saw 1 and fell in love! - ETA finally getting them

[daffee]

I was in my local P@H yesterday and saw a Roborovski hamster. I was totally smitten! Even my other half thought it was the cutest little thing!



He's agreed that once we've moved into a bigger house I can have some, so I thought I'd better do some research. I found a book on hamsters that had a little section on Robos that said they should be kept with their siblings and love wheels and tubes, are great fun to watch, come out during the day and are very speedy (so not suitable for children). I think they sound like excellent additions to our household.



Could anyone advise me on anything else I'll need to know about them for the future. Basically, what size cage would a pair need? How much time out of their cage would they ideally want? Can they be put in hamster balls? Do they have any special dietary requirements? And the biggie, does anyone know of any breeders in the SouthEast - Surrey/Sussex/Hampshire?

[babyboos]

Hello Daffee welcome to Hamster Central. Roborovski are as you have read more suitable for adults due to their nimble nature. They require as little time out off their enclosure as you can afford them and will eventually learn to enjoy being handled to some extent though do be prepared for some time getting them used to you. They will not bite but they will try to run away from your hands constantly. they require a large, varied environment with lots of toys and tunnels, with plenty of litter to burrow in and hidey holes. A high protein diet is essential, and I supplement their dried hamster mix with small bird seed, millet spray and mealworms. They can use a ball though are just as happy, if not happier, running together on a silent spinner or other ball bearing wheel due to the speeds they can get up to whilst running together. Make sure whatever wheel you get has a wide, solid running surface and ideally get one wheel per hamster.

When you are ready for your hamsters give us a shout and we will hopefully be able to sort you out with a lovely pair or trio of Roborovski.

[daffee]

Thanks. Hopefully we will get a bigger house soon :)

[babyboos]

How is your research going?

[daffee]

I've read little bits about them in books; but there isn't a lot specifically about them in most - I guess cos they are a less common pet. I have read all the bits on this website and still think that we'd enjoy having a pair of them.



I've been looking at cages in pet shops and am not really sure what sort is best. I've read that the smaller cages designed for mice are best as Robos are so small and active; but to me those cages seem tiny (might just be cos I've got rats and they have massive cages in comparison!). I'm quite keen on getting one with tubes built in to the cage - but a normal bar style cage not a rotastack type.



Have you got any suggestions on cage size or any particularly good makes?



We're not sure when we'll be in a position to get any yet, cos we might not be able to move into a bigger house quite as soon as we'd hoped :( - mortgage trouble! But I am still keen that when we do move and have the space we will get some.

[daffee]

Oh yeah, another question :oops:



I have been reading the posts on bedding and it seems to me that most people combine lots of different substrates. My rats are all bedded on Biocatolet but I don't imagine that that'd make a very good bedding on its own for burrowing hammies. I know that safebed is a suitable bedding, so would it be ok to combine the 2 or would I need to buy a different bedding as well?



When I was younger people just kept their hamsters on shavings, but I gather that they are as bad for hamsters as they are for rats?

[Emma]

Hi daffee



Not much is written in pet books about robos, as they're a fairly recent addition to the the UK pet market (about 10 years or so), and most pet books are horrifically out of date. The best book around I'd reccomend is Hamsterlopaedia by Peter & Chris Logsdail, which does cover robos.



Shavings aren't as bad for hamsters as they are for rats - rats are much more prone to respiratory disease than hammies are, so irritant beddings are more of a concern with rats. Use of woodshavings is still very popular for hamsters, but you can still get individual hamsters that are more sensitive and may show respiratory or skin irritation with shavings. Personally I use carefresh/bob martins for my hammies, and ecopetbed for my rats. I use the paper-based stuff for the hammies mainly because it smells less like a pet shop (and with me, 2 rats and 6 hams all living in one room, that is important!) and they don't float around and get all over the carpet in the same way.



Biocatelet wouldn't be that good for robos, as they like to burrow, it's quite highly scented and I feel would be quite irritant in itself. Non-woodshavings options for robos could be aubiose, megazorb, hemp-based bedding or paper-based bedding such as carefresh or bob martins 100% recycled paper cat litter (sold in Asda, or Morrison's own brand is apparently the same thing). Safebed is more of a nesting material rather than a whole cage litter, I do use it for my robos and they use it to build their nests with.



Cage-wise, the Mickey Max cage sold in Pets at Home now is an ok size for two robos I think. I'm not comfortable with tube-linked cages for robos, as they are so fast it would make them very difficult to catch and escapes likely when you're trying to dismantle the cage! My preferred cages for robos are tanks, bin-cages or duna-style cages, anything with solid sides so you can give them deep litter to burrow in. My female pair of robos live comfortably in a 2ft tank, but you could go bigger.

[daffee]

Thanks for the info. I'll have a look at those beddings next time we go to the pet shop.



And I'll look out for that cage as well. We do actually have a tank cage. It's apparently designed for hamsters (it did have a sticker saying it was approved by a hamster society). It has a small air vent at the bottom and then 3 corner ledges. But the ledges always struck me as too high up for little hammies, and cleaning it was always a nightmare! Mainly cos it's soooo heavy to move about!



That's a good point about the tubes tho. Will definitely bear that in mind when we get round to buying. Thanks again :)

[daffee]

Am quite childishly excited! :D

We're getting our first robos at the weekend so we're off to get a cage tonight. Will probably end up buying far too many accessoroes as well as am a sucker for toys and treats.

Can't wait to meet our new babies. Only trouble is that we had planned names for gettign a pair of boys and now we're getting girls so the thinking caps will have to go on.

Yay! :D

[daffee]

A successful shopping trip :)

Got a nice Rody Hamster duna cage and a house and log tube, some sweets and bedding, 2 bags of harry hamster, some millet sprays and a free starter kit.

Spent quite a bit of time watching the robos in the store (not where we're getting them from I might add).

I could've bought a lot more but my other half was sensible and made me put back the coconut house and stopped me buying everything in store. Just have to order a mini silent spinner and check we've got some fruit wood chews left (the rats lost interest in them) and all we need is the little hammies :D

[racinghamster]

Welcome Daffee and congrats on your new robos! I have two seperated males and they are mad little fellows! You`ll laugh your head off when you see the speed they run at in a silent spinner! Get the Regular size for two robos as the Mini will only hold one robo and they will be constantly trying to chase one another off the wheel!

The large Perfecto glass tank you have would have been okay for two robos, but they are murder because there is nowehere to hang a water bottle and you need tubes to run from the shelves as robos can`t climb ladders! So you probably done the right thing buying a Rody tank! :)

[daffee]

Get the Regular size for two robos as the Mini will only hold one robo and they will be constantly trying to chase one another off the wheel!

Have ordered the mini one :oops: As the cage comes with one which seems to work the same way we thought we'd just get another small one to put in so they don't have to run together. We can always go and buy the regular one from P@H in the future if need be. :)

[racinghamster]

Oh right, I forgot the Rody tank came with a wheel! If they try to run together, you`ll know the bigger spinner is needed! :lol:

[daffee]

The first night we got such a shock when they used the wheel. They had been determindly staying asleep until we went up to bed. As soon as the light went out and we went upstairs we started hearing this really loud squeeling. We panicked thinking one of our rats was being attacked and rushed downstairs only to find it was the robos using their wheel :oops: Not sure if we'll keep that one in the cage if it makes that much noise!

We managed to get them out last night though. They ar every shy about coming out of their nest but once out are ok. One is a lot braver than the other. The scaredy one managed to jump out of my OH's hands :shock: but luckily my animal catching skills are pretty good as I was able to find her under the rat cage and scoop her out without any trouble. Might have to make sure I handle that one in future and he can get the calmer one.

Hopefully they'll get used to coming out while the lights are on so that we get to see them without having to wake them up.

We're also not sure if we've ended up with mum & daughter instead of sisters as there's a bit of a size difference between them. How close to adult size will they be at 7 weeks old?