Might be rescuing (again) advice needed....

[Mona's Humans]

Hi all,

So me and Hubby have been talking for a while about getting a chinese ham but his job is a little uncertain so we had decided no! Anyway yesterday i saw an ad for a chinese and robo (separately but from same place) that are getting no attention atm, and need new homes. Me and hubby have discussed it, and were considering it, depending on how his job goes in the next few days (so don't go getting overly excited guys lol!)

I think i know what i need to know for chinese and robo's but to be honest, i've had neither before so i'm willing for anyone to tell me anything, and everyone PLEASE DO correct me if i'm wrong

Okay so - i've emailed asking what cages they are currently in... we'd be looking at a mini duna for each, as thats the space we have (well could make), but obviously if in the future they needed bigger, i'm sure we'd work it out some how.

I know chinese need special food requirements, with little-no sugar, so i was thinking of silvers mix long term, as i'd be so scared to get it wrong adapting my own, but can they still have dog biscuits the mineral chews and (i have the cupcake kbob ones atm) etc?

Are robo's okay on normal syrian burgess? i could break the pieces up if i needed to?

Megazorb or aubiose? I have both in my house at all times as my piggies use megazorb and pepper uses aubiose, so its not an issue or convenience issue either way, i just don't know which is best for little lungs, or for burrowing as pepper doesn't do much of the burrowing (or digging)

Wheels - am i right in 6" minimum ?

Toys? toilet roll tubes, wooden logs/bridges/tunnels, cork tunnels, things to crawl and climb in and over and under, light toys preferably in case they burrow under them?

Also would having, a syrian a chinese and a robo in a row, bother any of them?

erm, thats all i can think of that's different to syrians, but please, any info on either species would be appreciated.....

I'm still trying to not get ahead of myself or get tooooo excited

[kyrilliondaemon]

Oooh! This may be interesting news

Mini duna cages are fine. If you keep to dog biscuits and chews without added sugar you should be fine - we feed our hybrids them anyway.

Robos are fine on syrian food - ours share with Scamp quite happily (so do the russians now actually lol)

Megazorb and aubiose are great for both - Muffin has proven that aubiose holds burrows and everything I've read says that both should be good for all hams.

Yup, 6" minimum for wheels

Your toy plans sound fantastic, and the tammo house from ECF/ebay still gets my encouragement if you have the cash and want to spend it on dwarf hams

And they should ignore each other. Just be prepared for them to be faster than Pepper is - especially the robo, and I'm sure all will be well

I hope you can get them

[Mona's Humans]

Thanks Sam, were mainly just waiting to see what's happening with hubbys job! I'm prepared for them to be faster than pepper, but it scares me a little lol, you only have to blink and he's gone!

[kyrilliondaemon]

Makes sense. I hope stuff with his job works out

And my one big tip - Don't move them out of the cage by hand until 110% sure they are 100% tame and you can do it without an escapee. Just use an empty jar (might not keep a chinese in though) or their balls or a pringles tube or whatever else comes to hand that can contain a small hamster, and put them down in a box/playpen before trying to handle them or anything.
Its been a huge help given that we're never allowed to touch Whizz lol

[Mona's Humans]

thanks, i was planning on putting the cage into a bix box to start with so if they jump, they just jump to the box, but apparently they are hand tame

I'm getting excited so i'm kinda hoping it doesn't all fall through now

[samzyzg]

Hehe, Robo's are very fast... mine are not for being handled at all, one really has decided they don't like me but thats the one who was being bullied before i noticed the scab and was removed to his own cage. The other will take treats from me

I feel bad for asking a question on your thread asking questions, but what kind of dog biscuits can you feed them? i know to avoid ones with gralic and onion but i never end up buying any because i'm too scared i've over looked something, so is their a particular brand you use?

[kyrilliondaemon]

Hand tame or not, I'd be paranoid at first lol

And yeah, I hope it doesn't fall through too.

Sam - We feed puppy bonio biscuits and Skip adores them. We also use another type but we only got one bag and kinda threw it out ages ago... And I can't remember what they're called now (my OH has remembered more though - they were pedigree and he thinks they were called biscrok or something but we can't be 100% sure). Puppy bonios are chewed by every ham we own though, and yeah, Skip is near addicted (plus no garlic, sugar or anything else that I can think of as bad for hamsters )

[Mona's Humans]

we also use puppy bonio - sometimes called bonio milkies, we also use the markies ones....

i'll keep you updated on how things turn out

[kyrilliondaemon]

Thanks for saying you'll keep us updated