Pets- What have you got?

Ooh thanks for letting me know, just curious, how do you know he's a chinese?I tried to look online but to me he sounded more like a winter  white, I think that's what its called! Just because he has a black stripe going down his back and on either side of his little body lol. Although I haven't a clue! X

Definitely a Chinese, the long tail and long body shows that.

This is my current Winter White dwarf, short tail, very round body.

And to compare, one of the Chinese dwarfs I used to have :

Long body, long tail, different shaped head.

Awesome to see all the hamsters. 😀 I Looooove hamsters and yours are all so cute as well. ^_^

Just so show off, my pride and joy, Uther Pendragon. <3 He's a Syrian, all the way from Sweden to bring new blood into the bloodlines in the Netherlands. In a years time he's going to make babies, hopefully. Together with an established breeder friend of mine, so she'll have some new blood in her line. ^_^

I'm really loving this forum, it's not only great for hair but there is a lot of hamster love here! That's great for me as my life revolves around them.

CyberPunk - As Mouse said Chinese hams aren't technically dwarfs, they are closer related to mice as you will notice with their slender bodies and long tails (in comparison to other hamsters). Chinese hamsters have the dorsal stripe too, Winter Whites are becoming quite rare now due to bad breeding however they are much more rounded and their coat changes colour during winter time. I can say with absolute certainty that Merele is a Chinese, you're very lucky as they've got to be the most gentle natured little things I've ever owned! He'll give you lots of love and laughs once he comes out of his shell I'm sure.

If he is starts drinking excessively, sleeping more and is eating less you may want to get him tested for diabetes anyway. Unfortunately even the best of diets sometimes can't stop it, I lost a rescue to it recently and it was awful. It can be managed well with diet and possibly insulin prescribed by the vet. I personally use fenugreek as an effective way to control my diabetic hamsters condition but that's a whole other story.

I'm really loving this forum, it's not only great for hair but there is a lot of hamster love here! That's great for me as my life revolves around them.

CyberPunk - As Mouse said Chinese hams aren't technically dwarfs, they are closer related to mice as you will notice with their slender bodies and long tails (in comparison to other hamsters). Chinese hamsters have the dorsal stripe too, Winter Whites are becoming quite rare now due to bad breeding however they are much more rounded and their coat changes colour during winter time. I can say with absolute certainty that Merele is a Chinese, you're very lucky as they've got to be the most gentle natured little things I've ever owned! He'll give you lots of love and laughs once he comes out of his shell I'm sure.

If he is starts drinking excessively, sleeping more and is eating less you may want to get him tested for diabetes anyway. Unfortunately even the best of diets sometimes can't stop it, I lost a rescue to it recently and it was awful. It can be managed well with diet and possibly insulin prescribed by the vet. I personally use fenugreek as an effective way to control my diabetic hamsters condition but that's a whole other story.

Thanks all of you!! I see why hes a chinese now! haha awwh thats good! I didnt know as the girl i adopted him off didnt bother asking when she got him she didnt even name him and all he had was a little plastic house and a toilet roll thing to play with 🙁 So hes now got a wheel.. Thanks for the tip Mouse, yeah its a solid plastic one so he wont get his little feet trapped! Hes also go a long tube with some holes in which he loves to run in and out of, i might replace his house soon for one of those wooden 2 story ones lol they look nice! Are they safe for him??

And ooh ill keep an eye on that ^^ he seems ok so far, drinking and sleeping normally, and eating enough... i have these little hamster cho drop things which i got when i adopted him, he LOVES them i only give him 1 a night, broke in half and he normally comes out his house/tube and eats it out my hand!! Hes so adorable!!

Ive also got him some special dwarf hammy mix, but id be interested in the mix you use Mouse? Oh and all your hammys are cuuuuute!! And Rjj Uther is amazing! Love the name and omg!! Hes so FLUFFY !! Im gonna diiiiiiie!!

Thanks everyone for your advice! Its really helped, as i said i literally adopted him the night Merle died in The Walking dead, i didnt even ask for him my brother just text me saying, want a hamster so i said yeah! SO i was a bit unprepared!

xx

Thanks all of you!! I see why hes a chinese now! haha awwh thats good! I didnt know as the girl i adopted him off didnt bother asking when she got him she didnt even name him and all he had was a little plastic house and a toilet roll thing to play with 🙁 So hes now got a wheel.. Thanks for the tip Mouse, yeah its a solid plastic one so he wont get his little feet trapped! Hes also go a long tube with some holes in which he loves to run in and out of, i might replace his house soon for one of those wooden 2 story ones lol they look nice! Are they safe for him??
xx

My chinese loves those tubes! She's got tonnes of them in her cage, my grandma calls her home 'toytown' because it has a whole little labyrinth of them! My gerbil has a two storey house and loves it! All wooden toys made for hamsters and other small animals should be safe, just double check that they aren't treated with anything, since hammies love to chew and some paints / wood treatments that larger rodents might be unphased by are unsafe for them. I also like to check to see how such things are contructed - the type that slot together are the best for hamsters in my opinion. Glued houses supposedly use hamster safe glues, but I'm always a bit wary, especially with dwarf hams because the glue could be sharp if they chew it off, which can cause irreparable damage to their eyes, nose, cheek pouches or digestive system. I also try to avoid ones with screws, as obviously these can be hazardous if the hamster manages to chew around them and expose them. That said, if you're keeping a close eye both should theoretically be safe, since you can always remove and replace the toys if they're looking in dangerous shape. I'd also check the height - chinese hams are great climbers, so make sure anything you buy isn't too tall just in case they fall off! I only mention this because I buy a lot of guinea pig sized toys for my gerbil (for some reason gerbil toys are notoriously difficult to track down now) and in my opinion they're too big to be safe for chinese hams.

I also recommend the little wooden bridges you can buy, old kitchen roll tubes and hamster-safe cardboard boxes (i.e. no food products, no glue, no corrugated card and preferably undyed). I wouldn't recommend fabric toys (can cause problems if digested by accident) or things with chains on, such as some hanging toys. These can trap tiny paws and cause problems.

Another thing to watch out for is respiratory problems. If you're keeping him on woodshavings, make sure to keep an ear out for sneezing. Both my hybrid dwarf and my gerbil suffered allergies that meant that woodshavings were not an appropriate choice. If you do notice frequent sneezing, try swapping to a paper based bedding such as Carefresh. (Although if you have the space to store it, I recommend Megazorb, since it's dead cheap and makes for great tunnel building and generally just looks nicer than Carefresh in my opinion).

I'll PM you the name of the food when I dig it out later. If you need any help, feel free to PM me, I'm quite experienced with small furries and spend a lot of time researching them so hopefully should be able to help with any queries you might have! 🙂

Rjj, Uther is absolutely stunning! Your WW is a real beauty too, wish we had accessible breeders here in the UK, but alas, it's hard to find purebreed Campbells or WWs here. I rescue all my pets at the moment but I'd love to have a WW in the future. 🙁

Bitzy - so sorry to hear about your hamster. 🙁  I lost my own rescue boy recently and it was horrid. He was a hybrid and lived to a grand old age of 2 1/2 so I guess I should be happy for the long healthy life he enjoyed but I still miss him dreadfully, he was a special little guy.  Right till his last minutes he was happily tucking into his food and making a nice nest for himself, he died peacefully in his sleep so I can only assume he suffered a heart attack or something. He'd been to the vets a week before for a minor problem and they'd commented on how beautiful and healthy he looked for his old age, so it was a real shock to lose him when I did :'( And yes, we have a lot of hamster lovers here which is amazing, it's so nice to find people who treat them seriously! At university people often boggled at why I kept 'children's pets', which made me really angry! >:(  The poor hamsters are sadly very misunderstood, they're very complex creatures but I think because they don't cost a lot people don't think very much of them which is really tragic. My life revolves around rodents too, and Robyn is a big rodent lover! We should have a ham-hair meetup haha!

OH MY GODDD too many cute rodents on here! The lumps on Lily (my big ginger rat) are slowly taking their toll. It's that horrid waiting game at the moment, where you're looking out for her basically saying "I'm fed up now :(" she's bouncing around the cage at the moment though saying that...hiding the food from everyone haha

I love that this forum has so many other rodent lovers!
Just wanted to add something about diets for small species hamsters. I don't trust pet food manufacturers a lot, so tend to avoid all commercial mixes. (I don't feed my dogs 'dog food' either lol) I make my own mixes, relevant to the species. A good base for a chinese hamster is budgie and/or canary mix. All small seeds, (mostly millet) and then you can add your own extras such as dried mealworms or a small amount of dried cat or dog kibble for extra protein. Most hamster mixes have too many fatty items like peanuts and sunflower seeds, and often contain pellets or biscuits that have artificial colouring in them. By making up your own mix, you can avoid the nasties and you will know exactly what you are feeding. Just remember not to include anything sharp or sticky, so it will be safe for pouching.

I love that this forum has so many other rodent lovers!
Just wanted to add something about diets for small species hamsters. I don't trust pet food manufacturers a lot, so tend to avoid all commercial mixes. (I don't feed my dogs 'dog food' either lol) I make my own mixes, relevant to the species. A good base for a chinese hamster is budgie and/or canary mix. All small seeds, (mostly millet) and then you can add your own extras such as dried mealworms or a small amount of dried cat or dog kibble for extra protein. Most hamster mixes have too many fatty items like peanuts and sunflower seeds, and often contain pellets or biscuits that have artificial colouring in them. By making up your own mix, you can avoid the nasties and you will know exactly what you are feeding. Just remember not to include anything sharp or sticky, so it will be safe for pouching.

I know what you mean, I make my own 'gerbil mix' for my gerbil, so many of the commercial ones are completely off! I was pleasantly surprised by the dwarf hamster one though. I dug out the packet so I can now identify it as Supahamster 'Dwarf Hamster Harvest' by Burgess and it's really well balanced in my opinion. Nutritional information is available here: http://www.burgesspetcare.co.uk/products/supahamster/burgess-supahamster-dwarf-hamster-harvest.html
Would love other peoples' opinion of it. In my opinion it's amazingly well thought out for a dwarf hamster mix, unlike a lot of mixes that have high sugar contents. It could probably do with a bit of tweaking, but I think it's about right.

It does sound better than a lot hamster mixes. Lower in fatty components, and with animal based proteins/fats. No artificial additives (unless they are in but not stated on the pack, the law is very different about pet food labelling compared to human food labelling)
A couple of things concern me though, firstly what is a 'hamster pellet'? Ground up hamsters shaped into pellets?! LOL. It doesn't specify, and I like to know EXACTLY what I am feeding to my pets. It will be some type of extruded pellet that they can add the extra vitamins etc to, but it could be made from anything.
My other concern is the toasted soya and wheat flakes. Hamsters are not designed to eat cooked foods. Cooking destroys a lot of the nutritional value, making it necessary to add extra vitamins/minerals etc. I would rather feed a fresh diet that contains all nutrients in their natural form, so that supplementation is not necessary.

Haha, giggled at the 'hamster pellets'!
They've actually repackaged them, they now specify the pellets to be grass pellets. They also specify that there are no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.
Thanks for the input, will definitely consider making my own mix, now that you've pointed it out the hamster pellets do sound a bit suspect. As I say, I already make my own for my gerbil so I don't think it will be too difficult to make one for a chinese ham. Are there any particular foods you can recommend for a chinese? I know peas, corn and other sugary foods should be avoided, and what foods are and aren't hamster safe, but how should I go about getting the right nutritional balance for a chinese?

Hooray for rodent people! 😀
Your new babies are all gorgeous!

I'm gonna get some photos at some point to show you how adorable Alan and Gary are together. They get on well, I'm hoping Gary (degu) will start to hitch a ride on Alan (bunny).  It makes me happy because they both have someone to play with now which is an improvement on just having me 🙂

heres some of our new additions, sid the corn snake, ozzy and sharon the Madagascan day geckos, coby the blue gecko and our chipmunk babies at 1 week old

I get to bring this lil baby home in June.

Oh my goodness too sweet Exo kissy puppy! 

Littlepink~ can you hold geckos? beautiful colors!

I can't hold the day geckos as there skin is too delicate and can tear but they quite often run onto our hands whilst we're misting their viv. I have 3 leopard geckos who are great for handling, to the point one of them will sit tapping in the glass until you let her out lol.