Help my daughter just got a Chinese dwarf hamster

[Cinnamon Bear]

Depew store is 24 minutes/ 16 miles from where I live Just Googled it

Let me know how you are taming her? Are you picking her up or letting her come to you?

[cypher]

Don't use an ball at all, they can be dangerous for dwarf hams & most don't like them anyway, it's far better to set up a safe area where she can run around with toys to explore (even cardboard boxes & tubes will be fun for her) & you can interact with her at the same time.

Popsicle sticks are fine for making toys/hideouts etc, you don't really want her chewing them though.

About the only thing they like to pee in is chinchilla sand but you can try just putting substrate in the tray, find where she pees if you can & put the tray there then put some damp substrate in. Don't use the litter pellet stuff or anything else other than substrate or chinchilla sand.

[souffle]

Welcome - your Chinese sounds adorable.
We have two and we don't use balls with them. Tiny dwarf feet can easily get trapped and hurt in the ventilation slits. They also get scared being so exposed.
I'd provide the best you can in food for now till you can locate Hazel hamster or Burgess dwarf near you. Unless a proven diabetic don't pick anything out as it ruins the balance of the diet. Hopefully she will remain healthy and you won't have diabetic issues with her.
Our Chinese use the wheel as a potty and I think this is pretty common. The more you wash it the more they pee in it! They do get to a level they like of scent. Mine usually just use a corner and ignore the sand bowl except to have a roll in it!
I wouldn't use any commercial litter or gel just in case they eat or pouch it.

[JLPrairie]

Don't use commercial litter, almost all are extremely dangerous . I've learned that using bedding in the litter tray confuses the hamster, so it's best to use sand. Put the litter tray in the corner of the cage. Since hamsters feel more secure in a potty with a roof, commercial potties are good. There are a lot of videos on how to potty train a hamster.
Congrats on your new hamster! Since you got your supplies at a pet store, what cage do you have? Most commercially bought cages aren't large enough for a hamster.

[Graceread]

Wow, thank you everyone for your support. It took awhile but the only place I could find Burgess food was eBay or Amazon. I ended up getting it from eBay, along with chinchilla sand. We returned the exercise ball and the strawberry treats that we bought the day we got her. The first ingredient was sugar!

Cinnamon Bear you asked about if we let her come to us or just pick her up, we do both. Since my daughter is 7 she has been playing with her a lot. When we bought Coffee there were 4 hamsters, we handled all of them and picked the quietest one. My daughter and I made a fleece carrier we found on Pinterest. Search "super-cute hamster carrier - no sew fleece. (Sorry couldn't post URL).
They both love it.

Cypher thanks for all your advice on safe foods. Do you know if romaine lettuce, chia seeds, rye seeds or plain popped popcorn are ok to feed her?

I am so happy and relieved to have such help on this forum. I would post a pic if I could figure out how to do it. Also, we took a large plastic box that is made to keep gift wrapping in and it slides under my daughters bed. We open this up and Coffee has all kinds of paper and tubing rolls to play with and lots of space to run. Though we just bought a basic cage, maybe we need to get a bigger one or some extensions.

[Thin Lizzy]

Hi Graceread,
So good to read you've made some changes, romaine lettuce is fine but only occasionally and small amounts.
Spinach leaves & baby chard are good also.
As for seeds sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds & linseeds are very popular.
Plain popcorn should be ok as long as it's only an occasional treat.

[cypher]

Romaine lettuce is fine, any lettuce other than iceberg is ok.
Chia seeds are debatable, we've had discussions about it here before & never really concluded whether it was safe or not to feed dry, I have fed chia sprouts in the past but mostly don't feed it.
If by rye you mean just whole rye grains that's fine too.
I wouldn't give extra corn in any form tbh, as a rare treat is would be ok but not ideal for a diabetes prone species.

They play box sounds great!

You can post a pic one of two ways, either click the go advanced button & scroll down to manage attachments where you can upload it here or put your photo on a hosting site like photobucket then just put the image link here in your post.

[Cinnamon Bear]

I'm so glad that your daughter is so pleased with Coffee That's a real cute name too
Looking forward to pics! Keep us updated on how she is coming along...

[Graceread]

I'm not sure this is the proper link to post pictures. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Coffee is doing great. Here are 3 pictures. In the one picture my children made a maze for her. I did have a problem with her water bottle. I will post that
Under feeding/nutrition.
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[souffle]

aww bless those are lovely pics - Coffee looks like a very happy hammy with her young 'slaves' to tend to her every need I like the one where she is swaddled!