New Dwarf Winter White Russian Hamster Owner

[Lillithyia]

Hi! A long time since I posted, probably putting Moonstone (male Syrian) on the R.I.P. page.... Anyway, please, please, please don't bash me or anything!

For reasons that were out of my control, I have become the proud owner of a WWDH. It's a male, 3-4 months and from the state he came to me in, was obviously mistreated in his old home!!! Now I have raised several Syrian's, and did plan of getting a Dwarf Hamster at some point - just not quite yet! So I know that fruit is a NO, or if you do very very small quantities and frequency because of the risk of diabetes, and I know the basics in hamster care for them.... But other than that, I have no idea what I'm doing!

Please tell me everything! From food, to handling, to cleaning out.... I don't care if I already know it!

I'm going to include the state he came to me in, just so it might help you advise me in how to look after him after his obviously traumatic experiences in his old home. He came to me in a tiny (obviously one of those tiny shop bought "travel" cages), it was filthy! It looked like it hadn't been cleaned out in months! He had cotton nesting material, no wheel or any toys, he did have a hideaway.... And what angered me most of all, is he had no water at all! (it's about 25C average here atm)

I moved him (after I'd cleaned it, and bedded it) into an old cage we had (which is a little under legal size, but it was only for when we went away and family/friends didn't have room for a massive tank/cage. Never in there for more than a week!), he has 3 hideaways (one on each level), 2 bowls of food (I only had 2 bowls - 1 on the bottom level and one on the top), a big water bottle, (which is at the bottom, I was going to put one at the top too, but he didn't have one I could use), lots of toys to play with! And when it gets too hot I put a clean mug in there that's been in the fridge for a few hours.

Thank you.... I want to do right by him, as I've never been more disgusted in a pets living conditions! And I love him to bits! I named him Frozone

One other thing I do have a problem with is handling him.... It might have just been because he was terrified but I was moving him to his new (temporary - we're getting a Detolf on Sunday) cage, but he's so quick and I nearly lost him straight away as he jumped out of my hands! :'(

So yes, please tell me anything and everything I need to know about WWDH care! I follow a few hamster vlogs on YouTube and that is what I will probably be spending my day doing

Thanks!

[cypher]

Poor little guy, well done for rescuing him & giving him a good home.

It sounds as though you're doing things right so far, the only thing that I wonder about is the cage with levels, which cage is it?
They are quite good at climbing up on things then just falling off whether that be levels, bars or even toys so do be careful that if there is any where he might fall from he won't fall far & will land on nothing but soft substrate.
For food it's best to stick to a mix made specifically for dwarf hams really, something like the burgess dwarf mix or Zooplus do the JR farms dwarf mix & the Bunny dream basic dwarf one both of which are quite good & don't contain any sugars or fruits.
They can have fresh veg mostly greens & things like cucumber, not too much of anything like peas, carrots, corn or other sweet veg just introduce it gradually as he very likely never had any before.
They generally love mealworms & little sprays of millet if you want to give a few extras, in moderation sunflower or pumpkin seeds, a few flax seeds or some hemp seeds & very tiny bits of nut are good too, I generally leave a monkey nut in the cage, should last him ages, a whimzee & a piece of biscrok dog biscuit too.
They usually enjoy having a sand bath in the cage & will often use that as a litter tray too but if you can find a pee spot put a small container there with some chinchilla sand in & it will most likely get used, they are generally quite obliging with litter training!
I'm sure you'll do fine with him, just give him some time to settle in now & make himself at home before attempting much in the way of interaction. They do move very fast, as you discovered but aren't that hard to handle once they settle down a bit so don't worry about that too much!

[Lillithyia]

I can't remember what cage it is, my mum bought it when me and my partner and son got put into homeless accommodation for a few weeks and we weren't allowed pets so she had to look after him and couldn't put up our big cage. It has the base with about 4 inches of substrate, that he loves hiding in! And 2 levels with big ladders, I've put them up evenly so they aren't really that far apart (maybe about 4-5 inches apart).... It's only until Sunday. I have given him Burgess normal hamster food, as that's all I had left over from Moonstone. But when I get paid I'll go to the pet shop and get Dwarf specific food.... I'm going to put a sand bath into the Detolf as where he fidgets a lot/burrows he fills everything up with substrate, so I was going to have a "natural" feel to the Detolf cage.... A lot of deep substrate, with hideaways and some toys, then a separate sand/rock area with some drift wood - if I can get my hands on some.... It'll be built up with sand and 1 or 2 flat/smooth rocks which I can take out and put into the fridge for a few hours, before replacing them when it's really hot.... Are pine cones safe for Dwarves - once sanitised, obviously?

[cypher]

Pine cones are fine, a great place to hide small seeds away for them to find.

I'm sure he'll be ok until Sunday, the detolf sounds good, it will be a big change for him though so you may need to more or less leave him to settle for a couple of weeks, even when they really like a new cage such a big change can be a bit intimidating for them so don't worry if it takes him a while to get used to it.

[Lillithyia]

Yeah I don't expect him to come out very much or be social for a while, as he's settling. When he seems to have established a routine, I will try to add taming into that routine. He's so cute and while I want to do it right now, I know I have to wait for him to be ready.