Finally introducing Dusty, Scruff, Timmy and Bump

[kyrilliondaemon]

lol or just spoilt
But they're happy and have been squabbling way less than they used to ever since they got the new cage, so they deserve to be spoilt
All of our hams are anyway lol

[riri]

They are all adorable! Love the gift giving in the pen too! I just got 2 russian dwarfies myself and I admire the dedication to stop the squabbles, noticed your location too, not far from me!

Must ask, got a picture of your DIY cage? Love to see how you fit in six water bottles! aha can barely fit in 2 of everything in ours

[kyrilliondaemon]

Whoops... I did not notice this post lol

And yup we're close. And thanks for the comment on the dedication to stopping the squabbling, it kinda costs us some sleep but hey, at least losing sleep gives us an incentive to solve the problem causing it

We wanted to do the gift giving in the playpens because everyone loves out of cage time so we thought they could all go in their runs (and Scamp in a cardboard box since she prefers it to a run lol) and have the gifts then. Figured then they could stay out for as long as they wanted and enjoy extra run time for the day
All went back in when they wanted to, so it worked quite well for them.

And er... Our current cage is a ferplast mary, we can't use the DIY one because a certain silly hamster (Scruff) wouldn't stop causing problems until they moved into their "travel cage" permanently
So now we just have the bottles on the outside with the spouts poking in between where the wheels are (at each end of the cage).
Now we also use two of most toys rather than four, since we've found two is enough and it lets us have more variation and give them extras of the favourite toys instead. There're also three things we only have one of, but they're big enough for everyone at any time and difficult to defend e.t.c if someone wanted to be daft. (We're also ready to remove them if someone does get daft - sand bath included. If they fight over it they lose it and we find an alternative.)

I've attatched a picture of their first cage setup, since apparently I never actually took one when we'd changed the wheels, added more water bottles e.t.c. But as you can see its er... kinda huge... (approx 85 by 90cm) so we had loads of space for everything we wanted.
The second picture is their current setup, is a bit crowded but they liked it that way and what they like they get.
They'll be getting a change soon though, or a few changes depending... They've started squabbling so we need to make changes until they stop again. With nothing specific triggering it, this may mean a while of changing something about the cage semi-reguarly. Not a good idea normally, but nothing else will stop them this time so later I'll steal a load of toys, and if that fails we'll try something else in a few days time instead.

[Malorey]

What an adorable little group you have! They all have such neat colored fur!

You sure have given them alot to due! Lucky brew!

[kyrilliondaemon]

Thanks Malorey, their cage has currently changed and is a lot emptier (we got desperate to reduce squabbles when they got quite bad) but it'll change soon.
I hate them being in the smallest cage we use reguarly and our biggest spare is bigger (100cm by 50cm) so... Yeah, they'll probably get a new cage sooner or later. I just have to decide if we move someone else into the spare and them into that cage or just move them into our spare. They did squabble more in a really big cage but I don't think the extra 20cm length will upset them and if it does we can move them back. Its unlikely to ruin the group dynamics so I want to give it a go I think.

Anyway, my caging issues aside, lets start the photos!

Scruff saying hi to Bump who was resting in a wheel


Bump resting in a wheel


Dusty and Bump and hamcakes (Dusty loved them)


Dusty, Bump and Timmy with hamcakes


All four of them


Timmy, Dusty and Bump (Timmy's fault this is being shown lol)


All four together


Dusty and Bump (Bump looking at the camera)


Timmy and Scruff together


All four of them


All four again


And Scruff trying to sniff under Dusty while Bump looks up and Timmy sits on her own for a bit

[kyrilliondaemon]

And more photos...

This looks er... interesting... But I can guarantee all are female so it just strikes me as cute rather than panic-inducing lol


Scruff settling down to munch for a bit


Dusty and Scruff being friends, always makes me smile since they're the two who squabble the most


Dusty, Scruff and Timmy


Dusty and Timmy peer at Scruff


Dusty at the back and Bump contorting herself


Bump and Dusty and ham-cakes (the amounts they got were limited after photos and all ingredients are 100% hamster safe)


Dusty liked these too


So did Timmy


Ham pile! (See the tiny bit of fur under Dusty and Bump? Thats Timmy lol)


Sharing is good

[kyrilliondaemon]

Scruff contorting herself, with Bump behind her


Scruff pretending to have slightly long fur


And a last one of Scruff



Ok, lots of photos lol
Ah well, I hope thats enough for even the Scruff fans!

[Hobbes]

Yes, I have followed you here!
I can't begin to say how beautiful and cute your hamsters are. I love how you did the cage with all the toys. I wouldn't have thought about putting that many toys in (me being very new to this) but I suppose as they are so active it makes sence to stop them being bored. Thanks for that, and Rosie would thank you too if she could, lol.

[kyrilliondaemon]

Good! And thanks

That many toys isn't actually often needed. Most hams prefer less and this lot usually have considerably less than in the second cage photo but they're a daft group and when they squabble really badly for a bit we go through changes (every week or so) until we can solve and settle the problems. They decided a really overcrowded cage would fix the issues so kept it that way until I decided I trusted them enough to let me take some toys out again. That lasted a while, then they got exceptionally bad with squabbling so lost most of the cage contents and have behaved since.
Here's hoping they stay doing so if/when I give them a bigger cage lol

So yeah, Rosie will be happy without anywhere near that much. Its usually much better for them to have space to run around freely, and very few others have to let the hams dictate exactly what is/isn't in their cage lol
(We let everyone choose, but its only the russians where the dynamics are so complex we can't safely predict anything based on the usual logic with hams.)

I'll go get a photo of Scamp's bin cage and pm you that if you want? That shows way more sensible amounts of toys for ham cages lol

[Hobbes]

I'd like that, thanks and thanks for the advice.