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12-04-2024, 02:01 PM
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#1
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Newborn Pup
Join Date: Nov 2024
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 15
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I'm Marble's mum - even now that she left us
Hi hamster loving people.
My baby Marble left us at the age of 1 year and 8 months all, from what I gathered. I found her at Pets at Home. She chose me. And I miss her dearly now, two weeks after my beautiful girl left the physical world.
I'm mourning her now in the Buddhist way, to support her in her passage to a different form.
Marble taught me everything I know about hamsters, and also how to be a better human. To honour her legacy, I will put at good use everything she taught me, to care for other hamsters in the future.
My ADHD brain has been thinking whether I should change the setting of my bedroom in the future. This led me to measure her cage. And to my surprise the inside of the cage, the actual floor cage, is only 96 cm long. I feel dumb and a bit upset that I didn't realise 100 cm length on the outside makes less floor space on the inside. (I live in the UK but I'm European so I measure everything in metric)
I want to give future babies the best while asking Marble to forgive me if I've mistakenly given her less.
How do you measure the floor space in your hamsters' homes?
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12-06-2024, 02:23 PM
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#2
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Adult Hamster
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 266
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Re: I'm Marble's mum - even now that she left us
Generally...I don't. If a cage is stated to be 100x50cm, then I accept that, even though I know that those are the external measurements. A couple of centimetres doesn't make too much of a difference as long as the cage has enough enrichment, and the hamster living inside is happy.
For reference, I have Popcorn, my Roborovski, in a ZooZone2, and Fluffy V, my Syrian, is in a Savic Hamster Plaza. Both cages have been in use for several years (and several hamsters), and my robos have never shown signs of boredom/distress in the ZooZone2, but I did get some wooden shelves to add a bit more 'floor' space, and acrylic screens (courtesy of Viking Laser) for the Plaza, as my previous Syrian was an occasional bar chewer, and I didn't want to risk my current fluffball causing damage to himself; thankfully he loves his wheel too much to care about bars.
But, I know that cage size required does depend more on the hamster. Some are very happy in 'small' cages that are 70x40cm, and would find bigger cages too intimidating. Some would think even the new Plaza XL (120x65cm!) is too small. So, it's up to you. I'd say that the cage you have is probably plenty. If Marble was happy in the cage, then future hamsters likely will be too.
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12-06-2024, 04:05 PM
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#3
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Newborn Pup
Join Date: Dec 2023
Location: Cheshire, UK
Posts: 38
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Re: I'm Marble's mum - even now that she left us
its cool to see others also getting those screens for the savic plaza cage. i have 2 of them and got the full set of screens from Viking, they are amazing. decided to get them for my old syrian who was a bar chewer and for my old russian dwarf because i had a little anxiety about putting her in a cage with larger bars now i use the cage for my new long haired syrian Bandit and the other for my chinese hamster Pebbles
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12-07-2024, 03:17 PM
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#4
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Newborn Pup
Join Date: Nov 2024
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 15
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Re: I'm Marble's mum - even now that she left us
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeir
But, I know that cage size required does depend more on the hamster. Some are very happy in 'small' cages that are 70x40cm, and would find bigger cages too intimidating. Some would think even the new Plaza XL (120x65cm!) is too small. So, it's up to you. I'd say that the cage you have is probably plenty. If Marble was happy in the cage, then future hamsters likely will be too.
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I gave it some thought after that evening when I felt a bit tormented by the above dilemma, and yes, my Marble was happy in her Mamble cage. During the last two months of her life, after free roaming for a while, and particularly after pouching bit bites of her edible toys, she'd ask to go back to it.
She also took proper ownership of her cage - I saw this in the way she covered her toilet corner (where she peed  ) under a pile, kicking substrate with her hind legs, the way she decided where to dig the tunnel out of her nest under the platform, and how she always went to check the treat bowl whenever she was returned to her cage.
When she was young and I had a smaller cage for her from Pets at Home and I was ignorant and learning, she did bar bite and monkey bar for a while. That stopped when I gave her the Mamble for her home. Very very rarely she bar bit if she wasn't awake when I got home and she only woke up when I went to bed. And even then she stopped biting if I let her out for 20 minutes.
I will keep her cage for my future hamster baby and will probably improve it by adding some of those screens you both mentioned.
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12-07-2024, 03:21 PM
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#5
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Newborn Pup
Join Date: Nov 2024
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 15
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Re: I'm Marble's mum - even now that she left us
Quote:
Originally Posted by OG_Jam
its cool to see others also getting those screens for the savic plaza cage. i have 2 of them and got the full set of screens from Viking, they are amazing. decided to get them for my old syrian who was a bar chewer and for my old russian dwarf because i had a little anxiety about putting her in a cage with larger bars now i use the cage for my new long haired syrian Bandit and the other for my chinese hamster Pebbles 
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My boyfriend suggested we could add plexiglass screens to improve the Mamble, avoid bar biting and give the future hamster more of a chance to build big piles of substrate wherever in the cage they want to do this.
My Marble only did this for the last month of her life - she started to pile up her substrate towards the front of the cage, where the doors are, and some of it fell out of the cage. I do still wonder if part of this behaviour was caused by her not feeling well. She lost a lot of fur for the first time in August, then was given the anti mites treatment and her fur grew back. Then she started losing it again about a month - three weeks before she sadly passed away.
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12-07-2024, 04:19 PM
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#6
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Newborn Pup
Join Date: Dec 2023
Location: Cheshire, UK
Posts: 38
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Re: I'm Marble's mum - even now that she left us
Quote:
Originally Posted by WitchyCat
My boyfriend suggested we could add plexiglass screens to improve the Mamble, avoid bar biting and give the future hamster more of a chance to build big piles of substrate wherever in the cage they want to do this.
My Marble only did this for the last month of her life - she started to pile up her substrate towards the front of the cage, where the doors are, and some of it fell out of the cage. I do still wonder if part of this behaviour was caused by her not feeling well. She lost a lot of fur for the first time in August, then was given the anti mites treatment and her fur grew back. Then she started losing it again about a month - three weeks before she sadly passed away.
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i'd 100000% recommend the plexiglass screens you can add so much more paper for your hammy its defo worth it
also if you dont mind me asking, was Marble old? hair loss is a common thing in elderly hamsters and her making a large fluffy nest at the front of the cage could have been her trying to keep warmer or simply having fun expanding her burrows my old russian dwarf had issues with bald patches but i dont believe it was mite related even tho the vet said it was without doing tests, id used the treatments multiple times and never seen any signs of mites or any kind of bug in my Stitch's paper but she kept getting these large bald patches. it wasnt till after she passed away (unrelated cause) that i found out hamsters can be sensitive to protein and can make them itchy which is what i think was wrong with my little Stitch because mealworms were her favourite and i would give her multiple a day
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12-07-2024, 05:08 PM
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#7
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Newborn Pup
Join Date: Nov 2024
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 15
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Re: I'm Marble's mum - even now that she left us
Marble loved mealworms and I gave her 2-3 at a time, but not every day.
She wasn't that old sadly - only about 1 year and 8 months as far as I can tell. I bought her in Pets at Home and I can't be sure how old she was when I got her in June 2023. She left us three weeks ago.
I thought she was just having fun with more burrowing behaviour, indeed. Maybe it was unrelated to what she suffered with in the end. By the symptoms she had, and the vets' opinion when we took her straight there after she passed away, her heart gave in. I believe she had congestive heart failure sadly. It was a difficult experience, particularly since it seems there was nothing we could have done for her. The only symptom she showed was faster breathing than regular, for a week, and sneezing. But her breathing wasn't heavier, just slightly faster, the vet gave us some decongestant, anti-inflammatory and recommended a nebuliser.
Otherwise, she was active, ate, drank and interacted just the same. But since she started to lose her fur the second time, or maybe even earlier, she didn't come out of her nest to free roam every evening, and there was signs that she might have used her wheel less often.
Last edited by WitchyCat; 12-07-2024 at 05:34 PM.
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12-07-2024, 06:35 PM
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#8
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Newborn Pup
Join Date: Dec 2023
Location: Cheshire, UK
Posts: 38
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Re: I'm Marble's mum - even now that she left us
i got Stitch from pets at home too she lived to be about a year and 5 months (assuming we trust pets at homes word on hamster age) and there was no signs of Stitch slowing down i had literally seen her running on her wheel as usual the night she had passed, i always like giving my hamsters a little bit of "soup" (vegetable baby food) and they love it and i'd noticed stitch hadnt woke up and eaten it when i'd left it for her before going to bed and sure enough she had went to bed after zooming on her wheel and passed away in her nest all comfy there was no signs of her slowing down. she still ran, ate and drank she hadnt even started losing hair to age (where it thins instead of straight bald spots) the only thing different is i had noticed a pea sized lump growing on her chin like a day or 2 before which i assumed would have been cancer with how fast it showed up but what i learned from it is a lot of the time we cant tell whats wrong with our little ones until its obvious. its also very clear how much you love little Marble what type of hammy was she?
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12-08-2024, 05:50 PM
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#9
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Newborn Pup
Join Date: Nov 2024
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 15
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Re: I'm Marble's mum - even now that she left us
My boyfriend heard Marble run in her wheel the night before she passed away. Yet, in the morning she was curled up between the wheel and the tunnel to her nest, which was unusual for her. I called, no response, I touched her, and she kind of jumped forward. I looked through the wires under the platform and she'd fallen to her side, face up, half conscious. 10 minutes later she'd passed away in my hand.
I'm very convinced she waited for me to say goodbye before she left.
That week my boyfriend also stayed at mine the whole week. We don't live together, but we care about each other deeply. Marble was attached to him and loved playing with him. It was good that we were both with her for the last week of her life.
Marble was a Syrian, black and white. I'll link my Instagram in my profile so you can see her. Thank you for asking.
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