Rescue Rousey - the hammy I saved from neglect

[MikeTherk]

Originally Posted by LunaTheHamster1

Aww, what a cutie. Sometimes the fur helps with aging a hamster, but cant really tell from your photo. If she grows some more then she probably is only young, but then some hamsters are only small anyway.

Her fur is really shiny and has two little tuffs at the end. I originally thought she was longhair, but nope.

[Ria P]

She is absolutely adorable! What a cute little hamster.

Hamsters can drink from a bowl as well as a bottle, in fact all our hamsters have both.

Is she running a lot on her wheel?

[LunaTheHamster1]

Originally Posted by MikeTherk

Her fur is really shiny and has two little tuffs at the end. I originally thought she was longhair, but nope.

Female long haired hamsters don't have much fluff. So, from the sounds of it, she probably is a long haired hamsters. It's the male long haired that have the really long hair/fluff all over.

[MikeTherk]

Update: Rescue's cage is complete. I can now rest knowing she's in an appropriately sized cage with all the right utilizes. She loves her wheel already and sleeps in several locations instead of one.

She is OBSESSED with this dog treat at Petsmart. Orange and Chewch (RIP) love them, too. They're chews that are shaped like alligators. I saw Rachel Victoria post them on her YouTube channel saying they were hamster safe for filing teeth.

She didn't do well with the litter box. She built her house inside the litter box and was basically sleeping in her own urine/poop. Orange was litter box trained with hamster-safe sand and I'm trying that with Rescue. She just likes to dig in there, but ya know, that's what she's supposed to do.
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She's also not nearly as evil as the previous owners said. Maybe it boiled down to cage aggression and lack of enrichment because all she was in was a small cage with a food bowl. I know I was supposed to wait... but I put her in a big coffee mug and moved her to the bathtub. She had NO problem climbing on me in the bathtub. She lets me pet her and I can pick her up but then she kind of panics. I know I'm supposed to wait but she's just so cute that I couldn't and she she did well with it. Again, she was climbing all over me.

[MikeTherk]

All right so now she poops all over her wheel and runs on it all night. it's caked on there every morning and I know hamsters groom themselves, but i'm starting to not want to pet her. anyone have a similar issue?

[Ria P]

Originally Posted by MikeTherk

but i'm starting to not want to pet her.

That's a shame that you feel that way.

Yes, some of our hamsters wee on their wheels because they are excitable little creatures, especially the ones that never had anything to get excited about.

Yes, one poos on his wheel then runs on it and another pees and poos in his en suite toilet which i have to clean twice a week.

Keep in mind that a hamster's poo is not smelly and one type of poo is in fact ingestable.

Hamsters are very clean animals and cleaning a wheel is a part of keeping a hamster as a pet.

Rousey may run and poo on her wheel less in the future as she settles down and the initial novelty wears off a bit but in the meantime, please don't be put off by a little hamster poo and give her the love and attention she so deserves and never had before.