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Pebbles82 · 12-24-2018, 04:03 AM

Most has already been said

For a dwarf hammy you need a decent sized cage - 70cm by 40cm is popular although bigger is ok too - which you probably already know. The Duna Multy or Hamster Heaven without the tubes are good.

As Sasha said you want to leave them alone for 2 or 3 days to let them settle into the cage. After that you can start talking to them through the cage to get them used to your voice and offering the odd treat (although they often don't like a hand in the cage and can get territorial about that) - how soon you can start taming and handling partly depends on the personality of the hamster.

But for the first two weeks don't change anything around or clean anything - they need that two weeks to fully settle, scent mark and get some habits/find their way around. If you think the pee needs spot cleaning after a week or so then you could take a handful of pee'd on substrate out and replace it with a new handful - but mix it in with the old so it still smells familiar. With dwarf hammies though, it may not be clear where they are peeing and if it's underground it probably won't smell a lot initially so you should be ok to leave things for a couple of weeks.

So best tip is - get the cage set up to begin with and take some time over that so you're less likely to need to make changes. So the basics are - a good house for nesting in, a shelf in the cage they can sit under to feel safe, or climb up to for somewhere to go (also a good place for heavier items and food bowl etc). A wheel or flying saucer, plenty of substrate (at least 4") plenty of nesting material (a big pile of torn up strips of plain white toilet paper somewhere in the cage but not in the house - they like to forage for it and take it to build the nest where they choose.

A few hidey places like floor tunnels - a tissue box or cardboard egg box with a hole cut in make nice hidey places too and you can put treats in the dips on top of the egg box. A chew stick. Change water daily and food daily or every other day. You can also scatter feed a bit of food occasionally as well as put it in the bowl.

Some kind of rough stone on the shelf under the food bowl or water bottle can help keep their nails from growing too long - a terracotta plant pot base is ok - but you can always add that later when your hammy has settled in.

Also think about access - can they actually get up to a shelf or reach the water bottle and get to the food bowl - that kind of thing.

12-24-2018, 04:03 AM
Pebbles82 Hamster Antics Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 23,533	Re: Tips on a new hamster ? Most has already been said For a dwarf hammy you need a decent sized cage - 70cm by 40cm is popular although bigger is ok too - which you probably already know. The Duna Multy or Hamster Heaven without the tubes are good. As Sasha said you want to leave them alone for 2 or 3 days to let them settle into the cage. After that you can start talking to them through the cage to get them used to your voice and offering the odd treat (although they often don't like a hand in the cage and can get territorial about that) - how soon you can start taming and handling partly depends on the personality of the hamster. But for the first two weeks don't change anything around or clean anything - they need that two weeks to fully settle, scent mark and get some habits/find their way around. If you think the pee needs spot cleaning after a week or so then you could take a handful of pee'd on substrate out and replace it with a new handful - but mix it in with the old so it still smells familiar. With dwarf hammies though, it may not be clear where they are peeing and if it's underground it probably won't smell a lot initially so you should be ok to leave things for a couple of weeks. So best tip is - get the cage set up to begin with and take some time over that so you're less likely to need to make changes. So the basics are - a good house for nesting in, a shelf in the cage they can sit under to feel safe, or climb up to for somewhere to go (also a good place for heavier items and food bowl etc). A wheel or flying saucer, plenty of substrate (at least 4") plenty of nesting material (a big pile of torn up strips of plain white toilet paper somewhere in the cage but not in the house - they like to forage for it and take it to build the nest where they choose. A few hidey places like floor tunnels - a tissue box or cardboard egg box with a hole cut in make nice hidey places too and you can put treats in the dips on top of the egg box. A chew stick. Change water daily and food daily or every other day. You can also scatter feed a bit of food occasionally as well as put it in the bowl. Some kind of rough stone on the shelf under the food bowl or water bottle can help keep their nails from growing too long - a terracotta plant pot base is ok - but you can always add that later when your hammy has settled in. Also think about access - can they actually get up to a shelf or reach the water bottle and get to the food bowl - that kind of thing.