Hamster lockdown thread

[Vierville]

Sorry, not sure how to rotate them to the right way up!

[Ria P]

Aww, he looks a right little pudding on the last photo. He is so cute!

[Vierville]

Little Baldrick coming out to see what's going on (ie to see if I have a mealworm for him).

[Petite]

I've never offered my hammy mealworms. Should one buy the live or dried variety?

[AmityvilleHams]

Live mealworms have superior nutritional value, especially if you feed them before you give them to your hamster.

[Vierville]

Originally Posted by AmityvilleHams

Live mealworms have superior nutritional value, especially if you feed them before you give them to your hamster.

Absolutely right. My hamsters all unanimously prefer fresh mealworms over dried ones. Their food mix contains dried mealworms which they eat but they go crazy for fresh mealworms.

By 'fresh' I mean 'live' , or more accurately 'very recently alive'. It is very strongly advisable to cut the worm's head off before giving it to your hamster. You can easily do this with a scissors. Mealworms have tiny but quite sharp and strong jaws and can bite a hamster in the mouth resulting in a wound and possible infection.

I put a bedding of oat bran and a piece of carrot and gemsquash in with the mealworms in their tub as a source of nutrition and moisture for them. It is also very easy to raise your own mealworms.

It sounds a bit savage but its really not that bad and hamsters love them and it is an excellent source of protein.

[Ria P]

Originally Posted by Vierville

Little Baldrick coming out to see what's going on (ie to see if I have a mealworm for him).

Very amusing photo of Baldrick. His lordship looks so aloof waiting for his mealworm to be served on a silver tray.

[Vierville]

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...and Baldrick eating his evening veggies!

[Vierville]

Sorry for posting so many pics of my little ones, I've been totally unable to sleep the last five nights with uncertainty and stress on my mind so I've been spending a lot of time with my little hamster buddies. Baldrick is definitely the most gregarious of my three. Nanuk, bless him, is on a new eye medicine and administering it makes him very grumpy so he spends a lot of time burrowed deep under his substrate under his wheel.

Norman has been very skittish this week and comes out from his top hide for a few minutes at a time, scurries frantically, has a little run on his wheel then darts back in. I did hand feed him three mealworms earlier which he took.so gently.

[Ria P]

Here's a photo of my first lodger who is currently residing at Casa Cacti, temporary accommodation for homeless hamsters.

I collected her today on my way home from work, all Covid-19 precautions adhered to, no human contact at handover.

She's seven months old, has one black eye and one red eye which makes her look a bit odd but she's a healthy, chunky and very lively Syrian hamster who deserves the chance of a better life. She had been given to a little boy who had lost interest in his furry toy so she ended up in the free ads.

Tomorrow i'm going to take her to the rescue to be rehomed with people who are willing to provide her with what she needs and who will love her for the little oddball hamster that she is. I will do the shopping for a very elderly relative en route to justify my journey to the government should i need to.