Quote:
Originally Posted by Serendipity7000
They tend to only take food when it's fresh so best to put some out every day. They get quite anxious if there is nothing there, even if they have a hoard. They are hard-wired to forage for food daily.
Don't worry about him becoming a picky eater - he will take what he needs. Their usual habit is to pouch and hoard the food you put out, and then to snack on it from their hoard while in the nest.
Which mix are you using? So yes about a rounded tablespoon each day - chuck away anything that hasn't been eaten and refill the bowl with the tablespoon from that day. I also scatter feed a bit of food - they enjoy foraging for it.
Not sure if you know this already, but don't throw his hoards away or overclean the cage. He will probably only hoard dry food rather than fresh food that can go off, although you may need to check this at first by having a poke around. When it's dry food, the hoard can be left for quite a long time. If it gets pee'd on you'd need to remove it but always put new food back to replace the hoard, in exactly the same place.
They are very stressy about their hoards and nest and it can get into a vicious circle as in - if you take away the hoard, they start peeing on it (to deter people from stealing it!) and then you have to take it away -and so on. It can take a while to break that cycle. Same with the nest - unless it is pee'd in, it can be left for quite a long time.
Assume you know it's best not to overclean the cage. With a good depth of substrate and a litter tray you don't need to change the substrate so often - and can easily go 6 to 8 weeks. In between you can just "spot clean". Although if they use a litter tray the cage tends to stay clean - I empty the litter tray every 2 to 3 days.
|
I was planning on cleaning almost all of his bedding every 2 ish months and I am currently trying to get him to use his sand bath as a bathroom as that would be ideal. I am using vitasmart hamster mix which I know is not an amazing brand but I am trying to find another one, it’s difficult to find a food with enough protein. I was thinking harry hamster but it’s so so so expensive to ship to me. I will obviously not touch his horde so that he feels more safe. Thank you so much for all of the tips
