marinated steaks and chicken kabobs....grilled nice and long.
j/k
gerbils are supposed to be like crack to bp's.. i have switched our snakes from live to fresh killed, to f/t, with no troubles. i would think hampsters were just as bad as gerbils. expensive too. go with mice till they get to the size of eating rats. i would think feeding them a fresh killed every now and then would help with the loss of vitamin c from the freezing. i hate rodents myself, so i have no trouble gassing em and feeding them to our snakes. nature made rats the perfect meal for snakes, i wouldnt alter that myself.