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Old 11-16-2020, 12:23 PM   #1
LunaTheHamster1
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Default Robo questions re food and taming

Help needed please.

FOOD
I have lost all my confidence re the amount of food I am giving Comet my Robo. I've gone from worrying I'm not feeding him enough, to worrying that I am feeding him too much.

I have had him nearly 2 weeks.

He is on the Bunny Dream dwarf hamster food.

How much should I be giving him, and how often?
I am asking this as I was giving him a little bit each day, I fill his 2 little walnut halves full which is a boredom breaker i have, scatter a bit, and put some in his bowl. He eats or pouches it all straight away.
I have also given him mealworms and flax sprays and some other sort of wheat spray (i think that is what it is). How often and how many of these should I be giving him, I read that out of all the hamsters they have the fastest metabolism, so although they are small they need a lot of food, is that true?
He also has a hedgehog whimzee and I have given him some fresh veg and a bit of egg. Should I be giving him anything else?

As an experiment last night I filled his food bowl up completely which was about 18g of food. All gone.
I don't want to go off destroying his whole cage to see how much stash he has got. As I am not quite sure where it would be.
He's been up today looking for food, but because he took all that last night I wasn't sure whether to give him a bit more.
He has been foraging and he has been finding little bits to eat/pouch.

Going forward I want to give him a little bit every day and not 1 big lot to last a couple of days, just as I thought he might stress about not having any food when he is clearly looking for it. Do you think what I was doing initially was enough?

TAMING
Also, re taming, from what I understand he is quite tame for a robo, he will come running for food off me, if I put it on my hand, he will have a nibble of my hand (doesn't hurt) but if I hold it in my finger tips it is fine. Do i persevere with food on the hand, or just leave in finger tips?

Also I don't know where to go with the next stage of taming, or do you think this will be it and I should just stay at this level for the time being.

Also he zooms up and off again if my hand is in the cage, sometimes he has a sniff and sometimes he has a nibble and if I touch anything he comes up to investigate. He is quite fearless for a little creature.

Thoughts and advice welcome please.
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Old 11-16-2020, 01:24 PM   #2
Ria P
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Default Re: Robo questions re food and taming

First of all, please try and stop worrying because you know what you are doing. Every hamster thrives in your care.

I had no idea how much i actually feed Gordon in grams so had to fill the little Rodipet scoop with food and empty it on my electronic kitchen scales to find out. It measured 6g.
So i give Gordon 6g of dry mix daily, he always has Rosewood Pick 'N Fly millet sprays around his cage to nibble on, a Whimzee of course, a pinch of brown linseeds, a few dried mealworms and sunflower seeds scattered about in the evening and he has a shrimp cookie to nibble on, dried parsley and celery scattered around, a thumbnail sized piece of cucumber cut unto tiny pieces daily and a bit of scrambled egg once a week.

He doesn't eat all his dry mix and there's usually some left which i chuck out after a couple of days because he wants fresh ( which is weird because its from the same tub).

Maybe i feed my hamsters too much but they enjoy hoarding and don't overeat.

I don't think Comet would be able to eat 18g of food so he must be hoarding quite a lot of it.

Personally, i think about a teaspoonful of dry mix daily is plenty for a Robo plus a few nibbles and some fresh food.

As for taming, i'd do the same as with your Syrians and see how far you can go. It all depends on the individual hamster, irrelevant of species and there's no difference really between a Syrian and a dwarf hamster apart from their size.
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Old 11-16-2020, 02:56 PM   #3
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Default Re: Robo questions re food and taming

Thanks Ria,

FOOD

I will go back to what I was doing.
I had totally forgotten about shrimp cookies, I will get some ordered. I have tried dried shrimps, Suki had a nibble but would take a day or two for them to disappear, Twinkle and Comet just leave them.
He will sit and eat/pouch all the sprays as soon as I put them in, so I may need to limit them.

This is a stupid question, I have sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds for my own consumption, will they be ok for the hamsters? They are organic, raw... yes I'm being an idiot now, surely they will be fine.

Oh I might do main food mix in the morning and then do the other stuff in the evening so keeps him busy, rather than he takes it all in one go. He's up and about several times during the day looking for food.

TAMING

I think it's just with all my Syrians they have been tamable and liked out the cage time so I think I was worried that I was pushing Comet too much too soon and that he would never be happy with more than what he already does now. I'm not getting him out the cage at the moment so I think I will just continue with what I am doing and see if he gets tamer.
Any tips re the nibbling of the hands, or is that what robos do - I seem to have read a lot about that. He's not vicious, just trying to work things out I think.
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Old 11-16-2020, 03:50 PM   #4
Ria P
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Default Re: Robo questions re food and taming

Yes, the sunflower, pumpkin and linseeds are all the same as far as i know. I buy them in the supermarket and have never really thought about it.

My dwarf girls also strip the seed sprays as soon as i put them in so they don't get new ones that often.

The nibbling seems to be a bit of a dwarf thing but he'll probably grow out of it. Gordon used to climb on my hand to get linseeds and i buried my fingers in the substrate at first.

That's as far as i got with him but he was seven months old and hadn't been handled when i got him so you have a far better chance of taming Comet because he's still young.

I think it may be a matter of trying things out to see how he responds. The fact that he's motivated by food may really help with taming or trying to tame him.
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Old 11-16-2020, 11:56 PM   #5
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Default Re: Robo questions re food and taming

It does sound like he’s a real little hoarder! I agree with Ria that you really don’t need to worry, I can totally understand it, I have bouts of losing my confidence even after all the times I’ve been keeping hams but you do know what you’re doing.
I would stick to about a teaspoon of food a day, I usually give the main mix in the morning & any extras, veg etc in the evening.
Sunflower & pumpkin seeds for humans are fine, I do prefer to give both in the shell though as I think have to get it out of the shell adds a little bit more natural enrichment & is beneficial for their teeth.
I’ve never tamed a robo but some Chinese can be as timid as robos so I usually start out with a large bin so I can easily put my hand in & they can have toys to explore & some substrate to dig in, if he’s really brave maybe move on to a playpen or other area that’s big enough to s it in with him, just follow your instincts though & go at his pace.
I would persevere with food on your hand, a little nibbling at first is normal & he’ll probably stop doing it soon enough.
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Old 11-17-2020, 02:45 AM   #6
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Default Re: Robo questions re food and taming

re the taming, I have found think the best way to stop hamsters from biting your hands is to actually go all out and offer him you hand with no food on. Yes, he may bite you. But over a bit of time he will learn that your hand is just not there as food and he will learn that it is a) harmless and b) not edible which goes a long way to the taming process.
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Old 11-18-2020, 04:21 AM   #7
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Default Re: Robo questions re food and taming

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ria P View Post
The nibbling seems to be a bit of a dwarf thing but he'll probably grow out of it. Gordon used to climb on my hand to get linseeds and i buried my fingers in the substrate at first.
That's a good tip. i had done something similar by curling my hand into a fist and resting into the substrate.
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Old 11-18-2020, 04:26 AM   #8
LunaTheHamster1
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Default Re: Robo questions re food and taming

Quote:
Originally Posted by cypher View Post
It does sound like he’s a real little hoarder! I agree with Ria that you really don’t need to worry, I can totally understand it, I have bouts of losing my confidence even after all the times I’ve been keeping hams but you do know what you’re doing.
I would stick to about a teaspoon of food a day, I usually give the main mix in the morning & any extras, veg etc in the evening.
Sunflower & pumpkin seeds for humans are fine, I do prefer to give both in the shell though as I think have to get it out of the shell adds a little bit more natural enrichment & is beneficial for their teeth.
I’ve never tamed a robo but some Chinese can be as timid as robos so I usually start out with a large bin so I can easily put my hand in & they can have toys to explore & some substrate to dig in, if he’s really brave maybe move on to a playpen or other area that’s big enough to s it in with him, just follow your instincts though & go at his pace.
I would persevere with food on your hand, a little nibbling at first is normal & he’ll probably stop doing it soon enough.
Cypher I always have a wobble at some point when I get a new hamster, I guess this was mine with Comet

Oh that is a good point with the seeds, I will try to get some in the shells too.

I have a big cardboard box all setup, but worried it was too much for him. I might try it in a few weeks. oh that's a good point to put some substrate in it.

Thank you
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Old 11-18-2020, 04:27 AM   #9
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Default Re: Robo questions re food and taming

Quote:
Originally Posted by Flossypet View Post
re the taming, I have found think the best way to stop hamsters from biting your hands is to actually go all out and offer him you hand with no food on. Yes, he may bite you. But over a bit of time he will learn that your hand is just not there as food and he will learn that it is a) harmless and b) not edible which goes a long way to the taming process.
Thanks flossypet, that's so funny as I know i have given that advice out to others on here- when you are living it sometimes commonsense can go out the window
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Old 11-18-2020, 09:23 AM   #10
Ria P
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Default Re: Robo questions re food and taming

I am also going to try the Bunny dreams mixes to be mixed with the Rodipet for the dwarfs and the Harry Hamster for the Syrians because Clarissa dwarf leaves the herbs in the Rodipet mix, Syrian Rodney isn't keen on the HH now since he tasted the dwarf's mix and Syrian Rory leaves the sweetcorn and peas in the HH so i'm curious to find out what the mix from Zooplus is like.

Is Twinkle on a Bunny dreams mix as well?
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