Hamster plans for the future

[Fluffagrams]

Like Cypher, I've never had experience of true Winter Whites but Sooty (a Hybrid) was rather different in what she liked in her cage compared to my Chinese.

I've found that all of my Chinese have got very attached to certain things in their cages and can be quite bothered if they're removed whereas Sooty was a little bit more easy going about things. For my current Chinese, that's usually a hammock and a little cube toy but Matthew also is rather attached to his rainbow bridge toy that has been a part of his life since he first ventured out of his mother's nest as a baby.

They are very good climbers and can climb out of things that you just wouldn't expect them to so if you've got a particularly cheeky one then you'll need to keep your eyes on them if they're not in a container with a lid on. They will probably climb up the bars on their cages and you'll probably find that there's very little you can do to stop them, even if you give them lots to climb on in their cages. Although they can climb down very well, it's still best to make sure that they've got something soft to land on.

Chinese can be quite sensitive to lots of open spaces and I've found that mine have done better with gradual upgrades to their caging rather than going from the comfort of living with their siblings in a smaller cage to living in a large space on their own straightaway.