[Pebbles82]

Main thing is don't throw away her hoard! Souffle has said it all really. I would never not put any food out or it will make your hammy anxious and think there is a famine! They do tend to hoard most of it and then they eat from the hoard. Most of it is hoarded and they only eat what they need.

As your hammy is new they are setting up home and settling in so she will want to make a nice big hoard for herself (it's their instinct) in case there is ever a food shortage (in their minds). They also eat their poops sometimes (which is normal) and hoard those as well - they have two stomachs and can digest extra nutrients from their poops. If you stop putting food out she may start pooping in her food bowl to make sure there are emergency supplies.

I would just continue to put a tablespoon a day out - but maybe a level one rather than a heaped one.

Main thing now is she needs to settle in. It can take them two weeks to settle into a cage/bin - they make their nest, sort out their hoard, and they scent mark everything in the cage so they can find their way around (they have scent glands in various places and tend to find their way around by their scent as they don't see well).

So important not to clean her out too much or you'll disrupt all her hard work scent marking and stress her out. Leave her to settle for 2 or 3 days and then you can start gradually taming her. Don't clean anything or move things around for the first couple of weeks.

After that, spot cleaning is best. eg if one area is a bit pee soaked just take a handful of the wet substrate out and add a new handful in and mix it in a bit. They don't pee very much - just tiny amounts. If you put a sand bath in the cage she may use that as a toilet and pee in it and then you can just empty the sand bath (or scoop the wet sand out and leave the rest and add a bit more) and the rest of the cage won't need anything doing for some weeks.

The more substrate you have in the easier it is and the less cleanouts you need to do - at least 3 to 4" deep. More if you can as dwarf hamsters sometimes like to burrow down and dig tunnels. They tend to bury their hoards under their nest as well. If she has a house that she nests in then a house that is open underneath and sat on the substrate is good as they can burrow down and bury their hoards. If there isn't a house she'll probably just make a big nest. Something like a cardboard tissue box would do as a house if you cut it so it's open underneath. They need somewhere dark to retreat to so they feel safe.

They also like to forage for their food so what you could do is put half as much in her bowl each day and scatter the other half around the cage on the substrate. She'll enjoy finding it and foraging for it.

For a sand bath - any kind of dish will do with sand in but it needs to be chinchilla bathing sand (not dust) to be safe. The most important things are - make sure she always has access to water and the water bottle works ok - change the water daily and check the bottle works daily by tapping your finger under the drinking spout to check water is coming out. And also that their nest and hoard is the most important thing to them and they feel invaded if those are messed with and start doing abnormal things like peeing on the hoard if they think it will be stolen.

So when you do do a clean out don't remove all the hoard - if it's dry food it can be left until it starts taking over a bit then you can prune it a bit. If it's soiled and needs removing then try and leave a bit of dry hoard behind and always add new food to the hoard in exactly the same place.

There was an awful story recently where a hamster starved to death because they had been cleaned out a lot and their hoard removed each time and no food put out. Much safer to have too much than not enough.

I felt just as anxious when we got our hamster. Just relax - as long as they have plenty of substrate and nesting material (torn up strips of plain white toilet paper is best for nesting), a little house or somewhere dark to hide, food, water and a toy or two they will be happy and sort themselves out. They are quite clean little things and will busy themselves doing their own housework in the cage - moving substrate around and getting things just how they want them. Imagine how you'd feel if you'd done all that and then someone came along and messed it up!

So with cleaning - keep it minimal and don't clean everything at the same time (this removes all their scent from the cage). So when you do feel the substrate needs changing rather than just spot cleaning, don't clean the wheel, food bowl, toys etc at the same time and leave the nest and hoard. Do the wheel a different week and the toys (if they need it) a different week again.

If you need to check the hoard or nest and have a poke around to check she hasn't hoarded any fresh food then do that a different time again. I find they tend to only hoard dry food anyway - anything fresh usually gets eaten straight away.

Assume she has a wheel or flying saucer? Also hamster mix type is important to ensure the right nutrients. Which one are you using? You can also give a bit of veg every 2 or 3 days - they love fresh veg. Just a thumbnail sized piece - raw broccoli or carrot or cucumber are fine - I tend to alternate.

Let her settle in then come back on here and ask about hand taming! That can start after a few days but needs a bit of patience at first and not freaking her out.