Quote:
Originally Posted by arnoldshirl
There are a lot of products on the market that are harmful to a hamster, however she is showing no signs of being stressed or breathing difficulties or even any thing wrong with her eyes (I constantly observe for anything and everything different of her). She prefers the walnut shell over the sand bath. I need her to enjoy every inch of her home, even if I feel it's too small for her and she doesn't. I'll do this...I'll introduce her to smaller amounts of another brand by gradually removing some walnut shell and replacing it. A scoop at a time. Do you have any suggestions on what brand that will be safe?
My concern of the flash of the camera will cause stress. I know she doesn't like bright light and she is nocturnal. I even changed the wattage in the room to accommodate her preference. I would like to share her picture, she is what I recently learned of the color...a platinum. She has a white face and this color markings called agouti on her backside. Looks to me like an upside down cinnamon bun to where the icing is all on the bottom side.
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Refreshed after posting and saw this sorry - it's not so much a matter of whether you see any issues currently or not. Walnut shell is unsafe period unfortunately and I know you say your hamster seems to love it, but the dangers are very real. I know it seems mean and stressing to remove something your hamster seems to enjoy, but sometimes it has to be done for safety. Coconut fiber as I mentioned in my post before this one is very nice and can be found through pet stores online & in store(Petco, Petsmart, etc) in the reptile section. You mainly just want 100% coconut fiber but it's fairly easy to find!
It sounds like you have a very cute hamster, it'll be very nice to see pictures if you end up being able to manage that. I would say if your hamster is tolerant of increased lighting for short periods of time for photo purposes that's not an issue IMO, especially compared to flash which at least to me seems a lot more stressful.