed this to my hamster and every time i check his food bowl, the pellets are dust. Is that normal? I know he eats it but then after all I see is this bunch of green stuff
Answer by Chewy • May 18, 2018
Since this food is made with natural ingredients, the consistency of the pellets may vary. This food is made with ingredients such as oats, grains and hay making the pellets soft and easy to crumble. Hamsters are known to hoard and hide their food, particularly females or those housed with other hamsters. Be sure to check for stockpiles of food and adjust daily rations as required.
How many calories are in a serving for a hamster
Answer by Chewy • Nov 13, 2017
There are 210 calories per cup of this formula. Since it's recommended to give a hamster 1/8 cup, there would be 26.25 calories for a serving.
Is the Canola Meal and Canola Oil genetically modified?
Answer by Chewy • Oct 02, 2019
The canola meal and canola oil used in this hamster and gerbil food is non-GMO, however, not all of the ingredients in this recipe are certified non-GMO.

ReviewsWrite a Review

4.1
Rated 4.1083 out of 5 stars
120 Reviews
87%
Would recommend to a friend
1
12.5
13%
2
6.6667
7%
3
5.8333
6%
4
7.5
8%
5
67.5
68%

120 Customer Reviews

Rated 5 out of 5 stars
By 2ManyPets on Feb 17, 2022

Good for toothless gerbil

I have a gerbil missing all four front teeth and only has molars left. I have had to feed my gerbil a special diet of raw beef and thawed vegetable to keep him alive while searching for a more nutrient rich alternative. I have tried other food with pellets in them and they either turned to mush or didn't absorb enough water to be edible for him. The Oxbow Essential kibbles have a perfect texture when wet to pick up but not fall apart or be too firm to chew which makes it possible for him to still eat and keep hydrated since using a traditional water bottle is also difficult for him. Being that this food is balanced makes me feel so much better since he get all his nutrients from one source now.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars
By Laura on Apr 18, 2022

Scientist Reviews Oxbow Heathy Handfuls

Best offered in addition to a seed or muesli mix. Some hamsters love it, some are not interested. Great way to provide variety & balanced diet.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars
By 3Bostons on Feb 7, 2022

Great Food

We always buy from another pet store but its extremely hard to get this food and when we cant get it we can see he doesn't enjoy it as much. Thank God we started getting it from Chewy they always have it for him.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars
By 3littlepigs on Feb 8, 2022

Just the best brand

OXBOW is just the best brand. It's a little pricey and sort of boring. So we make sure we have some good snacks, but of over all health and main source of feed Oxbow is the way to go.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars
By Colleenbezek on Sep 9, 2021

No so tastey

My Teddy bear hamster doesn't seem to like these. Oxbow is normally a great product ( we purchase for our bunny ) so we decided to try for Teddy he will nibble a bite here and there but these stay in the food bowl he won't even take and hide them like he does with his normal food . So I don't recommend as a staple food maybe more of a treat. That is if yoyr furry friend will even eat them .

Rated 5 out of 5 stars
By MissK on Aug 2, 2021

Good Kibble

This food offers good nutrition for your hamster health. He loves it would recommend this to anyone

Rated 5 out of 5 stars
By oscarsmom on Jan 21, 2021

MY Hammies Love It

People keep leaving reviews about how other specific brands are better choices due to protein content; but when I look the the nutritional breakdown, they match Oxbow. My hamsters are healthy as can be and love this food. I prefer it over other choices due to the fact the hamsters will get picky and only eat what they like from the mixes. This food gives them a balanced diet no matter what. I haven't had a single hamster refuse to eat it, and I do give them other nutrients outside of it as well. Over all, it's a great product and I love the brand.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars
By Aubrey on Feb 6, 2021

not nutritional

I got this for my hamster at the beginning as i wasn’t sure what to feed ONLY because a lot of things changed since i last had a hamster. This food is NOT good! You can add it to your hamsters diet, but NOT alone. This is all hay, it will go right through your hamsters system. Oxbow doesn’t have the correct food for hamster as of now. They need seed!! Higgins sunburst is what i switched to. I also feed Mazuri Rat and Mouse blocks which provides a lot of nutritional value!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars
By monica on Dec 30, 2020

We recommend

This food works very well for my hamster. The kibble shape is important, I think. I bought a bag of the organic version of this food and it's shaped like pellets (versus circles). My hamster started jamming his cheeks with it and every time we'd play with him, he'd spit it out on us. He never does that with this food so we've been buying this one consistently for a long time. Our Russian White hamster is almost 2 years old now and seems to be going strong.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars
By Mataya on Jan 4, 2021

Great quality

This was the hamster food recommended to us at the pet store. It doesn't contain seeds or anything the hamster might pick and choose from. Just healthy, timothy grass and other nutrients. Our hamster loves it!