Hamster Central - View Single Post - Would it be a little too soon to take a new hamster?

Pebbles82 · 10-06-2022, 01:35 PM

You might want to look into good cage set ups for dwarf hamsters as well, and good houses. There are lots of set ups on here for ideas and toys can be home made or cardboard. I think on one of the photos you had a fleece donut bed as his nest? Anything fabric like that is risky to have in the cage as hamsters chew things - especially nice soft things that could be ripped up for nesting material, and they could swallow some and get a blockage - plus some of these things have foam padding in as well. I have one of those I use for out of cage time. Same thing with "fluffy bedding" material - it can be swallowed and cause blockages. Paper is best for nesting. Sorry if you know all that already.

They do like building a nest in a house, with just torn up toilet paper strips and that helps give them normal behaviours as well - foraging for the paper strips and nest building. They almost always love labyrinth houses (eg houses with more than one room inside which makes it dark inside). And would go straight into one to build a nest - because it's dark inside. It mimics an underground burrow basically.

Not sure which cage you had but possibly even think of a cage upgrade. If set up well with lots of enrichment, tunnels, toys and hideouts and a shelf it can give them a very good life. The more cage space you have, the more enrichment (and larger labyrinth houses) you can add. An ideal sized cage for a dwarf hamster is 80cm by 50cm - and not really any smaller than 70cm by 40cm. They can also really enjoy a bigger wheel - eg an 8" wheel.

The key to a happy life and normal behaviours is to set things up to encourage normal behaviours like nesting, foraging, hoarding and digging. So a house that's open underneath and sat on top of the substrate allows them to bury hoards under their nest (and keeps it well ventilated so it doesn't get whiffy). Some labyrinth houses are large enough to fit a corner toilet inside and they almost always use an "ensuite" toilet. I'm not so sure about dwarfs - Syrians do and our robo uses his as well.

10-06-2022, 01:35 PM
Pebbles82 Hamster Antics Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 23,533	Re: Would it be a little too soon to take a new hamster? You might want to look into good cage set ups for dwarf hamsters as well, and good houses. There are lots of set ups on here for ideas and toys can be home made or cardboard. I think on one of the photos you had a fleece donut bed as his nest? Anything fabric like that is risky to have in the cage as hamsters chew things - especially nice soft things that could be ripped up for nesting material, and they could swallow some and get a blockage - plus some of these things have foam padding in as well. I have one of those I use for out of cage time. Same thing with "fluffy bedding" material - it can be swallowed and cause blockages. Paper is best for nesting. Sorry if you know all that already. They do like building a nest in a house, with just torn up toilet paper strips and that helps give them normal behaviours as well - foraging for the paper strips and nest building. They almost always love labyrinth houses (eg houses with more than one room inside which makes it dark inside). And would go straight into one to build a nest - because it's dark inside. It mimics an underground burrow basically. Not sure which cage you had but possibly even think of a cage upgrade. If set up well with lots of enrichment, tunnels, toys and hideouts and a shelf it can give them a very good life. The more cage space you have, the more enrichment (and larger labyrinth houses) you can add. An ideal sized cage for a dwarf hamster is 80cm by 50cm - and not really any smaller than 70cm by 40cm. They can also really enjoy a bigger wheel - eg an 8" wheel. The key to a happy life and normal behaviours is to set things up to encourage normal behaviours like nesting, foraging, hoarding and digging. So a house that's open underneath and sat on top of the substrate allows them to bury hoards under their nest (and keeps it well ventilated so it doesn't get whiffy). Some labyrinth houses are large enough to fit a corner toilet inside and they almost always use an "ensuite" toilet. I'm not so sure about dwarfs - Syrians do and our robo uses his as well.