First of all: Please excuse my english, It's not my native language.
Well, like the title indicates I'm from The Netherlands.
Over here forums don't seem to be really active anymore. Peak activity seemed to have been around 2008-2011, In a time period I wasn't really considering keeping hamsters at all.
To be honest, I never expected to fall in love with hamsters. But...I did!
A former friend started keeping the little lovelies around 2008, she had a few winter whites in mini duna's and they seemed fun. A few years later I stumbled across a post on Tumblr about hamstercare, read it and said to myself: If I ever begin with hamsters, I shall do it correctly from the start.
I started with an alaska cage from zooplus and....I shall now introduce my hamsters!~
Firt of is the only russian dwarf residing here. His name is Storm, and he came from a petshop, one of the only ones that actually seems to care about their animals. He's very tame, didn't really needed any taming from the start. He likes his silent spinner and doing his own thing. He's housed in a Hamster Plaze from Savic, a roomy cage, filled with toys and an medium sized silent spinner. He's also the only hamster that prefers a feeding bowl, scatter feeding doesn't seem to be working for him.
The other four are syrian hamsters, each with their own story. This species...Ah I have fallen in love with them!
First of is Bayou, she's the orange one.
She has been my most challenging hamster yet! She lived in an Alaska cage, with a large wheel and a nice layer of substrate. That's it, and I still wonder if she was happy in this setup. See, she's from a hamstery, had a large litter of 16 with 15 suriving pups. Her breeder decided that she didn't want to breed her again, so she was put up for adoption. Bayou crawled out of the cage on my hands, was done with her litter and so she went with me.
After she decided an Alaska and the earlier named Plaza, filled with toys nonetheless, were not suitable, she got a detolf. She's very happy now!
Second of all is Rey! The grey one.
Pet shop hamster. One day while shopping with a friend, I came across her.
She was in this tiny cage without any food and a tiny hamsterwheel, As far as i could see.
Very curious, climbed on my hand and...at first I was like: Well, I don't want to support pethshops....but in the end....she came home with me. I even went back at the end of the day to pick her up!
She lives in a barney now, from Zooplus. Very easy going, an easy young girl that likes to keep busy in the cage.
Third of is Tiamat, a tortoise shell longhair lady. She's from a hamstery, and came living with me. Her former owner couldn't take care of her anymore, so she was put up for adoption, via a dutch forum.
She loves being in the playpen and is very tame, I am happy to have her!
Fifth is a tragic case.
See, In my town there's is a dude who breeds syrians. He really does love his hamsters, I could see that. But...They are kept in mini duna's with 20 cm/8 inch wheels, a bowl and house and perhaps a toilet roll to play with. They can't burrow, because they are given one-two hands of substrate and that's it.
Also they are given rabbit food....Yeah. Kinda sad that he keeps them this way, but gives them alot of attention. I always feel conflicted when I am there.
You see, this is where Aurora comes from. She's the white syrian, tiny for her age and from end 2016. She now lives in a hamster heaven and gets properly fed, with an 11 inch wheel.
Well, that was long!