Thinks for the tips guys!
I really didn't know that about the dwarfs nails - I'll talk to her about that and maybe putting in a rough sanitised rock and so on to help with nails. Bathing sand/litter should help with keeping nails trim too. Is chinchilla sand a must for dwarfs or will the oven dried children's playsand be good enough (that's what I used).
I had another chat with her today and she's asked me to email her some links for cages, new wheels etc. I think she'll either go with the Barney or Alaska cages from Zooplus, going to depend on budget/space I think. I did tell her to keep the cages she has now as travel cages and in case they need taking to the Vet (cages she currently has are these:
Small Plastic Dwarf Hamster and Mouse Home)
We did cover playtime but I think she's going to try making a cardboard playpen for now, mostly I think because she's already going to be buying new cages and wheels. I'll point out the metal playpens are fine for dwarfs as well if she maybe wants to get them later on - I actually hadn't thought of the fact that they're fine for dwarfs
.
Main issue I think was that the water bottles leaked (they were faulty and have been replaced) and the one hammy's water bottle came apart and half flooded the cage. So she ended up cleaning out the wet cage completely plus the nest which got a bit wet not long after they got brought home. That little one is now very skittish and nippy while the other hammy is still cautious but fairly calm and already walking onto hands to get his dinner. The skittish one has now been moved to a quiet room for a week so he can settle a bit more. I have told her to keep an eye out for wet-tail, that particular pet shop branch she got them from has been known to have issues with it in the past. I'm guessing that the poor little guy is just very stressed right now. I said that she's just going to have to take it super slow with him and that hamsters have their own personalities so she'll need to take that into account when dealing with each of them.
Otherwise she was concerned because she felt once they were home and the cages set up that the cages seemed too small, which they are. She was also worried about the little plastic houses that came with the cage as she said when she opened it up there was condensation and it seemed musty. She also wasn't happy with the wheel which also came with the cage, said it was squeaky and she could hear it at night from her bedroom. Basically just not happy with what she was told would be suitable for the hamsters. Aside from that it was just the taming and being concerned about the skittish one, I covered the basic's like the tissue trick but I'll look for some links to some videos - if anyone can reccomend a really good video about taming please let me know!