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Old 01-07-2016, 11:59 AM   #1
fuzzyfriendly
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Smile My sweetie

Hi everyone,
I got her, I'm so happy!! She is supposed to be a she and a Campbell Russian hamster. But I got her from a kind woman that was giving her hamsters away, not a professional breeder. So I can't really be sure. She could be a hybrid. But we don't really have Winter whites in stores in my country. I don't know, you can be the judge .

My hammie is around six weeks old, very active and very curious. I was very happy when the breeder stroked her in the box and she didn't run away or freeze. Her eyes and nose are clear, poop is solid, she looks healthy. She was poking from her tunnel inside the box the whole ride home. At home, when I put her into her cage, she ran all over, checked everything out. Made a couple of laps on both of her wheels, dig through substrate, took a small piece of carrot from my fingers and then settled into her house. She is asleep now, I think, since I haven't heard a peep from her since.

I'm sorry for the bad quality of photo. I will post better pictures in the future, I hope, but I was just too excited to keep still


Last edited by fuzzyfriendly; 01-07-2016 at 12:10 PM.
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Old 01-07-2016, 12:29 PM   #2
flowerfairy
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Default Re: My sweetie

Aww lovely. How great that she already took some carrot from your fingers!

Look forward to seeing more of her.
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Old 01-07-2016, 11:20 PM   #3
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Default Re: My sweetie

She looks lovely, sounds like she's going to settle in quickly but still go slow & give her plenty of time to adjust to her new home, really look forward to hearing how she gets on & seeing more photos
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Old 01-08-2016, 03:31 PM   #4
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Default Re: My sweetie

Aww, how sweet! She is beautiful. I can't wait to see/hear more about her. I hope she settles in well. It sounds like she is doing great! All the best and congrats
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Old 01-08-2016, 11:42 PM   #5
Thin Lizzy
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Default Re: My sweetie

She's gorgeous! What have you named her? Is it Sweetie?
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Old 01-09-2016, 01:08 AM   #6
fuzzyfriendly
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Default Re: My sweetie

We named her Kepica, which means a small ball as in snowball, ice cream ball in our language

It might be a stupid question, but I'm not sure she is eating enough. How much does a young hamster eat? I bought Harry hamster food. When I brought her home I put two teaspoons in her bowl. She took and I'm almost sure she ate some of it, but most of it is still sitting there today (third day). I also gave her a tiny piece of egg white, squash and carrot. She ate those right away. (Don't want to give her too much, because I don't plan to thoroughly clean out her cage for at least a week. If she hoards fresh food somewhere it will go bad in a couple of days right? Besides I know fresh food has to be introduced slowly.) I haven't seen her pouch anything yet. If I want her to eat the right stuff, I should probably leave the hamster-food mix in her bowl and not change it for a while right? I think if I put a new spoon in, she will pick out stuff she prefers again. And that way she won't get the right ratio of ingredients. She is not peeing in the bowl, I have checked that.

I am thinking of scattering her food in the future. But for right now, I wanted to see if she is eating and how much. I know she is tiny. And in the back of my mind I know she won't starve next to a full food bowl. But I still worry a bit.

She is active otherwise. Right now I'm dropping bits of tiny food, leave my hand in front of her for a while and then slowly pull my hand away. She eats everything right away, and she hasn't ran away yet, so I guess she is not afraid of me. I haven't put her out of the cage to roam. I will probably do that in the beginning of the next week.
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Old 01-09-2016, 01:25 AM   #7
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Default Re: My sweetie

Love the name!

They don't eat very much really but I've found all my dwarfs do better with a mix designed for them rather than Harry Hamster, the biscuit bits can be a bit big for them & it doesn't really seem to appeal to them much.
Good dwarf mixes include Burgess super hamster dwarf hamster harvest which is readily available, JR farms dwarf hamster food & Bunny dream dwarf mix both available from Zooplus.
Mine rarely if ever hoard fresh food, as long as you only give a little they usually just eat it but keep an eye out just in case.
I'd go easy on the carrot & squash as they are quite sweet, try more green veg introducing them slowly & experimenting to see what she enjoys, they can be prone to diabetes so it's best to avoid sweeter veg, fruit & sugary treats if possible.
Have you tried her with mealworms? They generally go mad for those & one or two a day will give her a good protein boost.
I prefer to scatter feed but you might want to try to find a few places in the cage where you can hide it so she still has to hunt for it rather than just taking it from a bowl but you can still see what does or doesn't get taken to begin with.
It sounds as though she's doing fine & if you keep up the taming/getting her used to you with small steps the way you are I'm sure you'll be the best of friends in no time at all
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Old 01-09-2016, 09:14 AM   #8
fuzzyfriendly
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Default Re: My sweetie

I will try mealworms first thing on Monday! Can't wait to see the reaction.

I bought three brands of food before I got her. So today I gave her a teaspoon of Vitakraft food for mini hamsters. We will see how that goes. I also have Deli Nature 5* for mice, gerbils and mini hamsters. Do you think any of those would be ok?

I will also try to find Burgess or Jr Farm. I'm almost sure I saw JR farm in local pet store. But the packaging threw me off. That drawn hammie looked a bit too happy . It's actually a great time to experiment with packaged food, I think - because birds and other critters may enjoy my failed experiments in the winter. On the other hand I don't want any bird to get something stuck in it's throat. Darn, I can't win.

She wouldn't take a piece of cheese today but she went crazy for a nail size piece of parsley. I was planning to give her a small piece of basil but with all of the information out there ... I must admit I get confused sometimes. Green lettuce (except iceberg lettuce) should be ok right? I got strange info as far as cucumbers are concerned. I'm not sure about bell peppers as well. It just seems every time I check a piece of food, there is this one person that had a bad experience with it.

How bad are fruits like banana, apples and raisins? Is there a problem with sour green apples like granny smith?
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Old 01-09-2016, 10:24 AM   #9
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I'd forgotten it was you who asked about the Deli Nature 5, I think that should be ok, check the ingredients of the vitakraft one as I think it may have fruit in it, JR farms do both a syrian mix & a dwarf mix so you'll need to have a look for the right one.

Basil should be ok although none of mine have ever liked it!
Cucumber is perfectly safe, bell peppers are too, romaine lettuce is best but yes any lettuce except iceberg is ok in small amounts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, pak choi, broccoli, courgette, kale, spinach are all good things to try, the more variety you can give the less chance of giving too much of any one thing really, just try small amounts of different things & see how it goes.
The only fruit mine have is half a blueberry maybe once a week, a tiny tiny piece of apple very rarely but ok as a treat once in a while, not sour green apples though, try to avoid anything too acidic as their stomachs aren't designed to digest it, bananas & raisins are far too high in sugar so I wouldn't feed those at all, tbh they don't really need fruit at all & can get all the vitamins, minerals they need from veg without giving the extra sugar.
Hope that helps a bit.
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Old 01-10-2016, 08:36 AM   #10
fuzzyfriendly
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Default Re: My sweetie

Bought Bunny dwarf mix and mealworms. We will see how it goes today.

I had a bit of a panic attack an hour ago. I noticed she was spending a lot of time "drinking" from the water bottle just as I was planning to change the water. And I couldn't see any bubbles inside the bottle. Then I went and checked it and the water (for some reason) was not coming out, even when I moved the ball inside. The top of the bottle was totally dry, even after I kept moving the ball. WTF! I refilled the bottle, rinsed it (especially the part where the water is supposed to come out) with a clean toothbrush and now it seems like it works. I will recheck in a couple of hours. But I know that it was working, when I filled the bottle yesterday. Now I wonder if this has happened before and I haven't noticed. I am not sure she got enough water. Is it possible that our water is so hard that it blocks the outing in a half of a day? Did I make a mistake by filling the bottle to the top? But I think I have read somewhere that you have to fill it to the top and make some kind of vacum, or something like that. So that the water stays fresh.

Obviously I will make every mistake there is. I feel angry and scared right now. It seems I can't even rely on food&water supply I provide.
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