Hubble's thread

[Jen250]

Hi everyone, meet Hubble. He's a gorgeous Syrian hamster I got just yesterday, and I love him to bits already. He's in a Savic Sky, and he seems to really enjoy exploring. Here are a couple of pictures I snapped when I introduced him to his cage. He went right for the food! I have a feeling he's going to be a big eater.

[Thin Lizzy]

Hi Jen and Welcome to HC.
Congratulations on your new addition Hubble who's absolutely gorgeous and looks well and truly settled into his new home.

[cypher]

Awww hello Hubble!
He's lovely, congrats!

[Pebbles82]

He certainly is gorgeous and he looks happy in his new cage!

[BrainGirl]

He is beautiful! And I love his name. Are you an astronomer?

[Pebbles82]

Just noticed the wheel that comes with it - it might be too small for a Syrian. Is it 6" or 8" diameter? Sadly most cages come with very small 6" wheels that can cause back pain to Syrians and are only suitable for dwarf hamsters. If it's 8" it will do while he is a baby, but the rule of thumb is when they are running in the wheel their back and head need to be in a straight line, not curved. If it's too small you could hang a 27cm wodent wheel from the top of the cage in about the same position as the current wheel probably (I posted on your other thread about tubes and if you look at the photo I have the huge 30cm wodent wobust wheel hung upside down in there, with the stand sitting on the top of the cage. The 30cm is a bit too big for my cage actually but our Syrian is ginormous. The 27cm is much neater and is fine for most Syrians.

Anyway I think it does look like an 8" wheel so it should be ok for now but here's some info about the wodent wheels in case you need to upgrade at some point.

I kind of reviewed them both recently so you can see the size difference here

The 27cm wodent wheel is the one in the middle. My 30cm wobust wheel is on the left and the Karlie Wonderland 29cm wood wheel is on the right. The second photo shows how it fits in the cage spacewise (cage is same size as yours). They work much better hung from the top of the cage though, which is similar to having it screwed to the bars and means you still have a good layer of substrate underneath.

[Pebbles82]

You could probably put another 2 or 3" of substrate in the base too - sometimes they like to dig tunnels if it's deep enough, and it will also make it easier to get into the wheel and it helps cushion any falls if they climb from things (or jump out of the sputnik!).

[Jen250]

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

The wheel that came with the cage is 8" but it's already giving me issues, haha. He's small right now, so his back isn't arching, but it's hard for him to get to it. I had to raise it up from where it is in the photo because it can barely move when it's rubbing against the blue base. So, it's a bit high. I made a little platform for him to reach it, but I'm going to replace it soon with a bigger one that has a stand.

Good point about the substrate, Serendipity. He already likes to launch himself off the platform and out of the sputnik, so I need to make sure he doesn't hurt himself!

[Jen250]

Hubble had a big day today. He decided the plastic tubes in his cage were the perfect place to build a nest and do his business, so I had to remove them. After, he seemed a little stressed, but then calmed down and explored more than he has the entire time since he came home.

Hey, what'd you do with my tube nest?


Ooh, what's this? Crunch, crunch.


He also came over to ask for a treat, so he can't be too mad at me.

[Shannonmcn]

Hi Hubble! He's completely gorgeous Jen!

I have the hamster heaven, basically the same as the sky metro, and that lovely deep base is just begging to be filled up with substrate for digging! My girl likes to chuck herself off things too so a nice deep layer made me a bit less scared she was going to break her silly neck.

Sports direct mug snap!! I love how tiny your baby boy looks compared to my big chunky girl lol