When talking about human favorite food, it usually means your pet can’t have it. So if you ask yourself a question of can hamsters eat pizza, it’s only natural to have doubts.
It’s the same thing with chocolate, coffee, or alcohol. But I have some great news for you – there are some instances where hamsters are allowed to eat pizza!
But, don’t rush to give your hammy a whole slice of pizza just yet. There are some rules that you’ll need to follow just to ensure the wellbeing of your pet and to make sure they don’t have tummy aches after this delicious meal.
So, if you want to learn how to prepare this delicious treat for your hammy (and maybe for yourself as well) and how to avoid some unwanted situations that require assistance from your hamster’s vet, keep on reading and find out!
Pizza – Number One On The Menu
Knowing that a big chunk of the population craves pizza regularly, I assume you’ve thought about sharing your favorite lunch meal with your pet. This isn’t such a bad idea if a few criteria are met beforehand.
All of these are easy to follow and simple to remember, so keep your eyes peeled and maybe write some crucial information down. Now let’s get into the things you need to know about pizza before giving it to your hamster.
Pizza Anatomy
People usually laugh when I tell them I’ve developed pizza anatomy to ensure I always give my hammy the parts of the pizza that are safe for them to nibble on.
According to this freely developed science, pizza has two main parts – the crust and the center.
Hamsters usually get along just fine with the crust of the pizza and don’t have any digestive problems after eating a small amount of it. You should keep this in mind as some people don’t like the crust, so instead of wasting it, you can save it for your pet.
The other part is the center of the pizza or the part where all the condiments and the toppings are. Usually, there’s some cheese and tomato sauce, but we’ll talk about those two later. The center of the pizza can be risky to include in your hamster’s diet as it can contain some things that are explicitly forbidden for your pet’s consumption.
So when talking about pizza anatomy, just remember there are two main parts of the slice of pizza.
Toppings
This is the trickiest part of the pizza for your hamster. Usually, people like to make or order pizza with a lot of meat on it. Whether it be pepperoni or ham, there’s almost always some type of meat on it.
Sadly, your hammy can’t have any of that. Meat is full of protein which is good, but it’s too hard food for your little furball’s stomach.
Meaty toppings which are usually dried or salted meat is sometimes too much even for an average pizza consumer, and especially for your pet. This means that if they get their hands on some pizza that contains meat on it they can have some serious cramps and bloat as a result of this.
For this reason alone, and for some occasional constipation that can also occur in these types of situations, I highly recommend you don’t feed any of your meat topping pizza to your hammy.
Veggies are also a frequent topping on a pizza. This is a different story from the meat under it, so that means that if the vegetables are freshly added and not drenched in pizza oil, it’s perfectly safe for your pet’s consumption.
Arugula gained its popularity in the last couple of years as a pizza topping. Fresh arugula sprinkled on top of pizza can be found almost anywhere now, and it’s important for you, as a hammy owner, to know that arugula is perfectly safe for your hamster.
As with all other foods, if you overfeed it arugula there will be some consequences. So keep an eye out for the amount of this leafy delight that you give to your pet.
Another thing to be considered is if the leafy veggies have been in the oven with the rest of the pizza. If the vegetable toppings are added after the oven, they’re perfectly fine, but if they were inside the oven as the pizza cooked, there can be some problems.
The first of two problems that can occur is that the veggies can and will lose some of their nutritional values. Heat-treating any vegetable causes it to lose its caloric value and some useful ingredients that are otherwise found in fresh variants.
Knowing this, if you’re ordering pizza and not making it on your own emphasize that the veggies need to be fresh when put on pizza.
Cheese And Tomato Sauce
These two are probably the staple ingredients of a pizza, right after the dough. This means that you’ll find them in almost any store-bought or ordered pizza. Even if you prepare pizza on your own at your home, you’ll probably put stretchy cheese and tomato sauce on it.
Hamsters shouldn’t eat either of those, so that can be a problem. Tomato sauce is a bigger problem between those two because it’s very acidic and can cause some stomach problems for your hammy like diarrhea and cramps.
Some people put sugar in the tomato sauce to make it less acidic, but that only helps with flavor and not the contents of the sauce. So be careful because I advise you not to give any part of the pizza that is heavily covered in ketchup or tomato sauce to your hamster.
Cheese is not that big of a problem when compared to the previously mentioned pizza component. It is perfectly fine in some extremely small amounts. I can’t stress enough how small those amounts must be in order not to cause bloating to your hammy.
If you think you can’t decide if the cheese amount is too small or too big, I advise you not to feed your hammy cheese at all.
The Crust – Safest Of Them All
To be honest, you can’t go wrong with the crust. I know it’s not the tastiest part of the pizza, but it certainly is the safest possible option for your hamster.
Crust often doesn’t contain any kind of toppings and isn’t drenched in tomato sauce. One thing to keep in mind is that some pizzerias like to put sesame seeds on their pizza crust. Hamsters can eat these without any potential side effects, but just remember that sesame seeds are quite high in fat.
Otherwise, the part that most people throw away is the safest and the optimal option when choosing which part of the pizza you want to share with your pet.
The dough is not the healthiest option for your hamster. It’s not particularly healthy for you either, but humans tend to deal with heavy food much better than small animals like hamsters.
If you see your hammy acting tired and sleepy after you fed it pizza crust, just know that you went overboard and that you should dramatically decrease the amount of dough next time you decide to share a pizza with your pet.
Hamsters gain weight very quickly so you shouldn’t give them pizza too often. They can even store some parts of the food they can’t devour right away in their cheeks and save it for later. If you see something like this happen, just know you really went too far with the amount of pizza you gave to your hammy.
To give you an exact amount of pizza crust you should feed to your hamster – it’s half a teaspoon to be safe. If you see your hamster going for other food such as pellets after you feed it this treat, you can up the amount by 50% next time and keep it at that.
You shouldn’t feed your hamster pizza more frequently than once a month. This ensures that they won’t gain any weight. |
Can Hamsters Eat Pizza? – Final Thoughts
There is no one happier than a pet owner that finds out they can share their favorite food with their pet. The moment I found out I can share the pizza with my hammy I ordered one right away, and I didn’t even want pizza at that moment!
So, right before you pick up your phone and dial your favorite pizza place let’s sum up some things you can and can’t do regarding pizza in your hamster’s diet.
- THINGS YOU SHOULD DO: feed only the crust to your hammy, and keep the amount of it under one teaspoon. Keep the veggie toppings fresh, and lower the amount if you notice any strange and sluggish behavior.
- THINGS YOU SHOULDN’T DO: give your hammy any meat toppings, allow it to eat cheese or tomato sauce, give it an unlimited amount of sesame seeds, or feed it pizza more often than once a month.
Now you can pick up your phone, dial that pizzeria near you, and watch your hammy enjoy that pizza as much as you do. Bon Appetit!