sand baths

[Ness]

next week I want to get a ton of sand baths in my hamster homes, but I don't know what'll be the best dish to use. Also would my WW like one as well as my robos?

[SnuggleHam]

Originally Posted by Ness

next week I want to get a ton of sand baths in my hamster homes, but I don't know what'll be the best dish to use. Also would my WW like one as well as my robos?

I find that ALL hamsters love sand baths. Even my Syrian enjoys it, though they don't need it. I think just having a different smell, and different texture/feel to walk on offers a bit of extra cage enrichment.

As for dishes, it seems to come down to trial and error. My robos have a shallow dish, but if its too shallow then they kick sand out side of it. For dwarfs, id say any dish that they can easily climb in and out of. Some people use glass jars turned on their side. Sometimes cutting appart a tissue box will work. Maybe a shallow ceramic bowl if you have one.

I use either plastic cat feeding dishes (from P@H) or ceramic Critterbaths for my hams.

My WWs love sandbaths so definitely get one for yours. Mine seem to like Critterbaths best (but these seem to be getting trickier to find) whereas my robos and Campbell's prefer cat food dishes.

[Ness]

yeah I had the same problem with critter baths, they seem to be out of stock everywhere.
I have some glass desert dishes that are about that are about 8cm and 4cm deep. would this do for two robos or just one winter white? or will they need a bit more room?

[Ness]

what about 'Anti-Tip Rabbit Feeding Dish' they are 12.5cm and 3.5cm deep.

is this too big? I have a group of 3robos as well as the groups of two, and the WW.

Originally Posted by Ness

yeah I had the same problem with critter baths, they seem to be out of stock everywhere.
I have some glass desert dishes that are about that are about 8cm and 4cm deep. would this do for two robos or just one winter white? or will they need a bit more room?

You could try your dishes as an interim solution but I'd expect they'd like a little more room, especially your WW....and ideally I'd get something big enough for both robos to get in together to minimise the fighting risk.

I think head2head recently managed to track a Critterbath down online somewhere so you could PM her and ask her where she ordered it from.

[Ness]

I have seen a few on ebay laterly and someone seems to have loads, but is selling them a bit too much (Imean adding a few quid onto them).

I often ask ukpetsupplies to get things in for me, or just order out of stock things and they arrive as fast as the normal package.

I'll add the smaller dish into the WWs cage just for now and will buy bigger dishes next week after the bank holiday. I'm sure I'll find something that'll be just right for each of them.

P@H's cat feeding dishes are great - they're cheap (£1 something), they come in green, blue and purple (so they can be colour matched to Silent Spinners if you're sad like me!) and they fit two hams in rolling together. But I'm not sure how near you live to a P@H??

[Ness]

it's an hour on the train then an hour to walk there just about otherwise I would get them now.

HOw big are they then I can see if my local pet shop have some cheap ones in similar sizes.

I also like the idea of them matching things, I'm not too sure if the hamsters really care though. but I guess its a bit like babies who get everything in pink blue yellow or cream.

I'm guessing they're about 14cm wide. This is the dish in the background (apologies it doesn't match - I've changed colours so it does now!)