My snowy ham, Chance

[Drago]

Updates on little Chance


I suppose it's been a little while since I've updated this thread! Chance has been doing excellent as of late! I believe he's gained enough confidence to be upgraded to an appropriately sized bin (hopefully by summer I can have him up to a square metre cage!) I'll be heading to Walmart this weekend to sort out his living quarters. In more exciting news, Chance is responding to the taming surprisingly well, and I was able to pick him up for the first time a few days ago! He sat comfortably on my hand before walking off and going about his business, so I hope to continue this trend with him.

Unfortunately, he's got a nasty habit that has me worried sick about him! He LOVES ripping his water bottle off the Velcro and burying it so it soaks all the substrate and his tired owner must clean it every morning *sigh* I'm more worried though that he's not drinking enough due to the fact that at my daily bottle rinse+fills I notice he drinks a ton of water once I return it to his cage so I'm not sure if he's too thirsty. I've decided it might be worth adding a water dish in addition to his bottle so that he always has a source of fresh water available. Unless of course he chooses to spill that too (which wouldn't be too unlikely knowing him) I guess I'm looking for experience from people with some naughtier hams who like ripping bottles off or people who just give bowls instead. Do your hamsters seem to use both the bottle and the bowl or prefer one over the other? Thanks! I'll be sharing pictures of his new set up soon

[cypher]

Good to hear that little Chance is gaining confidence with you & taming is going well

Silly boy is obviously having fun with that bottle but not a very practical game lol!
I use bowls with all my hams & they seem to prefer them to bottles & as long as you can find a suitable spot in the cage where they won't get knocked over or filled with substrate they work well & are easier to keep clean too.
Just make sure the bowl isn't too deep or big, something like one of those really small reptile dishes can be ok or even a glass tea light holder.

[AmityvilleHams]

Petco sell a $3 reptile dish that would be perfect for hamsters to use as a water bowl!It's small and shallow,making it just right,along with being considerably cheaper than most reptile bowls(which are also way bigger than you need to get,and potentially too deep).

[Hamsterita]

I think that getting him a bowl could be a good idea, and a reptile dish sounds fantastic, I was thinking about giving it a go too. Specifically I was thinking about getting something like thisComedero para agua y comida - Alimentación reptil

I'm sure he's going to love his new house

[Drago]

Thank you both so much for the tips! Chance has an area of the cage where I place ceramic tile on top of the bedding (which adorably enough he made his nest under) so I think I'll place the bowl there so if he somehow manages to spill it, I can easily wipe it off the tile.

Exo Terra® Reptile Feeding Dish | reptile Food & Water Bowls | PetSmart

Do you think this dish would work well? I have this kind already, but if you think something more shallow would be better I'll keep looking

[cypher]

It's hard to tell from the photo Drago how big/deep it is but it looks fine as far as I can tell.

Hamsterita that one looks good for Blacky too.

[AmityvilleHams]

I can't say it would be suitable,not knowing the dimensions Considering it could be very large and potentially too deep,I'd say no unless the dimensions could be found and would be suitable for a hamster.

The Petco one is around half an inch tall I believe,much less height than most bowls provide(the majority being an inch or higher).

http://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcost...l-reptile-dish

That one is currently on sale too,making it about a third the price of the Exo Terra bowl!There are probably other good things to stock up on currently on sale too,but if you decided to purchase in store instead(which would cost the regular price) you could also buy some Wet Noses dog biscuits while in store($2 pack would give quite a few hamster size servings,extremely high quality organic biscuits with nothing bad in them,check the ingredients on each flavor though!).Those do make it more of a purposeful trip I suppose,rather than only getting one thing,especially if you get a few different flavors to try!