Hi!

[Tazius]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum after being directed here by ErinsAnimals youtube videos. I had a few hamsters when I was younger, but since watching Erin's videos have realised I did everything entirely wrong.

Me and my partner got a new hamster yesterday, a little black Syrian boy named Feolan who is 3 months old, and repeated many of my old mistakes because I didn't find Erins videos until last night.

Firstly, we bought the complete wrong cage for him. We bought him a Rotastak cage which was far, far too small for him and its a modular cage (which it seems many people advise against!). It also had a terrible external wheel attached to it that was poorly made, and Faolan was using it to store bedding AND food in it which was causing it to rattle loudly and/or get stuck. We were also told my the shop that we only had to leave our new hamster alone for 24 hours before we could start introducing ourselves, which Erin also advised against. We bought unspecified wood shavings for substrate, and wasn't aware that we would have to supplement his diet with meat!!

Unfortunately, it would seem we have gotten off to a pretty bad start but are not trying to correct all of our mistakes! As soon as we realised the mistake about the cage, we tried to find a bigger one but couldn't find one, and ended up building our own bin cage to provide enough room for Faolan, and we're going to be taking the old cage back to try and get a refund! We're also going to get replacement substrate that is safer to use (such as megazorb or carefresh), got him a bigger wheel, and are trying to leave him alone as much as possible for the next few days as we caused a lot of disturbance very early on which I now feel so guilty about!

I also need to try and find out more information on feeding him. I have a list of safe/unsafe foods to give him but are unsure of when to start introducing these, how much I should be giving him, and when I should be giving him the things like meat, eggs, and vegetables. Could anyone give me any advice or should I go over and start a new topic in the nutrition thread.

So yeah, I think that's everything. Hoping to continue learning while I'm here and try to rectify my early mistakes!

[velma]

Hello Tazius. Welcome to HC. And hello little Faolan. What an unusual and lovely name I think everything you've described we've all done at some point! With regards to diet, I'd let him properly settle in before introducing anything new. Particularly with vegetables because too much can cause diarrhoea. And they are quite prone to stress which will make this more likely. And when you do, start small & build up the amount you feed them. Fruit is okay as a small occasional treat but they can get diabetes so not too much. In the meantime, there are some useful boards in the feeding section where you might find the answers to your queries. If not, of course go ahead & start a new thread
With the meat, it's more about supplementing the protein that's lacking in some mixes so it's worth looking at what brand of food you are feeding (which obviously depends on where you are) but things like mealworms are popular (dead and freeze dried. Live ones have a powerful jaw that could bite a hamsters' cheek pouch).
Looking forward to seeing pictures of Faolan

[Shannonmcn]

Welcome to the forum! You seem to be making an excellent start on getting Feolan sorted! Don't worry about not getting everything right the first time, I'm sure a lot of people here (including me!) have found themselves in that exact same position

Bin cage sounds great, if you're in the UK then the shavings might be okay (if they smell strongly of pine then they are not ok) but carefresh (expensive), megazorb or other paper based beddings like Fitch are also grand. You can also look into hemp beddings like Aubiose or Hugro or siccoflor. Which ever option is cheapest and most convenient is fine.

As for diet start with a good quality hamster mix and then supplement that as needed, options are going to depend on where you are like Velma says but Harry/Hazel Hamster is a good easily available starting point wherever you are. Plain chicken is a good protein supplement, eggs either boiled or scrambled or mealworms too but I think it's best to save these for occasional treats rather than trying to supplement a low-protein hamster mix with them consistently.

As for veggies start off with literally tiny amounts and build up over a few weeks to portions about the size of your thumbnail. Hams all have their favourites but brocolli, cucumber, carrots, peas, fresh sweet corn, spinach, bell peppers, apples, grapes, strawberry are all common ones. I generally just give the ham a bit of what I'm having so long as it's on the safe list they can also have plain porridge oats which is nice for a treat. If you have any specific questions and you can't google your way to an answer don't be afraid of posting a thread!

I posted a lot of words at you there, sorry! Hope some of them were helpful and please feel free to post cute pictures of Feolan when you can! I love the name too, where did that one come from?

[Wanna Hamster]

Hi and welcome to HC!
I agree with everything Velma and Shannon have said above!

[Tazius]

Thank you all for the welcomes and all of the advice. I've taken note of it and will definitely ensure to introduce things slowly and start off small!

In terms of pictures we haven't really been able to take much as of yet on account of our room having soft lighting, and because Feolan's black he doesn't tend to show up other than a black ball of fluff. We did get one though!

Also, the name Feolan is Irish Gaelic and means "little wolf" and his middle name is Asra which means "travels by night". So altogether "little wolf travels by night"!

[cypher]

Hi & welcome to the forum
Even in the dark your little guy looks adorable!
Love the name too

[taylorisqueen]

Welcome to the forum

Feolan is so cute and from the photo it looks like he has plenty of toys!

[Bertiebobbins]

How cute is he!

I think many of us came here realising we had been badly advised or just did what we did when we were kids but realised that's not the best for hams. The important thing is that we've changed what we were doing, got them better cages etc.

Echo everything Shannon said by the way!

[Shannonmcn]

He is a very handsome young man :3 that's a really perfect name for him too, I was googling it and getting nothing but it's just a slightly different spelling, duh me I had a little pure black ham years ago and called her Kizzy because it was the first thing came into my head lol

[Tazius]

Shannon- it is spelled Faolan but I was typing on my phone and haven't been realising that it was autocorrecting it >> only just noticed today when somebody pointed it out!