[rossm]

Hi Ria P,

Thank you very much for your wisdom on this one. I'm not offended at all and appreciate your honesty. I don't profess to be an expert on hamster care - I have looked after cats for 25 years and Rolo is my first hamster. I was just trying to demonstrate in my original post, that I'm really not one of these naïve people that goes out, pays the £10 for the hamster and buys the cheapest cage without caring for the hamster's welfare. We started off with a large wire cage from P@H, and quickly realised it was too small. So we brought a second and linked it up to give her more space. Then we noticed she was climbing the bars and falling off, so we replaced for two large plastic cages that just have a small low level wire layer. We started with a small flying saucer (7.5 cm) but weren't happy with how her back looked when using it. She now has a 31cm flying saucer. I researched loads of wheels, but couldn't find one that I was happy wouldn't bend her spine and she loves the flying saucer. I pay monthly for the pet insurance (I don't know any other hamster owner that does this)! I just know that with forums like this, people can assume the owner asking the question is clueless or not bothered about the hamster's welfare - like people who say 'I'm posting on here because I can't afford to take my hamster to the vet' - obviously someone shouldn't buy a pet if they can't afford to pay for its care. N.B. there are exceptions, like if someone loses their job etc. Which doesn't make them a bad owner, this is just life. So any way, I just wanted it to be obvious that I really try to give her the best I can. My partner has seen a huge cage, which is made of wood and glass and allows for inches of burrow space and the cages will be upgraded shortly.

I know I'm not perfect in what I'm doing though, so I'm grateful for your suggestions.

I spoke to the exotic vet earlier on and I had already brought Burgess Hamster, Gerbil and Mouse complete food, but was waiting for her muselli feed to run out. However, I'm going to start the gradual changeover straight away. I'm going to up the ration to 12g daily, which is the maximum suggested on the pack. I'm going to change the feed over as per the vets advice:

Day 1-3 = 75% old feed, 25% new feed

Day 4-6 = 50/50

Day 7-9 75/25

Day 10 onwards - 100% new ration

I'm going to weigh her daily once she gets home and aim for a weight of about 130g.

I'd already decided to change to a bedding that is in long strips, to avoid choking or swallowing and I'm going to change to a pellet substrate , rather than wood chips incase they have produced any dust (it says on the pack they are dust free, but I suspect the wood can sometimes have dust)


Re: the ball, we plan to make a whole room for her to be able to fee roam or get one of those pop up pens. This will reduce reliance on the ball.

Thank you for your advice and I'll make use of it!

Ps. The cage we are planning to get is the large paw hut - do you rate this ?

Cheers

Ross