Hamster mistakes

[SmallFluffyBears]

If you are familiar with, ErinsAnimals, you will know she posted a video a while back about the mistakes she has made in the past when she first got hamsters. I decided to pinch her idea I'll go first...

HAMSTER MISTAKE #1

I was fooled by the Pets at Home manager who said the Ferplast Paula Cage would be suitable for the male Syrian I had just bought. This was when I was roughly 17/18 when I decided I would like to own a hamster for the very first time. He had the deathly fluffy bedding as nesting material which I thought was just fine at the time.

HAMSTER MISTAKE #2

I then went back to the same store a few months later to buy another male Syrian because I thought my other hamster needed a friend only to realise it was the most stupidest of decisions I had ever made resulting in one terrified hamster and one blood thirsty hamster. Neither of them were harmed! My parents next door neighbour had a Hamster Heaven I could have which was a big relief.

HAMSTER MISTAKE #3

I gave both of said hamsters water baths on a weekly basis thinking I was doing a good job by keeping their coats nice and healthy.

SIDE NOTE:
I literally jumped into the world of hamsters thinking I knew exactly what I was doing without doing any type of research and I also thought at the time that pet stores were very knowledgeable when it came to small animals. The things I'd tell my teenage self if I could go back in time!

What mistakes have you made?

[essentiallysue]

Of my first two hamsters, one came to me pregnant. She had her babies and I sexed them wrong and put one with the other female and she became pregnant, eventually I had 15 hamsters. I lined up cages all around separating the boys from the girls. I had them all in the closet. When I came to clean out the cages or feed them, I let the little owner/owners down on the closet floor to play. This worked well until one day I put a little boy down when I hadn't picked up the aggressive female from another cage. She beat him up with him bleeding all over and she with a mouth full of blood. He did heal, but I felt awful. I've never forgotten that mistake.

[RubyDG]

Fluffy Bedding. Bought because I was buying everything he had in his cage in the pet shop to try and make the transition easier on him. I did read after I got him home that tissue was better and fluffy bedding wasn't good but in my infinite stupidity decided that it would be fine for a few days as I didn't want to stress him further as I'd just brought him home. About two days later I heard a squealing screaming noise from his cage and he had one of his back legs tangled and was desperately trying to get free. I had to very carefully cut him free with a small pair of scissors. Needless to say the fluffy bedding went in the bin and my poor terrified hamster Spike promptly got a bunch of shredded tissue paper which is what he should of had in the first place. It was lucky that I was home, if I wasn't it could of ended really really badly.

[Amanda123]

When I was 9 I got my first pair of Syrians 2 girls and a medium sized cage they would fight some times but not always And they lived there whole life together in that medium sized bar Barbie cage I now know that I should never put 2 Syrian hamsters together ....

[barley]

I brought a Mini Duna to house my Syrian, but thankfully I joined this forum just before I got him, so I was able to learn quickly

[SinNyx]

Hm, where to start...

#1, I bought the starter cage from P@H, which I was told would last. Before that, I also bought the rotastak, but upon putting the hamster in I felt she looked massive in it, so it went back.

#2, I used fluffy bedding. Looking back I think one or two of my hamsters may have had early deaths because of it, as they passed away for no reason that I knew.

#3, let my family hamster sit. Ended up with one very lost hamster, later found in the kitchen, no idea how he survived the fall downstairs, and lived in the kitchen! They also didn't refill their bottles, maybe once or twice in the week I was gone (it was very warm). Lesson learnt.

#4, I had a hamster lead....soon learnt after trying to use it, my poor girly got so stressed out.

#5, I didn't give my hamsters wheels at first. Nothing came with the cage so I didn't think about getting one until I was older and researched. I felt so sorry for my first few hamsters being in a tiny cage, with pretty much no toys, and no wheel. No wonder they chewed the bars and kept me up.

Years later, my hamsters are all safe, well, in big cages with no fluff! One of the main reasons for that is probably the forum. Now, within the past year, I've rescued almost 50 hamsters and been able to give them a better living.