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Old 05-02-2019, 12:46 AM  
Oreocookie
Newborn Pup
 
Join Date: Mar 2019
Location: North of Germany
Posts: 8
Default Re: Introducing MuShu

Hello, everybody, who's reading this thread.
MuShu takes her her sweet time, but things are getting better. Her confidence is growing and I can pick her up and hold her easily now. She doesn't panic when I pet her - she even seems to enjoy to be stroked softly. And I introduced a flying saucer type exercise disk which she accepted and uses regularly now.
I managed to get a few pictures of her and I hope that I can post some of them soon. The biggest problem ist that she never seems to sit quietly for a moment at one place. She moves around so fast that it is very hard to keep track of her. She is a real Speedy Gonzales Therefore most pictures I managed to take, are a bit blurry and don't show how sweet and beautiful she really is. She also prefers to come out when it's fairly dark which makes it even more difficult to take good pictures. I will try to put the flying saucer saucer disk into a protected corner so that she can feel more protected and less out in the open. She still spends a fair amount of time rummaging and digging underground and has a tendency to re-arrange her cage at night. There's no point in creating elaborate theme cages for her since she has her very own ideas about how a suitable terrarium should be set up. And that's fine with me. Digging is a good activity after all and I have to accept that I can only see the results of her overnight construction efforts ☺ Since she so obviously likes to be underground I'm surprised that she accepts so easily to get picked up and seems to like being softly stroked. I try to pick her up every day if possible in order to get her completely used and comfortable with this situation. So far this seems to work very well. Which is surprising if one considers that she was a leftover from a pet shop where the hamsters were kept clean but in a very boring enviroment which was fairly small and offered only substrate and a house. This less than ideal upbringing has one advantage, though: she is used to a busy enviroment and isn't easily spooked by loud noises and the presence of other animals. Therefore she's not bothered at all by my cats and my dog, when they are in the same room with her now and then (the cats are never allowed to be in that room without supervision), since she is used to be in the same room with many other animals and people.
Normally I don't like to get living animals from a pet shop. Good private breeders or rescues are IMO a much better option. But in Germany it's very hard to find any Chinese hamsters. And while MuShu's early months weren't ideal, she's not from a rodent puppy mill. The wife of the pet shop owner breeds the Chinese hamsters herself, and since MuShu trusted me immediately and accepted food from me, she obviously never had any bad experiences with humans. I did talk to the pet shop owner about the best diet for hamsters but I doubt that this will lead to any drastic changes
How is the availability situation re: Chinese hamsters in the UK or other European countries? Is it very difficult to find them? Other hamsters like Syrians, Winterwhites, Campbells and even Roborowskis are not hard to find, and there are many private breeders and also plenty of rescues available. But you have to be prepared to get on a waiting list and drive long distances if you want to get a Chinese hamster.

Last edited by Oreocookie; 05-02-2019 at 03:25 AM.
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