Hello Gwyn!
I am here to introduce myself, I'm Demi and I live in South Wales, UK and I am currently researching and preparing for my first hamster since I was a teenager. Hamster care and research has come a loooong way since then (well in mainstream anyways) but I wish I knew about this forum back then as I loved tumblr and would have had a ball finding out loads of information and keeping up to date on the best hamster care.
I was gifted hamsters for my birthday by my Mum on two separate occasions growing up where she bought everything from the pet store as a big present (ie just bought everything suggested by pets at home or local pet shop - I had a habitrail cage and they sold my Mum TWO robos together which we ended up splitting up into a tiny ferplast cage - one robo lived for 3 years though and I was really good at taming them and gave them loads of outside time but I know it was not good enough care now).
I had no control over my finances then so I was not able to spend the money or buy the things I would have liked that would have been better for my previous hammies

unfortunately they were pet store hamsters that were overbred and died of poor health due to inherited health conditions (seizures etc) which was really sad to witness when I had limited power to do better and when I did not buy the hamsters myself - I would have wanted to adopt but I couldn't take back what had already happened.
I am so excited to come back to owning hamsters as an adult with the responsibility and finances to give them the absolute best care possible! I'm sharing my history with hamsters because I want to bring awareness to the fact that so often hamsters are bought for children as a surprise or on impulse and it is absolutely in the worst interest of the hamsters and they deserve so much more than that! They are NOT toys or a cute gift - they are complex creatures who require a lot of experience and knowledge to give them the care they require - preaching to the choir here I know but maybe some of you can relate to my story too and can be proud of how far we have come in our hamster care and dedication to the welfare of the most misunderstood pets!