I have 2 chinese hamsters!!

[jayne]

Hey all,

On reading some of the other posts I noticed that chinese hamster owners are quite rare by the looks of it!

Here is a bit about my story from getting them at the pet store to present...

I bought my 2 male chinese hamsters from my local Pets @ Home on the 25th July this year.. I have never owned a hamster before but I did a lot of reading up on the internet so didn't just rush into it

I bought the usual stuff needed as below -

Savic Rody Cage - one with tubes, also came with integrated house, water bottle, food bowl, and wheel.

Hamster starter kit - which came free with the cage, this included bedding, wood shavings, muesli mix food, chocolate drops treats, disinfectant, vitamin drops, book and 4 fruit sticks.

Also bought was mineral stone, 2 dwarf sized exercise balls, chew sticks.

I left them alone for the first 2 days to let them settle, they seemed ok if a little shy and quite nervy On day 3 I tried to introduce my hand and let them get used to my scent, I built this up gradually over the next few days. I could see some improvement but again they were still very nervous looking and shaking. So one night I went to the next step and tried to get them on my hands, they werent ready to walk onto my hands so I tried to scoop them up gently, first time handling them and he bit me I still got them out every night so they got used to me but a few nights later i got bit again. When I say bit, it was only a little nip but it still upset me

Around 2 weeks ago, I ended up taking the tubing out, mainly as they are very difficult to clean and they seemd to be fighting over them. I have seen them fight at least once every couple of nights but they do sleep together and it looks like they could just be play fighting At one point I thought I was coming along well with the taming but.... again got bit. At this point I just had to start all over again...

I have changed a few things in their cage recently, I now have a sand bath for them, which they love but dont use it to its full potential, i.e roll around in it, they just try to burrow in it (I use a shallow dish). There is also one of the maze toys where you build it yourself, they do like that!! I also made a swing from a few spare parts of that which hangs from the roof and also a little feeding pyramid for treats which I fill every now and then. :P I now also use ripped up toilet tissue for bedding to make them more snug and have rubbed my hands on it before putting it in the cage. This seems to be gradually working as they're now slowly but surely sniffing at my hand and following it around! Before I used to try and stroke their backs and they would cower but now they are warming to it and hopefully will enjoy it!

Now...if all that isnt enough... a few nights ago i said to my partner how it was strange they didnt have very noticable testicles as other hamsters do.. Well, I think it now turns out that infact they are female!!!! As I said before i am a new hamster owner but I know all male hamsters should at some point in maturity have large testicles, I just thought mines would show later on, but i have now had them for 7 weeks and still no sign..

I could post some pictures if someone can give me a second opinion? When buying them the girl said they are definitely males as she could see it's private parts, I have now discovered that they dont really have such a thing on show as it is inverted? If so, she needs more training. I just keep an eye on them as I did before as i know that females dont get on as well as males do together!!

Sorry this is soooo long but wanted to tell everyone my experience, so far, and let you know how I have got on with them.

Hope to hear from you soon!
Bye for now

[racinghamster]

Hi jayne. I have no experience with Chinese hamsters I`m afraid, but it sounds as though your doing everything right. Giving them time to settle and get used to you. These hamsters are more `mouse` like due to the fact they have pointed faces and a longer tail than other hamsters.

Pet shops are notoriously garbage at sexing small animals! I feel for you because you may have ended up with females when you really wanted males. All my rodents are male, although I have nothing against females at all and would have some, but I`ve always preferred males for some reason.

I don`t think those plastic tubes would have done you much good anyway and I would imagine a larger wooden log with holes in would be better! I use regular silent spinner wheels for all my animals because it allows them to run together. I just spent a small fortune buying three mini silent spinners and now feel I don`t need them because the regular size suits the animals best. They do use the small wheels, but I chose to stick to the middle, regular size. The roborovskis go absolutely mental in one!

I hope some other members with Chinese hamsters can give you some pointers very soon. Keep up what you are doing and things should settle.

[jayne]

Hi there!

Thanks, i'm sooo worried there was something i had done wrong! I have got them a wooden log with holes in which they love peeping their heads thro, is soo cute

I was ready to buy a silent spinner as the one with the cage kept me up all night and was doing my head. But... i read somewhere to put a bit of vegetable oil in the axle and its worked a treat, they can spin away to their hearts content and i can get some zzzz's in!! If you check out my profile, you'll see the picture of them running together in their wheel

I'm just at the moment trying to introduce them to some fresh veggies, not going to overdo it as i dont want them getting the runs

Your little hamters sound gorgeous, i love Robos they are soo adorable Not seen WW's as much as them mind you. I'm sorry for your loss too, at least you gave him aloving home till the end

Look forward to seeing some pics and chatting some more.

Jayne

[SnuggleHam]

I don’t own a Chinese ham myself, but as far as care goes its all the same. You’re doing everything right. If you’re ever worried about something please feel free to start a topic for second opinions or advice.

I’m pretty sure that male Chinese hamsters have a very distinct bulge in the rear end... I found these image on the web..






From the pictures on your profile its hard for me to tell, but from what I can see Id guess female. If you get get better pictures it would help.. but maybe you can look for yourself and determin sex based on these example images.

[jayne]

Yes, I can safely say mine are definitely females. I wondered why mine didnt have the normal bulge at the rear end!!

I will try and post some pictures just now.....

ehh, can anyone help me on how to post pictures please??

[SnuggleHam]

In order to post pictures on the forum they need to be link from an out side host. You cant upload them directly to the forum. Many people use a website called http://photobucket.com/ to host their pictures.

Once you find hosting for the picture you copy and paste the image URL here on the forum using the BBcode provided. Youll notice "tags" at the top of your text box when you post or reply to messages in the forum.

In order to make an image show.. you use the [img]tags..%20for%20example..%20[img]%20image%20url%20here[/img] hope that makes sense.

[jayne]

Thanks Snuggleham, here it goes.....




[img]

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[racinghamster]

Your girls are just gorgeous Jayne! I hav`nt read a lot about Chinese hamsters, but because I keep mice too, I can appreciate their slimmer, sleeker build.

I keep my two robo boys in a Savic Rody too and also my Winter White hamster! I want to move the robos into a Ferplast Duna, but they are happy enough in their Rody for the time being. Ideally, I would like a Perfecto tank with the two shelves, but our Pets At Home only seem to have the three tiered one and it`s a bit large.

My four gerbils are hogging my two other glass tanks right now!

[souffle]

Your hammies are gorgeous. Boys are definitly very well endowed in the Chinese hamster and I would say yours were girls. Females will often squabble I beleive but you will just have to keep a close ye on them and see how they go. You are doing great with the taming etc. Be patient and you will soon be holding them I am sure.

[SnuggleHam]

Ya they look like females to me! I’m glad you got the photo thing worked out. Just a note however, I like to keep large images as url links on the forum. If the image seems to stretch out the width of the forum id appreciate it if you could make those larger images url links. In which case you wouldn’t use the IMG BBcode, I hope that makes sense.

It’s a rule I try and get everyone to follow. In this instant I wont edit the images. But for the future, anything this large or larger should be posted just as links. Thanks.