Hamster lockdown thread

[Ria P]

[QUOTE=Stella Maris;935862
Here's Oreo asleep with his bum on his wheel and his face in the dirt.[/QUOTE]

That is so funny! Did Oreo topple over?

[Ria P]

Originally Posted by sushi_78

I bought it from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Worl...upplies&sr=1-3

I do find how long they take to learn how to use it, or if they ever learn, varies a lot between individual animals. My last two gerbils never worked the puzzle toy out. My current two took a few weeks. My Robo hamster worked it out in minutes.

I'm going to order one but i don't think my lot is as clever as your lovely gerbils. Henry is far too lazy for a start.

[sushi_78]

Originally Posted by Ria P

I'm going to order one but i don't think my lot is as clever as your lovely gerbils. Henry is far too lazy for a start.

I think some animals take the view that there's no point in working for food when they have food in their bowl! Which is quite reasonable really. Others just like to have something to do. One of my gerbils will sometimes open the puzzle toy for fun and leave the treat behind. She isn't very bothered about food.

[Vierville]

So I took Baldrick out for a little run around this evening...he seemed to thoroughly enjoy it!

[Littlephodopusmom]

Aw look at his little inquisitive face

[AmityvilleHams]

Originally Posted by sushi_78

I think some animals take the view that there's no point in working for food when they have food in their bowl!

This is pretty much an accepted fact in the parrot community. Bowls remove the requirement to forage and ultimately promote boredom and laziness - especially with pets such as parrots!

I remember seeing the actual amount of time spent foraging for parrots specifically compared to how long it takes to eat food out of a bowl, and it was honestly pretty sad. It isn't the perfect comparison as these are different animals, but when you think about it all pets would have to forage on some level in the wild so feeding straight out of a bowl isn't the most enriching method - not even for pets who aren't viewed as extremely intelligent.

Foraging is a pretty big focus for me when it comes to pet care of any species. While I can't add any more pets into my family for quite a while now due to these unfortunate circumstances, it was always something I tried to figure out when researching the needs of all different pets. One of the biggest challenges probably would've been ferrets if I'd chosen to go the 100% raw diet route(they're obligate carnivores which really limits shelf stable treat choices, but there are some like Pure Bites) - pets like parrots, hamsters, rats, gerbils, guinea pigs, and rabbits for example are much easier to provide foraging for!

[sushi_78]

Originally Posted by AmityvilleHams

This is pretty much an accepted fact in the parrot community. Bowls remove the requirement to forage and ultimately promote boredom and laziness - especially with pets such as parrots!

I remember seeing the actual amount of time spent foraging for parrots specifically compared to how long it takes to eat food out of a bowl, and it was honestly pretty sad. It isn't the perfect comparison as these are different animals, but when you think about it all pets would have to forage on some level in the wild so feeding straight out of a bowl isn't the most enriching method - not even for pets who aren't viewed as extremely intelligent.

Foraging is a pretty big focus for me when it comes to pet care of any species. While I can't add any more pets into my family for quite a while now due to these unfortunate circumstances, it was always something I tried to figure out when researching the needs of all different pets. One of the biggest challenges probably would've been ferrets if I'd chosen to go the 100% raw diet route(they're obligate carnivores which really limits shelf stable treat choices, but there are some like Pure Bites) - pets like parrots, hamsters, rats, gerbils, guinea pigs, and rabbits for example are much easier to provide foraging for!

This is why I switched to scatter feeding the gerbils. One of the gerbils is very high energy and needs to be kept occupied (otherwise she resorts to bar chewing and destructive behaviour). The other one tends to mimic her behaviour. When I switched to scatter feeding, their behaviour improved a lot. She barely bar chews at all nowadays, only occasionally when she wants to free roam.

[Ria P]

Originally Posted by Vierville

So I took Baldrick out for a little run around this evening...he seemed to thoroughly enjoy it!

Aww, he looks so alert and curious. Hard to imagine now that he was a tiny little hamster when you first got him.

[Pebbles82]

Lol at Oreo! Baldrick looks very tame and adorable.

[LunaTheHamster1]

Originally Posted by sushi_78

I bought it from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Worl...upplies&sr=1-3

I do find how long they take to learn how to use it, or if they ever learn, varies a lot between individual animals. My last two gerbils never worked the puzzle toy out. My current two took a few weeks. My Robo hamster worked it out in minutes.

Thanks Sushi, I added it to my basket but won't place the order yet.It just seems too trivial to order at the moment what with people needing essential items at the moment.