soon-to-be hamster owner 80%

[shaking]

Hello,
I am Jessica from Indonesia.
I am going to have my winter white soon. They are babies. I will wait until they 1months before i take one of them home.

I had my;
-. 90-metre aquarium reserved ( will ready by next week ).
-. German Horse bedding
-. Glass bowl for food.
-. Bottle for drink
-. Flying saucer / jogging wheel (sold at myy locat petstore )
-. Home-made food and Harry Hamster food.
-. A tunnel for playing
-. House

Now, I lack bathing sand.
Could someone tell me what should I use as bathing sand. Variety of selection is better. There is some problem choosing the sand.
Zeolit. What number of zeolit is the best?
Can I use sand for aquarium?
Sand for reptile? Like vermicullite, perlite, coco peat, or silica?

Somebody use child play sand too. But it must be microwaved first, but i didnt have microwave is there any other choice other than microwave?.

And for drinking, what if i use bowl instead of bottle. I saw Erin using bowl and put some stone in it, so the hammy could not soak itself in. Can i use aquarium stone too??

[AmityvilleHams]

Zeolite is not safe. Perlite, vermiculite, and the crystal type of silica are all unsafe as well for various reasons. Aquarium sand has questionable at best safety - you would need to get a natural dye free children's play sand and then rinse, sift, and bake it in an oven(all steps must be done for safety).

Coco peat and coconut fiber in general can be safe in small amounts as long as it's a good quality not dusty one. Keeping it bone dry can cause issues, but you don't want it to be too damp either as that can lead to serious issues like mold and just as much as dusty substrates can cause respiratory issues overly damp ones can as well. I wouldn't use moss for this reason.

I would be cautious with horse bedding though. It needs to be a known safe wood species, hemp, or similar safe materials - no unspecified wood and such or materials that can mold like a food based substrate(corn for example is unsafe for all pets for a variety of reasons including being essentially guaranteed to mold at some point).

For stones if you were to put one in a water bowl, you'll want to choose a very smooth rock that doesn't have any porous surfaces or tiny holes/cracks where bacteria could get into easily while being impossible to fully clean. If the bowl is shallow enough it won't be needed anyways.

[shaking]

Originally Posted by AmityvilleHams

Zeolite is not safe. Perlite, vermiculite, and the crystal type of silica are all unsafe as well for various reasons. Aquarium sand has questionable at best safety - you would need to get a natural dye free children's play sand and then rinse, sift, and bake it in an oven(all steps must be done for safety).

Coco peat and coconut fiber in general can be safe in small amounts as long as it's a good quality not dusty one. Keeping it bone dry can cause issues, but you don't want it to be too damp either as that can lead to serious issues like mold and just as much as dusty substrates can cause respiratory issues overly damp ones can as well. I wouldn't use moss for this reason.

I would be cautious with horse bedding though. It needs to be a known safe wood species, hemp, or similar safe materials - no unspecified wood and such or materials that can mold like a food based substrate(corn for example is unsafe for all pets for a variety of reasons including being essentially guaranteed to mold at some point).

For stones if you were to put one in a water bowl, you'll want to choose a very smooth rock that doesn't have any porous surfaces or tiny holes/cracks where bacteria could get into easily while being impossible to fully clean. If the bowl is shallow enough it won't be needed anyways.

Thank you very much.. then i should do more research about the sand... I even didnt have a oven ☹️☹️ to sterilized the child sand. Can i just fry it (without oil ofcourse, the same way as ppl fry coffee bean)??

On my city, for bedding, they only have Vitafkraft and Chipsi. I think vitakraft is better?? Am i right?

Do you have any sand idea again?

Thanks for the tip about stone.. and again, how much centimeter can consider shallow for winter white?
Also, did stone sterlized enough when i boil it for minutes??