Blacky's Thread - The Black Spanish Syrian Hamster

[AprilPearl]

Watched all those videos this morning and am coming back to comment now. There's something very relaxing about watching Blacky. Maybe it's because he comes across as such a chilled out guy.

His reaction to gammarus (which, incidentally, I had never heard of before today) is exactly like Mushu's disgust when presented with mealworms.

Oh, and would it be creepy to say that you have a very nice voice?

[SKB_Hamsters]

Originally Posted by Hamsterita

SKB thanks for your lovely comments. Have you already tried hemp? I'm very allergic (to almost everything, dust, pollen, animals... and I cope ok with hemp). I'm so pleased with the flower!!

Yes, I have already tried hemp when I had Sherbet, although it was a different brand from the ones sold on zooplus - as I wanted to try a smaller bag first - but it made me very wheezy so it might just be the brand but I didn't want to risk buying a large quantity and it to affecting my allergies. So I decided to stick with fitch - as both Pumpkin and myself really love it!



Lovely videos of Blacky eating his treats they were very cute to watch - it was very funny watching him refusing to eat his gammarus - even when hidden amongst his other treats. It was very cute that Blacky climbed up your arm to get away from them too!

[Thin Lizzy]

Originally Posted by cypher

Tomato flesh is fine Lizzy, just as long as it's really ripe, the seeds & skin shouldn't be given though.

Thanks that's good to know Cypher, must try it with Harvey.

[Hamsterita]

Thank you very much BP, cypher, TL, Rads, AP, and SKB !!


BP yes, he eats the pepper's skin, however he peels the peas' skin... these hamsters are very silly.

BP and AP I also find very relaxing to watch Blacky eating, he is so gentle and cute... but he probably is like that because he is a little bit afraid. Lately he was pouching all his food, but these days I managed to shoot him again munching some food.

BP and cypher I also like when he puts his paw on my fingers. he is so sweet and his paw is so soft that it melts my heart.

BP, Cypher and AP. I bought the gammarus because I had read that they were a good protein source and that syrians usually don't like mealworms. Well, gammarus can be yukky but definitely I prefer them to mealworms. Thinking about that disgusting creepy crawlers gives me the creeps. I'm sorry for him but we're going to stick to chicken, I would make the sacrifice for a hybrid, but the chances are that he is not going to like them anyway so I prefer to stay away from them.

Thanks for the tip TL, but after a lot of research I reached to the conclusion that it's fine to feed tomato from time to time as long it doesn't have seeds and you remove the green parts (as cypher said). Some sources like this one Einführung in die Ernährung und Futterliste - Futter und Ernährung - www.das-hamsterforum.de say that it's ok, and other like this one Can Hamsters Eat Tomatoes? - Online Hamster Care. I specially like this last page to know more about specific food, and it says that the danger of the tomato is its water content, not his acidic content so as long as you don't give it too often or too much and the stools are hard It should be ok. (btw if you follow blindly that page you couldn't feed them almost anything, because they say that things like spinach also have too much acidic content, or zuccini because it has too many sugar and so on). I suppose that using baby food with tomato shouldn't be dangerous because baby food is already soft and the proportion will be very little.

Rads I'm sure Pip is enjoying her veggies so much! I watched this morning her video eating parsley and she looks very cute. But her videos digging are the best ones! She is so funny.

AP thank you!! Anyone had said anything like that to me! But I can understand why, my voice it isn't feminine at all, I have a strong galician accent, and I don't like how my voice sounds in the videos either, but I'm glad you like it! you are very nice.

SKB I'm sorry to hear that you already have tried it and that hemp gave you allergies. I would probably prefer fitch if I could buy it anyway so I think that your substrate is better!

[Hamsterita]

[CHAPTER SIXTEEN - LAPRADERAONLINE HAUL]

Yes, I know I know, I have been so bad lately, I admit it, I'm an obsessive compulsive online buyer!!

On Wednesday I finally placed my order to lapraderaonline. They were so fast!! The same day they notify me that my package has been sent, and I received it yesterday. Today I baked the goodies in the morning and I placed them in the cage before lunch with one of the houses of Donmascota (I still haven't file the other two, there's no much room for them anyway).

Would you like to see what I finally ordered? Then keep reading.

A photo of the whole haul.


At the beginning I was a little bit disappointed. I didn't like some of the items because I had imagined them smaller and I thought that they were too big, like this one. However now that it is in the cage I think that it looks very nice.


Let's see them more closely, and talk a little bit about them

I still think that the parrot hanger is too big, actually I didn't put it in the cage. I bought it because I thought that I could use it as a chew, but now I think that Blacky could have the terrible idea of try to climb it and I don't like it, so I still don't know If I'm going to use it or how.
I wasn't planing to buy another water bottle but I did because I noticed that mine was getting rusty, I don't know how that could happen but it did, and in a matter of days it was in a terrible condition. I don't like this one, it doesn't have a ball in the end and it leaks like a broken tap. I have to think about getting another one, but I couldn't leave the old one in the cage. If I see that this one is more a problem than a solution I'll put a bowl in the cage in the meantime

(this is my old water bottle, the sippy from ferplast. too expensive, too bad. not to mention that the hamster position to drink is terrible too. the only good thing that he has is the way to attach it to the tanks
)

I wanted a toy made with loofa and I liked this design. The wooden fruits are terrible, when I baked them one of them exuded something, because it had some bubbles all over it, so I tossed it, I kept the rest, but not I'm paranoid with their safety.


I wanted some hanging toys and these were the ones that I liked the most, but now I think that the "flower" (the one in the right) is hideous. Actually I'm keeping this one aside in case I need one in the future, because I didn't feel like it was real necessary to put it in the cage and it looks terrible in my opinion


Blacky never pays attention to his toys, but in the past he had a little radish and he enjoyed pulling out the green parts, so I bought him another one. I think that the watermelon looks very cute, and I'm probably going to get the orange too. They are very cute. I also bought him the rosewood boredom breaker because I thought that the top part of the carrots is similar to the radish, and that would be fun to use it to hide him treats.


However I'm very disappointed with the rosewood boredom breaker. I had to file it because it had a lot of sharp edges (maybe i'm too cautious but I would prefer that toys had a smoother finish) and I find something that look like mould. I cleaned it, but I didn't like it. I think that I always have the worst of lucks with hamsters stuff


I bought him these balls because he doesn't have things made with those materials and I like to offer him variety. The grass seeds came with substrate and I don't like that, but I'm probably going to try them anyway, I have to think about it. And the flowers are ridiculously small. It's good that it was meant to be something to test if he likes them. I don't know If I'm going to repeat with the last two items.


And finally a hyacinth tunnel and the sample that they always sent with the order. I really like the hyacinth tunnel is big and the material is different from other tunnels that I've seen. I don't know what to think about the hay that they sent me as a sample. I like that it's very green and that all the bits are similar (in size, in texture, in quality...) it's not like other hay that have bits that are greener, others yellowish, others softer than others... However I find it a little bit rough, but maybe It was only the first impression. I have to take a better look once is defrosted.

[Hamsterita]

And I couldn't finish this order without buying something for me hahaha. Since I have seen Rad's sign I wanted one, and I finally have it!

it says "beware of the hamster"

And they had this model too and I bought it for my room's door.

it says "hamster on patrol"

This is how everything looks on his cage. I know that the photos are garbage but today it was very cloudy

The first floor

the Upper part

the left side

and the right side


This is Blacky after our shopping spree hahaha

This one is from this HoM photoshoot. I think that he looks like is going really fast in the cart because his ears are like when the wind blows your hair. Do you understand what I mean?

And this is me checking if he knew how to drink from the new water bottle, and then trying to show him what it was.... it was an epic fail of course. Now I feel like an idiot for just trying

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwHJaZtNzCk
By the way, he stayed on sight for a long time for being him.

[BorisPasha]

Some nice stuff there for Blacky, I have some of those things too I got the naturals trio of fun balls for Boris and Pasha back when we first got them, I was surprised they were so big (for my boys anyway), but Boris seems to like pushing them about in the ranch and nibbling at one of them so it worked out ok in the end. I also have a hamster sign, "Beware if the dwarf hamster" it says, obviously referring to Artie His cage looks really good, natural with a bit of colour (reminds me a bit of SKB's cage for Pumpkin), I like that style

It was good to see him out and about investigating the new things, though I did laugh when he was at his new water bottle, sorry Blacky I couldn't help it

I do know what you mean, it does look like he's racing along in the trolley. He's a very good boy helping you with all that shopping lol.

ETA I keep meaning to say and I keep forgetting but your new sig is really great

[cypher]

Looks like a great haul, there's always something that doesn't turn out to be as good as we expected or maybe a bit different but overall Blacky did really well there!
I wouldn't worry about the nibble grass, I wouldn't leave the tray in the cage unsupervised as it has the vermiculite in it but it should be safe supervised or you can just cut some for him.

His cage really does look great with all his new things
I had a little bit of a laugh at the vid too, lovely seeing him exploring & I love the way he stands at the front of the tank with his little paws on the glass
The water bottle was funny though!

ETA from me too lol! as I also keep forgetting to say how much I like your sig!

[Coco61]

What a wonderful haul of treats for Blacky. He is a lucky ham! I hope he likes them.
I did enjoy watching the video to see more of him exploring around. Cute boy when he comes to the front to see you!

[Thin Lizzy]

You are so bad buying all that stuff lol! You've made me want to go and buy some things for Master Harvey.
Blacky's one very lucky boy and his glass house looks superb! I so love the videos. xx