New Additions

[Rikki]

Hello everyone, today while at the local pet store I came across the hamster section, I had not kept hamsters in years though I decided that it would be nice to get back into the hamster hobby. So I purchased a 10g Aquarium (glass), shaved bedding, water bottle, and hamster pellets and seeds, now I moved over to the hamsters for my selection. I saw beautiful hamsters called "Golden Hamsters" I am not sure if this is there real name, if it is not; please verify. The male's upper body is a light brown, followed by a white mid section, and another light brown portion at his lower body, the female is all light brown and larger than the male. I placed them in the tank together with everything set up, the male is already burried in the shavings, and the female is running about and staring out the glass at the cats (the tank is locked and covered). She is also doing quite a bit of digging. I bought them for $7.99 each.

I would like to breed them and keep the majority of the babies. Though I would like to know if my setup is ok. Do you have any tips? I have not kept them for about years now, they are wonderful animals and im glad im back into the hobby. I have many other animals including; reptiles, fish, dogs, cats, and more, and was only missing the rodents :p

[joey]

Hamsters are cute. I love the Siberian Hamsters and had a friend who used to raise them. Just don't ever feed them lots of lettuce or other certain veggies cuz they can get this nasty condition called 'wet tail'.

You have betta's right? I loved your pictures on the other thread. I have a female right now that likes to make her own bubble nest and then blows her own eggs up and guards them. She's so cool.


ANYWAY---good luck with your new fuzzie friends!

cheers!

[Iceman]

OH christ, lol rikki i had like a ton of hamsters when i was young, teddy bear hamsters, dwarf hamsters, ect..

they are adorable, but something what happened made me never buy a hamster again, i dont want to say i am not sure if people would want to hear it, lol..

anyway, in my opinion hamsters need a cage rather then a tank, what you can do is get one of those cool cages they sell that are plastic, but with alot of ventilation, and they got tunnels and places to climb into, i'm not sure if everyone knows what cages i am talking about, but they are cool..

[mykee]

You didn't mention anything about their set-up other than it's a glass aquarium and you use shavings. If you tell us about the set-up, maybe we could offer suggestions. Also, the only relation a hamster has to a reptile is as a food source, so might I suggest that this thread be moved to the feeder forum..

[Iceman]

but i dont think he got them for feeders, rather as pets, people talk about all different stuff in general forum..

[Rikki]

I would never feed these to my reptiles, they are pets. The setup is basic, shaved wood bedding, two small boxes (which they are sleeping in), water bottle, food, toilet paper roll, and thats it for now. Is suggestions on how often you should handle them and such?

[Nicky]

My friend keeps rats and mice and I always remember her saying you never use aquriums for rodents as it gets to dusty and can cause respitory stuff, I'd switch to a bigger bar rodent type cage and add in some toys, rodents like birds need alot of stimulation and need ladders to climb, those running/excersie wheels, blocks to chew on, balls string just stuff to keep them entertained. As for holding just pick them up gently and allow them to crawl around freely ( probably keep your door closed incase they bolt). As for breeding I doubt that will be a problem just make sure theier properly sexed as two males will fight and trust me thats not pretty. umm besides that I can't think of much, just I"d like to stress again switch them to a cage as soon as possible.
Best of luck with them:)
Kayla

[Rikki]

Thanks for the advice, I was told tanks work better by a store employee, though im going to research it. As I stated the female is larger than the male, when first in the cage the male went to one spot and dug a "bed" you could say, the female went over and he rolled on his stomach and she bit his foot, hes not bleeding or hurt, this only happened once now they are running about together, I think she was wanting his spot.... Thanks for the current and furture advice!

[Nicky]

Originally posted by Rikki
Thanks for the advice, I was told tanks work better by a store employee,

in my experince they generally have no idea what thier talking about, good though that you'll research it but next time u should probably do a bit more research first you can find most of that info in a basic care book:)
Best of luck again
Kayla

[Rikki]

On a hamster website they say tanks work just as well.

[Rikki]

Has anyone kept males and females together? I have a person telling me they will kill each other because they are not dwarf hamsters....

[Iceman]

Lol they moved it to the feeder section, so next time someone posts they got a new dog there gonna move it to the feeder section too? lol..

anyway, my story about hamsters is at one point i had alot, they kept having babys, so i sold some and gave some away to family, then one morning i woke up and one tore apart the other one, all was left was a little fur and bones..

i was tramatized for life, lol..

[mykee]

This is still a reptile site, not hhamsterss.com.
I have rats as pets. Food too. I still post in the feeder forum.
Know of anyone who feeds dogs to their snakes? Me neither. Know of anyone who feeds hamsters to their snakes? Me too.
The liberties people take. Give 'em an inch....

Anyways hamsters are great, used to own a few myself. Never would feed them to my snakes though, indigestion...

[Iceman]

lol i was joking around, but like i said before, hamsters aren't bad, but they dont always get along..

but it would be funny to see what hamsters would do in one of those cages i was talking about, running through tunnels and such, lol..

anyway rikki, when they are not eating each other, hamsters are fun pets..

as for set up, here is how my main setup was when i was young(i was about 13)

plain cage, orange bottom white bars, about 2 1/2 feet long, about 14 inches high, and about 18 inches deep(it was big for a hamster cage)

i didnt use a water bottle, because of the sound it makes, and i found that the hamsters struggle some times to get water, so i used those heavy non tip over bowls, i had a cool tree house with 3 levels, and a bridge that lead across the cage to another 3 levels, a heavy food bowl, and about 4 inches of litter..

i had the 2 adults in there, then they had a bunch of babys, ate half of them, the rest grew up and lived in there, they were about a few months old(babys) and every morning i woke up more of them were killed and half eaten, then i woke up and the mother was half eaten, and the father looked like he wanted to eat me O.o

moral of the story, try to get hamsters that promise they wont eat eachother, but there food instead.. :D

[ChocoMeijin]

There are pros and cons to having an aquarium vs a wire cage. It's true that in an aquarium they don't get a much ventilation as in a wire cage, but in a wire cage you can't pile the wood chips high enough 'cause they'll push them right out and make a mess ^_^
Those habitrail cages (I'm pretty sure that's what they're called), are pretty fun though, you can buy all kinds of additions and make cool mazes and stuff ^_^ Though I'd think ventilation is also limited in the tubes? Just thinking how there's a 'bedroom' addition and the holes were sooo tiny in the lid that we drilled a couple more. ^_^

Have fun with your new pets, hamsters are super nice, though I prefer mice myself ^_^

~ChocoMeijin

[Double J]

I kept females together, and it seemed as if one was bullying the other. I gave one away after I saw them biting each other. I would highly recommend getting one of those hamster wheels. Mine burns of most of her calories on it... and I think she would get rather restless without it.

[Iceman]

dammit thats what there called, lol habitrail, i had a few of those cages to keep my feeder mice in..

also about the wheel, they are good to have, because a fat hamster isn't good, lol.

[mykee]

...unless you're fattening him up for Thanksgiving.

[mykee]

DP.

[Rikki]

Well due to the advice I received, I have placed them in seperate 10g tanks.

[Rikki]

I have had them for a while now and they are doing great, ive added so many supplies and such to their tank. I have introduced them once and am expecting baby hamsters soon :)

[samurai]

Heres a tip about hampsters DO NOT let them get loose and die in your brothers golf bag ( me being the brother) my nine iron has never smelled worse as it did the day i shook a maggoty hampster out of the bottom of the bag. OH and i made sure my bro paid for his mistake!!!

[sapphire_moon]

if you have syrian hamsters, SEPERATE NOW, they WILL kill each other. Syrians are more prone to wet tail than dwarves.

However dwarves are less handable, and are VERY prone to diabetes.

Take the tank back and get a rubbermaid ;) lol. Seriously, I have my girl (a black syrian) in a 90qt sterilite with holes drilled high up, and in the lid for ventilation. It is actually one of the best, as you can customize (if you need to fill in a drilled hole use aquaurium(sp?) sealent wiped smooth.)

Yes, hamsters run about 8 miles a night, have some vasiline, cooking oil, or other "lubricant" type things on hand, as it WILL start to squeek (unless you get a wodent wheel, www.transoniq.com).

golden hamster, teddy bear hamster, long haired, black bear, panda bear, they are all the same thing, diffrent colored syrian hamsters.

no barred cages as if they chew on it, it can cause misaligned teeth and brain damage.
http://www.hamsterific.com/CageBarChewing.cfm

if you want to breed be very careful, as if you handle the pups, the mother will destroy them. You can't clean the cage for 2 wks after they are born, and can't handle them for that amount of time either (unless the mother REALLY trusts you).

The diet I have for my hamster is the same as my rats (I swear I said that somewhere else in my reply I just can't find it now)

dog food (holistic kind)
puffed wheat
puffed rice
shredded wheat
mueslix (all natural cereal)
wacky max spiral veggie pasta
cheerios

And she gets a yoggie (yogurt drop) every othre night or so.

If the shavings you have are pine, get rid of them, they aren't good for animals (phenols cause RI), I use aspen shavings, there are also carefresh, and other good litters/bedding to have.


Do NOT give them any kind of material to nest in (not even that crap from the pet store) as it CAN get stuck in their cheeck pouch, which would require a trip to an exotics vet (which may or may not know anything about hamsters). If you want to give her something to nest in give her some toilet paper, paper towel, or shredded paper (or all 3).

www.hamsterific.com is a place I go to for my info....

I don't think i've forgotten anything. lol


Edit:

Habitrails are very bad for syrians as syrians need floor space to move around in, especially those "bubble" tube things, syrians get so big they get stuck in there!