Went to Shelter Yesterday..

[LokiWolf]

So I went to the local shelter yesterday as their PetFinder showed a long-haired Syrian up for adoption.

The Syrian was in a 5 gallon tank, but it was brought in that way and the shelter doesn't know any better as they rarely get hamsters in. They allowed me to open his cage up and handle him, but he was terrified of my hand so I only got one stroke before I decided he had enough. After the stroke, he went into terrified hamster stance with teeth bared, so I'm guessing he was never been petted/handled or had bad experiences with hands. Though I would have loved to save him, I don't think I'm ready to deal with a terrified Syrian with unknown background.

On the other paw, they had two Robos up for adoption too that weren't on their PetFinder. One looked about a couple of months old while the other was just a little baby, at least 4 or 5 weeks old or he could just be a runt and be a bit older than that. They don't know the genders, so they were in two separate cages.

So now I'm thinking about those two Robos, if they were known to be girls I'd snatch them right up and see if Charlotte and Scarlett would like to become a colony with them, if they don't I'd still keep them. But if they turn out to be boys, I wouldn't mind keeping them. Either way, I'd upgrade their small cages to tanks or bin cages as I'm not that much of a fan of those cages.

[Stockannette]

I wish I lived in NJ so I could come get him; I hate to think of him scared and living in a tiny place.

[LokiWolf]

I plan on letting them know about the size issue, I just didn't have time to yesterday. If I had more experience with hamsters to know what to do, I'd have taken him in a heartbeat.

I'm thinking about making a bin cage to donate for him as it's the cheapest solution to getting him a nice size cage.

[Stockannette]

Lovely ideas!

[petal10]

The bin cage idea sounds great, then you'd still be helping him