Few chinese ham questions.........

[Sallypaws]

Hi.

Just a few questions on this dwarf breed............

1. I was going to feed a food designed for dwarf hamsters?

2. Are they quite shy with eating?

3. What can i expect for the first 72 hours when i bring home a 6 week old single male? ie, will he be very quiet, eat much etc?

4. What can i do specifically to help tame a chinese?

5. Do they like a house in their cage o sleep in or just bedding in one corner?

6. Mini Silent spinner wheel be o.k?

7. What fruit and veg and how often?

8. What are the positive things to look out for to let me know he is settling in?

o.k...........so it was a few more than a few - sorry!! :mad:

thanks very much :)

[Nappo]

Hey! ;D

1. I live in germany so i cant answer the question about the food in UK;O;
2.Depends on the hamster xD I think the most are shy in the first week, but then they blossom out and get used to you watching them
3.My Fuu hides in the first hours and ran only through tunnels to get to the different things
4.Treats,Treats,treats ! XDDD
5. Mine slept in a big 3-chamber-house (30cmx15cm)
6.Yup, but i would prefer a Woodentwheel, becaue the front is nearly closed and they feel a bit safer in that
7.Vegetables/fresh food every day (Pepper,Grass etc). I would never feed them fruits, because they are prone to diabetes.
8. When the hammie runs in the wheel and eat while you are watching him xD

Hope this helps a bit XD

[SnickersTheFirst]

I'll just answer the ones I'm sure on. :)

3. Most hams need 24hours to settle in with no noise or contact (except for feeding him!)

4. Take things one step at a time. Use treats to bribe him. Sit in an empty bath tub with him to let him explore your scent etc.

5. Chinese are quite shy so it's probably best to give them a wooden house to sleep in.

6. 6.5" Silent Spinner is best.

7. Check the list on the wiki but be wary of fruits as chinese can be prone to diabetes.

8. Anything tbh as long as he isn't hiding. e.g going on his wheel, exploring.

[fluffymunchkins]

1. I feed harry hamster with small seeds (millet, hemp, lentils, pearl barley) mixed in. I find they aren't massive fans of the big bits and the alfalfa, but gobble up the rest :)
So if you have a dwarf mix which has small pellets and add small seeds that should go down well. Mealworms also make great a extra!

2. I find Bacardi doesn't ususually take food from me, unless its something really tasty. (yoggy drops, milky weetabix) But naturally he takes food to a hidey place to eat in peace.

3. You can expect them to still be very nervous. It took bacardi a good few weeks to become comfortable around me. Even now he gets startled and a bit jumpy sometimes, but thats down to chinese nature.

4. I find bringing them out of the cage environment helps, I used a small storage box with seeds spread around it and sat and talked to him. I also found that shoulder rides is great bonding time (obviously being careful)
They will cling to your clothes and hide in your hair, then most likely have a nap while you talk to them :D

5. Bacardi loves having a house, he started off with a wooden trixie house and now has a small half coconut.
I always reccommend a bottomless house though as they are sooo stinky :roll:
Its easier to be able to lift the house out to get them to come out aswell.

6. definitley use a 6.5" spinner at least

7. I'd mostly stay away from fruit due the sugar content.
But they love veggies, I tend to give them once or twice a week.

8. It really varies from hamster to hamster. I new Bacardi had really settled when he started napping on his wheel and enjoying his floortime more (instead of hiding in a corner).

[KatiePillow]

1. I was going to feed a food designed for dwarf hamsters?
Sesame seems happy with her harry hamster, although I do add millet etc to it, along with dried meal worms to her food.

2. Are they quite shy with eating?
My hamster is overly shy (she was a rescue/adoption so came to me at 6 months) so to facilitate her shyness I put a cork tunnel with an overhang, so she can feel protected from 'predators' (aka me)
She won't take food outside the cage, although will stay out in the open if she's foraging off a dari cob :D

5. Do they like a house in their cage o sleep in or just bedding in one corner?
Sesame has an open nest, but with a set of bendy logs as a bridge over half of it, I'd really suggest a lot of 'hideys' for a chinese as they don't like the open, but really never use a closed bottom house, I gave sesame one for 3 days, and she peed in it, peed on the food in there, the roof was covered in condensation..it was really upsetting, and that was only a few days =/ so I give Sesame the bottom half of the savic casita house upside down, the bendy logs and various underground tunnels etc, and she makes her nest in the corner by her logs (using them as a way to come out of her nest but remain unseen.)

6. Mini Silent spinner wheel be o.k?
6.5 inch minimum, the mini ones are barely big enough for a robo, and prepare to wash one out as they pee in them..a lot :p


If I were you I'd really try and get one from a breeder, they seem to be a lot easier to tame >.<

[Sallypaws]

OMG - you guys are just the best!! :D

I could not have asked for better advice for the little fella. ;)

I pick him up tonight so will get pics etc when i have mastered my camera.

He has a lot of white on him and a long stripe down his back, i have called him Noodle :cool:

I had got him the mini silent spinner but will take that back tomorrow and get the 6.5 inch one instead.

Thanks again :)

[Debbie]

My chinese Mouse has a rather large half log house but it means there is plenty of room and there is a little hole in the roof for smells to escape through!! LOL I have found she has buried the door and comes out via a tunnel she has made underneath the house!
I have also put lots of tunnels and hidey holes in the cage and she seems to enjoy running from one to the other but as time has gone on she is also running around in the open more. One of her tunnels is being used as a food store with both ends 'sealed' with shavings!
I had a mini silent spinner for my Robos that I was going to use for Mouse but it is definitely too small so she has the 6.5 one.
Food wise I use a dwarf hamster mix with a little of the smaller seeds from my syrian's normal food and then they have veg about 3 times a week with the occasional piece of chicken or ham and she loves a bit of millet spray to forage on. As a treat now and then they have baby food too! I also buy the Naturals range of treats, grasses, chew sticks etc and there is a dried veg/herb food I bought a while back that I can't remember where from that they love!
What cage have you got? I've got Mouse in a large bin cage that my husband built a shelf for so she has lots of space to explore. I have a thick layer of wood shavings in she likes to dig in but one end is sectioned off with sand in, that's where her wheel goes as like others, Mouse pees in her wheel!
Mouse was a rescue that I got about 4 weeks ago - seems like I've had her much longer though! - and although she was a little shy to start with she is now very curious and doesn't seem bothered by humans at all. I gave her a lot of time to settle in and to start with just observed her and offered her treats and she has very quickly become tame. Every hamster is different so it's just a case of seeing what works best for yours once you get to know it's personality.
Hope Noddle is as gorgeous as you hope he will be, I am totally in love with chinese hamsters now! Can't wait to see photos of Noddle, and must get some more of Mouse up here! Love the name by the way!

[Sallypaws]

That's brilliant - thanks very much :D

Noodle is coming round in leaps and bounds to be honest - much quicker than i thought!

It's weird because i used to keep mice for about 15 years before changing to hams and Noodle acts just like a mouse minus the mousey smell!!! :mad:

Will get pics posted soon i promise - just want to give him a bit longer to get settled before his first photoshoot !! :D

[Red]

After owning five mice I switched back to hamsters and got a Chinese hamster. I was amazed at how similar to a mouse she is too; size (obviously), but behaviour too. She's learnt all the tricks that my mice have learnt, and the only difference is that she pouches her food, smells less, and is a bit more 'nippy' than my mice.

Glad you're little guy Noodle is settling in well :)