Oxbow Garden Select Gerbil & Hamster Food

Good Combined with Foraging Mix

Unlike the other Oxbow hamster formula, the Garden Select formula actually does not have hay as the first ingredient, as I see other reviews here saying. I like to provide my hamster with a combination of a formulated pellet and a foraging mix (I don't say seed mix as that implies something like a bag of bird seed. I rotate through a few mixes on Etsy that have not just seeds, but also dried veggies, herbs, and protein sources). Giving unlimited amounts of foraging mix allows them to only eat their favorite parts, while strictly limiting their foraging mix encourages them to eat all the different pieces, but runs the risk of not giving your hamster enough food. I like to provide a constant supply of a nutritionally complete, albeit perhaps not as tasty, pellet; that way, I can carefully limit their foraging mix without worrying that they aren't getting enough food. Something like this, Oxbow mouse food, or Mazuri all work well for this purpose. I personally wouldn't feed this or any other pelleted hamster food by itself.