A little story

Penguin · 10-25-2015, 05:08 AM

I have a great little story to tell!

So a friend of mine has a sister who owns a syrian. Apparently she doesn't take care of it at all though.
I talked about it with my friend and asked if there wasn't anything she could do about it. She refused to talk to her sister as her parents are unreasonable and has the attitude that 'it's her hamster, not my friend's'. Same goes for if she tries to change its food or water herself.

This morning my friend told me that she had told her sister to care for the hammy (probably in a not so nice way) and it has got its first cage clean in 3 months! Clean water and food too in god knows how long.

I am really proud of my friend that she stood up for the hamster, even though it'll be bothersome for her with 3 people nagging her about how the hamster isn't her problem.

Although this isn't a 'happy happy' story, I'm still very happy that the tiny thing went from a dirty, unhealthy cage to a clean and nice one.
Hopefully my friend can convince her sister to keep cleaning it just once every 5-6 weeks and change its water and food more frequently. It might not be perfect hamster care but in the end it's better than never.

cypher · 10-25-2015, 05:12 AM

It's always nice to hear of people putting some effort into improving a hamsters life even when everyone else around is against them, well done to your friend!
Hope the sister does learn to accept that her hamster needs better care & things improve in the longer term, fingers crossed!

racinghamster · 10-25-2015, 07:16 AM

It makes you wonder why they even want a hamster if they can`t be bothered cleaning the cage or placing any focus on that hamsters welfare? When someone/others need to prod the owner into action, that would concern me that they are (a) lazy or (b) don`t care and have other, less important things to do.

Given the time scale you mentioned it`s a wonder the poor thing hasn`t passed on if she`s not feeding it properly. parents should be responsible for their child`s actions especially when a small pet is being ignored. She obviously pleaded to them to have a Syrian in the first place? As most kids do and then forget they are even there. x

Penguin · 10-25-2015, 12:03 PM

I couldn't agree more that you shouldn't let your kid have a pet if you aren't ready to be responsible for the pet when your kid loses interest. I also find it absurd that anyone would tell off their other kid when he/she is trying to care of it instead.
None the less I'm happy that that the hamster finally got the cage clean it deserved and fresh food and water.

The girl apparently just gave the hamster a mountain of food and my friend would change the water whenever she could do it unnoticed.

In the end I really don't understand how you can be lazy/not care to the point where you cant even be bothered to clean a cage once every few weeks and change the water and food daily. Water and food takes a minute or 2 and a full cage clean would take maybe 20 minutes.

The point of me writing this here was that i got awfully happy that the hamster would have fresh water and food frequently and a clean cage regularly. While I agree that more things should be considered to care for it 100% at least it is in a better environment now (:

cypher · 10-26-2015, 12:06 AM

All sorts of people seem to have all sorts of animals, not just hamsters, for reasons that are totally unfathomable to most of us but I agree Penguin, one small step forward for any little animal is something to smile about!

Penguin · 12-08-2015, 08:02 AM

Just bringing this up again, my friend took over the hamster and it will get a nice 80x40 cage later today with a proper wheel, his first sandbath, first house and more (:
Due to the tiny crittercage it has been living in until now it's very aggressive and won't accept anyone touching anything in his cage.

I attached a picture of the guy, I think he is very handsome and hope he will come along with a bit of love and proper care (:

cypher · 12-08-2015, 08:06 AM

He is very handsome!
I really hope he responds to the TLC & soon begins to enjoy life a whole lot more.

flowerfairy · 12-08-2015, 08:12 AM

Great update he looks a little sweetheart.

**kyrilliondaemon** · 12-08-2015, 08:47 AM

Its great your friend has taken over caring for the hamster now, I'm sure he'll appreciate the improved care

Wanna Hamster · 12-08-2015, 03:48 PM

Thanks for watching over him! Knowing proper hamster care is a blessing, but sometimes it can be a curse. What I mean is that if you see someone with their hamster in a Crittertrail and they think it's a HUGE cage, it can be really hard to keep your response polite and not longer than half an hour!