Beginner needing help with new winter whites...

Hanhanboban · 03-02-2014, 05:42 AM

Hi there (:

Me and my boyfriend bought ourselves two winter whites yesterday, one is a beige colour with red eyes (possibly a hybrid?) and is called Gimli and the other is white and grey and is called Gizmo. Anyone know how to tell the sex?

Yesterday was the first day they where available to buy at the pet store so I'm guessing they're quite young. Anyone know hold old they will be roughly?

They seemed abit shy and slow at first, but we laid our hands out and Gizmo climbed on after abit of sniffing around. She seemed calm and fine then all of a sudden she screamed and jumped off me onto the floor, she did this twice and I decided to put her in her cage as she was probably scared. She doesn't seem hurt and she's been acting normal as far as I can tell. Does anyone know how I can tame them or get them to trust me?

I went to give her a little stroke on her back with my finger today (she was in her cage) and she screamed again and flipped onto her back. I left her again and she carried on about her business.

Gimli seems fine, quite active but shy to approach our hands. It's only been a day so I want to know how long to leave them to settle? I'm worried as I think Gizmo may not trust me now due to the incident yesterday.

Anther thing, they where up all night on their wheel, the sound doesn't bother and I understand they're more active at night but I'm worried about one of them burrowing/running underneath the wheel while the other is running on it.

Any help/advice/tips are welcome as I want to give them the best life they could possibly have but I want them to trust me so I can get them out and hold them ect.

Thanks a lot (:

Hannah x

**kyrilliondaemon** · 03-02-2014, 03:48 PM

I'm afraid that they're probably both hybrids rather than purebreds (as far as I know you don't get beige winter whites yet). You can check the sexes by putting them in something with a clear bottom and looking up at their genital area, all hams have two holes there - the holes are much closer together in females than in males. The wiki has a few pics that might help here - Telling the difference, male or female? - Hamster Central WIKI

You'd have to ask the pet store but they might be as young as 5-6 weeks depending on the shop.

Give them a day or two to settle, but how long depends when they seem happy to be honest. The wiki has some taming tips here that might help, but we can all happily try and offer more personalised advice if you get an idea of how you want to do things

http://www.hamstercentral.com/wiki/Taming_tips

What cage and toys do you have for them? And do you have a spare cage if they start to fall out?
They'll be fine if one goes under the wheel while the other is in it

Hanhanboban · 03-02-2014, 04:49 PM

Thanks a lot for the reply! They're seeming very happy atm running around and speaking a lot (:

Yes I guessed they where a hybrid but I wasn't too sure! I'll have to wait until they're abit more relaxed to work out their sex haha but I will deffo look out for that!

We have quite a nice sized cage with a wheel, edible log, cardboard tunnel, little den as well as a puzzle playground that I built. We're thinking about upgrading already tho and making a bin cage for them! So there will be a spare cage if need be (:

Thanks for the help and advice I really appreciate it, I'll try and relax about them now :L

Hannah x

**kyrilliondaemon** · 03-02-2014, 05:00 PM

Try an empty glass jar with the label off for sexing - one can walk in, you can tip the jar up and then they can't do much more than turn around in circles so you have a relatively good chance of getting a look at their genitals and sexing them

I was mostly wondering about the cage and contents because pairs tend to benefit from everything having at least two entrances and exits (nowhere for someone to be trapped in a fight), and being able to run around everything (again nowhere to get trapped). Its also often best to have no shelves, and ideally at least about 70cm by 40cm floor space is advised (all on one level with no compartments) but thats debatable depending on the hams e.t.c. Its all basic pair advice but I wanted to mention it just incase you didn't know it yet

I hope you can relax about them and good luck with them

Hanhanboban · 03-03-2014, 03:25 AM

Ohhh that sounds like a good idea so I will give that a go (: thanks for the tip.

Ohhh I didn't actually know about that, so thanks (: luckily as it goes everything in their cage happens to have two entrances so that's good! No we don't have any shelves it's all on ground level, they seem happy with the space butt we're thinking about upgrading and going even bigger anyway so they should have plenty of room to run around (:

Thanks for all the help and tips (: I appreciate it.

Hannah x

tolennaki · 03-03-2014, 10:48 AM

Hi and congrats about the new hams. Please feel free to post photos, I am sure everyone here would love to see them

Just an extra bit of advice: try to sex your hamsters asap, as hammies should only be kept in same-sex pairs. You don't want to end up with more hamsters who will also mate with each other, thus producing more babies. I hope they are both boys or girls, so they can continue to live together! If they are one boy and one girl, there is a good chance the girl is already pregnant.

Pilgrim77 · 03-03-2014, 11:10 AM

My tip for taming would be to put a toilet roll tube in the cage and scoop it up when one of the hammies is inside. Then let him walk out onto your hand and stay there a little while before putting him back in the cage. If you do this over the open cage it's best in case they do make a leap for it. I'd do this a few times daily when I see them awake and within a week or 2 they're much tamer!

Hanhanboban · 03-03-2014, 12:16 PM

There is afew pics on some of my other posts if you would like to take a look! They're not great as I'm trying to let them settle but I will upload some more soon (:

We've managed to sex Gizmo, she's a little girl but Gimli is much harder to get up but it will try that later when she wakes up!

As for the taming tip I might give that a go later too! Then I'll carry on like that and hopefully she'll he okay (: Gizmo has gotten really good tbf and is happy to climb on and off of your hand!

Thanks for all the lovely comments and the advice and help!

Hannah x