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Old 11-04-2016, 10:47 AM   #1
Hamsterita
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Default Blacky's Thread - The Black Spanish Syrian Hamster

Hi!

I’ve seen that other members of this forum write about their hamsters. It’s really interesting to read about other experiences, and watching their photos is heart warming.

Encouraged by other stories I decided to share mine. I don’t know if anyone is going to be interested, or if the reader is going to be able to understand me, I’ll try my best, as English is not my native language. I think that talking from the hamster perspective is very fun (as pinkneon does), but I’m not going to do that because it’s already hard to me to think about how I’m going to say what I want, and it would be even harder to think about how a third party would say something. Moreover, I’m a noob in hamster care, or at least in proper hamster care (I had 4 hamsters in the past, when I was little), so I haven’t been able to know for sure his behavior or his needs.

I have something to disclose. Before I get my new hammie I did a research about his needs, about what was going to be better for him, food, cages, toys, health… In my country, and general in Spanish, is really hard to find good information and updated information about hamster care. Maybe internet has made me jump to wrong conclusions but I think that on the UK and Germany the concern about his well being is bigger than in other countries. It’s sad to say, but let’s say that in my country (and in general in other countries) they are like second class pets. It’s not like we are cruel with them on purpose, but I think that people think that they don’t need much attention, or care, and that they don’t have special needs, and obviously the consequences are that they are unconsciously mistreated. This make us look really bad, but is the truth. And that’s the reason why I made some mistakes choosing some of the things that I needed (the cage for instance). Don’t judge me please, I’m working on solve all the problems that I’m facing as soon as I can, but constructive criticism we’ll be always well accepted, because the only thing I want to do is to improve and give my hamster the best life that I can give him.

On the other hand, I don’t want to depress anyone, but maybe some of the things that you’re going to read are sad (for the reasons pointed on the top). I encourage you not to stop reading, is good to know how fortunate you are, and turn the eye blind to the realities of other places doesn’t make the problem disappear, on the contrary, and we, that know how they should be treated, should condemn and try to fix the injustices where they are taking place.

Anyway, as I said before I’m going to share my story, and it will help me to unburden me, because I love to talk about my hamster, but people around me don’t seem to understand how a grown up can be so flattered about “a stupid rodent”.

It’s been a while since I get my little boy (a month and a week), and a lot have happened, so I’m going to start sharing his story little by little til I catch up with the present time, and It may sound weird but I’m going to divide the relevant posts in chapters hahaha
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Old 11-04-2016, 10:56 AM   #2
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Default Re: Blacky's Thread - The Black Spanish Syrian Hamster

CHAPTER ONE - BACKGROUNDS AND THE DIFFICULT CHOICE

Let’s start from the very beginning.

I’m allergic to animal hair, so I can’t own dogs or cats, but for some reason that I don’t understand (maybe because they’re really tiny) I can stand well hamsters without many allergic symptoms. It was being a while since I hadn’t any pets.

In the past I had a dog for about 16-17 years, a beautiful black cocker. That’s how I discovered my allergy, and it was a nightmare. I wanted to cuddle him, but I couldn’t stay near him for too long without being ill, and we couldn’t stay on the same floor of my house together, so, I developed my regular life on the second floor while he was on the first one. He was very loved, and I think that he lived a long and beautiful life, but it was clear that for my well being, I couldn’t repeat the experience.

I also had several hamsters. Now that I read about their care I know how a bad owner I was. It wasn’t on purpose, it was lack of knowledge, but it makes me feel terrible anyway. The first one was a cream syrian, and I named her Chispita (little sparkle). I was really little and I don’t remember much about her (I always thought that all my hamsters were he(s) but now that I know how they organs look, they were obviously all she(s) because they hadn’t testicles). I think that she didn’t have a long life. I don’t remember having her for too long. She was very untamed, she didn’t let me (or anyone) touch her, and she was always chewing her bars (she was probably in a total inappropriate cage, I don’t remember the measures but I don’t think it was big enough). My parents said that she “scaped”, but I don’t know if she really scaped from her cage or if she died before that.

After some time, my parents bought me another two hamsters. A long haired brown Syrian, Skippy (like the TV Kangaroo), and a panda Syrian, Pandy. Both females, and both in the same (tiny again) cage. Yes, we didn’t know how wrong it was. We didn’t know that two Syrians can’t share the same cage, and we didn’t know that our super fancy cage wasn’t enough. The hammies were from a pet store and they sold them to us in pairs. For them it was ok, super natural and normal. We were very lucky because we didn’t have to suffer the so predictable tragedy, they didn’t have the chance to fight, but we had another one. I really loved Skippy, I remember that she always wanted to go out of his cage and play with me, I don’t know why but she was very tamed and she seemed to enjoy human company. I tried my best with her, but I was a sevenish or so, a little ignorant. I didn’t know that hamsters can’t be bathed, and one day that I had seen her long fur dirty I decided to “clean her”. She died soon after that. Probably my parents didn’t know that she died from a disease and they did anything, so, the virus was left on the cage and Pandy died too. After this, we had a very bad shock and we decided that we had enough hamsters for the time being

All this happened more than 20 years ago, so I don’t know if so long ago there were studies on other countries, if we were the only ignorants, or what, but I feel so bad for being such a bad owner. I wish I could change that.

About ten years ago I had the last one before Blacky. I had broke out with my ex boyfriend and he gave it to me as a gift, trying to win back our relationship or something. I named her Nero (like the Devil May Cry star, I tought she was a he), a beautiful long haired cream Syrian, and she lived a little bit more than a year. One day his long tail of fur started to fall, and after some time, she passed. I thought that with this one I have done things right. I thought that she died from an old age, that the cage was right, and the food, and the litter… but now I know that I didn’t do it right either.

4 years from now I’m probably going to have to move, so when I decided that I wanted another hamster, I searched for his life spam, to be sure that I was going to be able to keep it until the end, and I saw that they last over 2-3 years, so I started to think that maybe with Nero I had done something wrong too. And that’s why I started to search information about their proper care.

I read that I had to buy all the things that I need before taking him home, that sawdust litter is the worst one, that cotton is the worst nesting material, that they need a food with proper ingredients and high on proteins, that they need fresh veggies anyway, that they enjoy sandbaths, that hamster balls are not advised, that they need a big cage, toys … I didn’t know all those basic things. The information in Spanish is very outdated, so I order the wrong cage. I hadn’t discovered foreign sources and I had read that 1000 Cm2 was enough, so I bought one with only 1600 Cm2. The worst part is that here I had to dig heavens and hell to find “a cage so big”. I’m already searching for alternatives.

I had to bought almost everything on the internet. Physical pet stores are more outdated than the information, and online ones aren’t much better. Thank god there are a few foreign ones that ship internationally as zooplus.

As I said, I had a lot of problems getting my new “big” (but not big enough) cage. I have to wait 3 weeks for it because I couldn’t find a store that had stock. Meanwhile, I started to look places where I could buy my Ham. Sadly where I live there’s no breeders, and neither rescue centers that work with hamsters that I know of. Actually, I think that there’s no real breeders in the hole country. Obviously that is hard to tell for sure, but I looked on the internet and I couldn’t find any information. I discovered in a Spanish forum that a couple of girls bred for some time, but they did it a couple of years ago, and they stopped to do it. I found a rescue center in Madrid, but it was too far (more than 600 km) and it had no sense to go there. So I centered my search on pet shops. I hadn’t a lot of options either. Where I live there are only four stores that sell hamsters, and only three that sell Syrians. I think that hybrids are more popular because they are easier to keep in the store, and maybe people think that they are cuter.

The thing is that in those three stores there weren’t a lot of options either. In one of them they had only a really loooong brown hair hamster, really big, in a tank of the size of a portable computer. Truth to be told, that was the one that I liked the most, he looked like Skippy, but the store was in the outskirts and it wasn’t easy for me to come back, so he wasn’t for me. So I went to my local pet store and… horror! They keep the Syrians together. They had two golden Syrians in a cage, and they put a plank near the left side of the cage, making some kind of corridor, to keep separately a female Syrian. They reminded me to chispita a lot, and If I wasn’t wrong, I had bought my previous hamsters there (they were the ones that said to me that it was ok to have more than one in one cage years ago) so I decided to look a little bit more. And finally I went to a popular franchise that have a lot of stores in Spain, I suppose that it’s something like the Spanish pets at home. In one of them they hadn’t Syrians available, and in the other one they have two, one white and one brown and white. I had never seen those colors on hamsters until that day. They seemed in a ok condition. Big tank cages and only one animal on each cage. I really liked the brown and white, and I decided that he was the chosen one, but weeks passed by, and my cage arrived so late that when I went for him, they had sold him. Instead I saw a gorgeous black Syrian. I have to point that I went to the store in the late evening, hoping that they were awake, but they weren’t, so I couldn’t really check their behavior, their condition, nothing, and I saw that they were feeding the white one with orange, seriously?, so, afraid of getting a ham with stomachic problems, I chose the black one. I asked how old they were and the shop clerk told me that they were 3 o 4 months old, but she doesn’t seemed pretty confident. I thought that they were very old, and that maybe she had no clue, but anyway I went with it. The shop clerk grabbed him and showed him to me and I tried to touch him and he only tried to sniff me, so I fell in love with him.

I went home as quickly as I could, and I put him in his cage. I didn’t know that I had to let him enter in the cage by himself. Instead I grabbed him and put him in the cage and I felt that he was a little bit scared but he was very gentle and he did nothing. He is a really good boy, he has never ever bitten me. I put some of his old litter on the cage, and some toilet paper with my scent, and I left him there alone two days to adjust.

A photo Of my little sweetheart is attached

NEXT CHAPTER - THE FIRSTS SWEET WEEKS AS A ROOKIE
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Old 11-04-2016, 11:10 AM   #3
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Default Re: Blacky's Thread - The Black Spanish Syrian Hamster

Greetings from the much colder Danish black Syrian

Don't worry, you are perfectly understandable, and as Erin (Erin's animals) said in a video once: the difference between a good and a bad hamster owner is that a bad hamster owner sees a problem and does nothing, a good one at least intends to fix it.
Or something like that

We made some bad choices in the beginning too, still might be doing some, we just haven't realized yet!

I absolutely love black hamsters! Actually it's the white parts that are the most fascinating. I wanted to go pick him up, when I was reading your thread, but he's sleeping

How old is blackie? Romeo is 4 months.
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Old 11-04-2016, 05:30 PM   #4
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Default Re: Blacky's Thread - The Black Spanish Syrian Hamster

Awwww Romeo is so handsome !!

Thank you for your kind words. I already had seen that video but I feel bad anyway. They deserved better.

I don't know how old is Blacky for sure. The clerk at the pet store told me that he was 3 or 4 months old. And I bought him a month ago. So he should be 4 or 5 months old.

And you're totally right. The tiny white paws are soo cute. And the white line on the belly is so gorgeous. I would like to cuddle him all day long
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Old 11-04-2016, 06:01 PM   #5
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Default Re: Blacky's Thread - The Black Spanish Syrian Hamster

At some point everyone has either made a mistake or nearly made a mistake It isn't something you can always feel better about immediately,though.Even people with tons of knowledge may make mistakes or have made mistakes!
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Old 11-05-2016, 06:12 AM   #6
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Default Re: Blacky's Thread - The Black Spanish Syrian Hamster

He looks lovely! And as Juliebrei and AmityvilleHams have said, we've all made mistakes, it's nothing to be ashamed about, as long as you plan to fix it If you still don't have a big enough cage the Alaska cage on Zooplus is a good option if you can't afford one of the bigger ones on there right now. I hope everything goes well for you and Blacky
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Old 11-05-2016, 06:23 AM   #7
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Default Re: Blacky's Thread - The Black Spanish Syrian Hamster

Oh wow Blacky is adorable!!
Everyone makes mistakes, so please do not feel bad! When I was a kid the cage I had for my first few hamsters was a hand-me-down from someone else and was far too small. The wheel was wayyy too small and yes we also used fluffy cotton bedding too, especially in the Winter ... I think animal care is always changing! Still, Blacky looks so sweet and is going to have a wonderful home!
Sweep says hi to Blacky!
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Old 11-05-2016, 07:05 AM   #8
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Default Re: Blacky's Thread - The Black Spanish Syrian Hamster

Blacky is really does look lovely.

Don't worry about past mistakes just think about the lovely life Blacky will have with you now!
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Old 11-05-2016, 07:15 AM   #9
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Default Re: Blacky's Thread - The Black Spanish Syrian Hamster

Quote:
Originally Posted by Juliebrei View Post
[...] Don't worry, you are perfectly understandable, and as Erin (Erin's animals) said in a video once: the difference between a good and a bad hamster owner is that a bad hamster owner sees a problem and does nothing, a good one at least intends to fix it. [...]
I agree 100% with this. And many of us did mistakes at the beginning, so you are not alone. The important thing is we try not to make them again.

I look forward to reading more about Blacky's adventures. He is a very loved hamster and lucky to have you as his "mom".
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Old 11-06-2016, 08:21 AM   #10
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Default Re: Blacky's Thread - The Black Spanish Syrian Hamster

Thank y'all

Quote:
Originally Posted by Serena_jayne98 View Post
He looks lovely! And as Juliebrei and AmityvilleHams have said, we've all made mistakes, it's nothing to be ashamed about, as long as you plan to fix it If you still don't have a big enough cage the Alaska cage on Zooplus is a good option if you can't afford one of the bigger ones on there right now. I hope everything goes well for you and Blacky
Thanks for the advice, that was one of the ones that I was looking to get, but a friend of mine gave me a big tank last week and now he's already adjusting to his new cage. He definitely doesn't like changes and neither big open spaces, but I think (and hope) that he's going to be fine.
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