Hamster Central - View Single Post

AmityvilleHams · 04-09-2020, 08:22 AM

Vierville, even if you used a different substrate you'd need to keep an eye out for any even slightly off fresh foods. It doesn't matter what substrate you use as this could happen with any substrate - we all need to be mindful of our fresh foods and not letting them go off at all inside the cage or anywhere else. This is a practice we've known to do for a long time and is one we should all be doing regardless of if our hamsters are diabetic and/or diabetes prone or not.

Perhaps feeding fresh foods outside the cage could work for some people even if it does still give hamsters the option of pouching. Mold does have the ability to grow on the overwhelming majority of surfaces though, and we cannot reasonably exclude all those surfaces from any hamster cage. It would mean having to go without substrate entirely as a start, which is obviously not an option!

Also it is incredibly important to keep in mind that plastic is hardly impossible for mold to grow on either. It is possible for mold to grow on plastic, and it can happen very fast(24-48 hours) so the amount of washing one would have to do to keep plastics absolutely mold free would be incredibly stressful to hamsters. Moisture is one contributing factor in this, and we know that plastics hold moisture and do not breathe at all.

04-09-2020, 08:22 AM
AmityvilleHams PM Fluffy for custom title Join Date: Mar 2016 Posts: 4,545	Re: Percy Vierville, even if you used a different substrate you'd need to keep an eye out for any even slightly off fresh foods. It doesn't matter what substrate you use as this could happen with any substrate - we all need to be mindful of our fresh foods and not letting them go off at all inside the cage or anywhere else. This is a practice we've known to do for a long time and is one we should all be doing regardless of if our hamsters are diabetic and/or diabetes prone or not. Perhaps feeding fresh foods outside the cage could work for some people even if it does still give hamsters the option of pouching. Mold does have the ability to grow on the overwhelming majority of surfaces though, and we cannot reasonably exclude all those surfaces from any hamster cage. It would mean having to go without substrate entirely as a start, which is obviously not an option! Also it is incredibly important to keep in mind that plastic is hardly impossible for mold to grow on either. It is possible for mold to grow on plastic, and it can happen very fast(24-48 hours) so the amount of washing one would have to do to keep plastics absolutely mold free would be incredibly stressful to hamsters. Moisture is one contributing factor in this, and we know that plastics hold moisture and do not breathe at all.