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Hamster advice please!! Daisy HK Siam kunikak@hotmail.com |
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I would like to say thank you to Lindsay, Isla & Sammy and Sarah. I was really surprised and pleased to get some response and so quickly as when I previously sought for advice on the net (at other sites) I did not get a single reply. Thanks guys for your time and effort!! I appreciate it a lot. I am relieved to hear that gnawing and pooping in the food are quite common. I feel that my hamster and I are still in the process of getting to know each other and so I am not yet sure about letting her free in the room. Once we are more confident with each other, I would love to let her free and have run around. Meanwhile, following your advice, I decided to make her a playpen. I converted a big plastic storage box into a hamster playpen and put a thick layer of wood shavings at the bottom and some cardboard tubes to play with. Thanks to your idea, I now have a very happy hamster and a huge pile of loo and kitchen papers!! I think it is much better than what we had before, which was just an enclosure surrounded by piles of books. She seems to love playing in the new playpen and when I put her back in the cage she begs me to let her out again. I think it is turning out to be a good bonding exercise too! I thought it was quite funny and also sweet of her to prefer homemade toys to the bought ones. I used to have a guinea pig and she was just the same. As for gnawing, I have temporarily placed cardboard strips in front of the bars, covering it up to a half of her height. She still managed to find a way to get at the bars but the gnawing has lessened and she seems quite happy that she now has something to latch onto when she is climbing up the bars. A friend of mine suggested that I should eventually replace the cardboard strips with plastic ones made out of an acrylic sheet you can get from stationery shops and DIY stores. She says that as plastic can be cleaned it would be more hygienic this way. What do you think? I would like to hear your views on this. As for pooping in the food, this has become the least of my worries since she is weeing in the Hamster Toilet and not wetting her food. I didn't know that hamsters also eat their own poo! To answer your questions: She lives in a three-split-level cage. I got the biggest cage I could afford but it is already beginning to look small! She does have a wheel inside the cage. She plays on it quite a lot but I have noticed that it is becoming less and less frequent. Does this mean it's time for a bigger wheel? For your reference, she is about 12 weeks old but I am not totally sure. Lastly, one question (sorry to keep bothering you!). When do you play with your hamsters and for how long? I understand that hamsters are nocturnal and sleep during the day and become active at night. Well, my hamster does not become fully active until past midnight, sometimes not until as late as two o'clock in the morning. I try and wait up as long as I can so that I could play with her, but I am increasingly finding it difficult. How do you manage? Thanks! Daisy
Pets | Cats | Dogs |
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