Getting ready

[Jasmine2016]

It's really happening, I am getting a robo!
I have found somewhere I can get a robo from, so I'm now busy making sure I have everything.

So here is my list and some questions:

1. Substrate - I have carefresh and I still have some woodshavings left over from when I had gerbils.......... can I use the woodshavings?

2. Bedding - torn up paper style?

3. Hide-a-ways - struggling to find any, does anyone have any good shops to look at (online and UK delivery?) (Probably not helping that I am trying to keep plastic down to a minimum)

4. Water bottle - what size would work for a robo? Are the normal size fine?

5. Wheel - what size?

6. Toys

7. Dried meal worms

8. Harry Hamster mix

9. Things to chew

10. Carrier - already have that.

[cypher]

Great news! look forward to hearing all about the new robo when it arrives

You can use the carefresh & woodshavings.
Bedding, nest material the one & only shredded plain white toilet tissue!
I use the 75ml classic "mouse" water bottles.
Cardboard boxes make perfectly good hideaways, agree plastic isn't good but there are some nice wooden ones around if you search online.
Wheel needs to be about 8"/20cm unless you find a 6.5" silent spinner that actually works.
Are you looking at any particular wheel?
Toys are fairly easy for dwarf hams although cheap or free things like egg boxes & card tubes are often the most popular.
Any reason you plan on using Harry Hamster? A robo can eat that but I would have thought a dwarf mix better, did we discuss that in another thread... my memory's failing me!
Things to chew, well whimzees

ETA A few possible hideouts.
Trixie nissan hut, I have one of these I haven't really used but it is a nice size & well made.
This wooden cottage is nice but both this & the first have the disadvantage of not having a flat roof or lift off top.
Lief cabin for a bit of luxury! Also available on zooplus, haven't compared prices lately. The only problem I've had with these is that nervous hams can hide under the stairs & be a bit hard to get too!
Ferplast sin another with a lift off roof & can also double as a shelf/platform which is handy & not a bad size for a robo.
P@H do a range of wooden houses too, this one would probably be ok for a robo.
I get most of my houses from Germany, a bit extravagant but I have plenty of links if you want them

[Jasmine2016]

Originally Posted by cypher

Great news! look forward to hearing all about the new robo when it arrives

You can use the carefresh & woodshavings.
Bedding, nest material the one & only shredded plain white toilet tissue!
I use the 75ml classic "mouse" water bottles.
Cardboard boxes make perfectly good hideaways, agree plastic isn't good but there are some nice wooden ones around if you search online.
Wheel needs to be about 8"/20cm unless you find a 6.5" silent spinner that actually works.
Are you looking at any particular wheel?
Toys are fairly easy for dwarf hams although cheap or free things like egg boxes & card tubes are often the most popular.
Any reason you plan on using Harry Hamster? A robo can eat that but I would have thought a dwarf mix better, did we discuss that in another thread... my memory's failing me!
Things to chew, well whimzees

Looking at this wheel:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kerbl-Hamst...den+20cm+wheel

Only that Harry Hamster is the easiest for me to get and I have used HH with great success with all my hamsters (and gerri gerbil for the gerbils), you did mention various dwarf mixes in my intro thread I believe, but I could not find a JR farm dwarf mix, only normal size, and the other one, name beginning with B I think, I found it online but not very good reviews and again none of the pet shops round here sell it.

[cypher]

Those wheels are a real pain to clean even with plastikote! You can almost guarantee a robo will pee et al in it's wheel so if you want wood you might do better with a Karlie wheel.
The dwarf mixes I mentioned are only available from Zooplus, the bunny dream is actually a really good quality food, this is the JR farm one, a bag of food last ages so I think it's worth investing in a nice mix that's dwarf specific but lots of people use syrian type mixes so that's entirely a personal choice.

[Jasmine2016]

Thank you very much.

I will look at all the links and if getting from zooplus isn't really expensive I will get the JR farm as I wanted to get JRF but couldn't find it.

Think I'll get a plastic wheel then!

[Jasmine2016]

Oh! Thought of a few more questions!

Just reading the ingredients, are mealworms essential with the JR farm food or is the protein in the food enough?

Love to see what you recommend from zooplus, might as well have a decent sized order

[cypher]

The protein isn't high enough alone, a few mealworms & a bit of chicken once or twice a week would really help, for a young, growing ham you want something closer to 19% protein, most seeds have reasonable protein levels so any of those you might give as treats would help to increase it a little too, they are also high in fat though so not too many!
All of mine love this chicken cat treat, great for hand feeding & taming too.

I'm trying to remember what else I order from zooplus, quite a lot lol! but I tend to forget what I get where these days
You can get things like millet sprays although you can probably get them locally, I really like the hugro hemp substrate which might work out cheaper than carefresh in the long run, I use it with Fitch.
They do the Karlie wheel, still wood but ok with a couple of coats of plastikote.
They do the usual ever useful bendy bridges & that sort of thing too so worth a good look around before you do an order!

[Jasmine2016]

Brilliant thank you, I'll get the chicken cat treat.
I'll get a plastic wheel I think, easier to clean!
I'll look at your other links, thank you so much.

[Cinnamon Bear]

Also, make sure your gerbil wood shavings do not have any pine or cedar in them, if your not sure I wouldn't use them, aspen wood shavings are good in the US but understand you might have a couple other options in the UK? But pine & cedar can cause health (respiratory ) problems. Congratulations on getting your new robo soon, be sure to take pics right away before nest time if you can?

[cypher]

Wood shavings have to be kiln dried in the UK CB so they should be fine.