Looking After LH Satin Males.

[Holly]

As most of you know we have a LH Satin male called Rolo and we are planning a litter at the end of February which may well have some LH Satin males in it.

Basically someone is interested in getting a LH Satin male from our litter and I have warned them that boys with LH satin coats are a little more difficult to care for than boys with normal LH coats.

The thing is - am I right?

We only have Rolo with a very long satin coat (his coat's improved a lot lately - he got a reserve in his LH Satin class at Bradford which is miles better than he's ever done before) and I do find he tangles more than our two non-satin boys with very long coats (Mars hasn't really grown a long coat yet - he's just grown full stop!).

Does anyone else find the same with their LH Satin boys? And how hard is it to look after a LH satin coat? I don't want to put someone off going with a LH satin boy if this is what they really want.

[Basia]

Runty is LH satin. One of his 'prospective' owners changed their minds because I had said he would need regular brushing, etc and she then went and looked online and said it would all be too much. I don't find Runty any harder to take care of than Gizmo and Chunky honestly and he has the best coat of the 3. I do think the cage litter has a lot to do with it though, at the moment I am using paper cat litter again and it is tangling in all 3 boys coats. Aubious and Easybed don't tangle at all.

[Holly]

I agree about the bedding. Aubiose is great for reducing tangles but I found Hemcore even better - it's not as soft though so I'm sticking with Aubiose for now. Rolo is dreadful on carefresh or shavings - but then so are all our LH boys and even some of the LH girls :shock:

[Spuds Mum]

With the right bedding I would say you are only talking about a 5 minute brush every two to three days. If a prospective owner can't commit to that (when I would hope they were handling regularly anyway, and it could be part of that time) then I would have serious doubts.
I think you need to let people know that to keep them in good condition they will need a regular brush, but we are not talking about doing 'poodle cuts', perms or anything. The time taken could easily be incorporated into normal hamster 'out' time.
Well it is for us anyway. :D

[Holly]

That's a good point - when I say their coats need "daily attention" it's not like it's particularly time consuming (I think I've maybe made it sound worse than it is :oops: ).

It is best not to actually brush them every day anyway or their coats tend to get a bit thin - I find I just need to run my fingers through the coats of all my LH boys for a few seconds, easing out the tangles, and they are ok - with a brush session about twice a week. You can do the finger grooming during normal handling.

It's the same for LH satins and LH non-satins actually!

With the Carapaws I started brushing the LH boys and girls from a very early age (about 2 and half weeks) and they actually seem to enjoy their brush sessions now and sit very still for them!

[Holly]

This is Button - he's NOT a Satin but he's very capable of Bad Hair Days:

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o209/Holly_Day/IMG_6502.jpg

He's cute though (and he knows it):

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o209/Holly_Day/IMG_6508.jpg

[Basia]

Love that second photo of Button - he looks really pleased with himself.
The person who was going to have Runty wouldn't commit to the extra cost of buying carefresh so that he didn't tangle, she said the cage was big so it would be expensive! She so didn't deserve him. I'm really glad I kept him because I only have 2 satins, him and Berry. He might be a dad soon because I am thinking of mating him to Cara - I really want a Rolo (satin cream) of my own.
The Easybed is bigger pieces and not so soft as aubiose but it doesn't get in their coats at all and I can get it easily here and I can't get hemcore or aubiose very easily, despite the fact I live in a rural area with hundreds of horses. I have been using it for the LH males and a mix of easybed and shavings for all the others, the shavings are softer. I just wanted to satisfy myself that it definitely was better than the cat litter because I am trying to keep Gizmo tidy for the show.

[Catja]

Isn't Button gorgeous - okay take back what I said about creams Holly :lol: :lol: :lol:

As someone who has in the past owned Persian cats - that went outside! A LH hamster holds no fear for me :lol:

[souffle]

If they don't want to show the hamster there is no reason at all why they can't give the long tangly ends a nice trim then they require even less care. Red was on shavings all her life and we never had tangle problems. I can see that buying a big bale of aubiose might be a problem for a pet owner with little storage space so I would advise this sort of person against a long coat. Many little girls (and big ones) love stying and brushing the long coats and the hamsters always seem to enjoy their brush. We actually found carefresh tangled in Polys fur so we use the aubiose and the Wilcos white strandy bedding chopped up a bit so it is less long.

[Holly]

I can see that buying a big bale of aubiose might be a problem for a pet owner with little storage space so I would advise this sort of person against a long coat.

But - if they've got four or five hamsters and somehwere to put it, it would work out more economical than buying lots of smallish packs of shavings - and it's great for the other hamsters as well!


Many little girls (and big ones) love stying and brushing the long coats and the hamsters always seem to enjoy their brush.

I love brushing our LH boys and they all seem to like it - especially Toby who sort of lies there!

Perhaps I've been a bit hasty in warning about the LH Satin coats - I just wanted to be responsible and make sure people know what they are taking on beforehand - really the satins aren't much differnt from the normal LH boys :?

[souffle]

I can see that buying a big bale of aubiose might be a problem for a pet owner with little storage space so I would advise this sort of person against a long coat. .

I was thinking of the single pet owner really as it would take them I while do get through the bale of aubiose and with it being a natural product I have often wondered if there is going to be any issues with mould/mites/ insects etc moving in when it is in storage. I guess normally the whole bale is put on the stable floor so is not lying in a garage for months as a pet owner would probably do. Maybe you should take up selling smaller bags of it Holly :lol: Then you would be the Aubiwodent woman :lol: :lol: :lol: Sounds like something from Dr Who :lol:

[Holly]

Maybe you should take up selling smaller bags of it Holly :lol: Then you would be the Aubiwodent woman :lol: :lol: :lol: Sounds like something from Dr Who :lol:

:x Now I'm desperate for a a part in Doctor Who, souffle - perhaps you could make that character suggestion to the writers/producers (I've even got an address for them!) and I'll start selling the smaller bags with the wheels and you can tell them you've got the real character available for filming as and when :P

I was actually thinking about the person interested in getting a LH male from me - she's got four hammies now so aubiose might be quite good for her :)

I've wondered about the storage issue as well - I've got a huge plastic tub which holds about a third of the bale - that currently resides in my kitchen - and, at the moment, so does the rest of the bale! :oops:

I want to get a brand new, clean metal dustbin with a fitted lid to store what I'm not using in my garage.

At the farm where I get it's all piled up in the barn - but I'm always careful to get a sealed bag so hopefully there aren't any contamination issues there.

[Catja]

So following on from this - what is the best base for LHs. Have only vaguely heard of Aubiose and the rest, where do you get them? etc

[Holly]

I like Aubiose:

http://www.aubiose.co.uk/

It's very soft and doesn't tangle much at all in LH coats - it's usually sold at farm shops. I know Basia can get it and she's near you - maybe you could ask her.

Another one is Hemcore:

http://www.hemcore.co.uk/bedding.html

I found Hemcore even less tangly than Aubiose but the pieces are a lot bigger and it isn't as soft - so I've gone back to Aubiose again for now.

It's another farm shop product - I basically got the yellow pages out and phoned round to see who had the beddings i wanted to try!

Basia sometimes uses Easibed:

http://www.easibed.co.uk/

I haven't used it so can't really comment but Basia is pretty impressed with it's absorbency and lack of tangles, I think!

I'm sure there are others - I found Carefresh and shavings really bad for LH tangles.