Hamster lockdown thread

[Ria P]

Originally Posted by 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 derp 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.

Please keep posting photos and keep writing about your hamsters. They play such an important part in our lives and its always a joy to see pictures of these little chatacters.

[NubiNuNu]

Here is a photo of my robo hamster Cove in her cage, sorry if you can't see her face i was trying to get a shot of the cage.
[IMG][/IMG]

[Vierville]

That looks like a nice setup! Lots to keep Cove busy with. I see Cove has a Whimzee which is definitely a big favourite with my hamsters. They guard their whimzees closely and move them around their cages between hides, even up and down their tubes which connect the different levels.

Yesterday I found Nanuk had put his Whimzee into his toilet though and had wee'd on it...

[Vierville]

Originally Posted by 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.

Ah Ria P she looks lovely! And she most definitely deserves a home where she will be appreciated.

Good on you for helping!

[Petite]

Originally Posted by Vierville

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.

So have I got this right: I should buy the mealworms alive and cut their heads off?!!!!
I have a horror of small, squirmy things (spiders, beetles, earwigs, you name it) and don't think I could actually even handle a live mealworm, especially if I then had to decapitate it. That probably makes me a complete wimp, but much as I love Freya dearly (she's now been in her forever home for one week) I seriously think she may have to survive without her mealworms.

[Vierville]

Petite, I really do understand how you feel about squirmy things.

I must be honest I wasn't thrilled at the idea initially but I've become used to it. Seeing how happy my hammies are to get fresh meal worms makes it worth it but I still feel a tiny bit bad for the worms...

I've seen people handling the worms with plastic rubber-tipped tweezers too which woukd remove the need to actually touch them but you'd still have to squash the worm's head or cut it off (sounds awful I know).

[cypher]

If you don't like handling things like worms then stick with dried as you have to feed & care for the worms too, if that's not done properly then the nutrient value of the worms will decrease & you're better off with dried. For. people who enjoy that sort of thing then great but if not don't bother!
None of my hams have ever been particularly fussed over live mealworms & are quite happy with dried.

[Vierville]

Cypher is correct that you do have to feed and look after the worms and separate the beetles once they grow up.

[NubiNuNu]

Originally Posted by Vierville

That looks like a nice setup! Lots to keep Cove busy with. I see Cove has a Whimzee which is definitely a big favourite with my hamsters. They guard their whimzees closely and move them around their cages between hides, even up and down their tubes which connect the different levels.

Yesterday I found Nanuk had put his Whimzee into his toilet though and had wee'd on it...

Haha, Nanuk sounds like a cute little ham..

A few days ago, I was cleaning out Cove's sand by sifting it and I lifted up her hide and found that she had emptied her cheeks in the sand. Another thing she does is that she wil try to burrow on the side of the bendable bridges and she made a tunnel to go into instead of going on the stairs.. Hamsters are really smart

[Coco61]

This made me chuckle today!
Sorry it rotated
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