Any advice for new hamster parents:)

[Penny’sWorld]

Hi everyone! I’m a brand new hamster owner to a 3 month old Syrian female called Penny. We’ve been on quite a journey with our hamster care already and it’s only been 4 weeks! I have to admit Penny was a complete impulse buy (I’m ashamed to admit we bought her from a local pets at home when we went in to buy fish food). We saw her in store and absolutely fell in love, I thought she was the cutest thing I’d ever seen. We were taken round the store by one of the sales assistants and advised on what to buy. They told us some of the basics such as her needing wood to chew on and they advised us to get the habitat 3 enclosure, some wood shavings, some hay, some paper bedding and sold us hamster muesli and off we went to setup before picking her up the next day. We had also purchased a hide, a wheel and a water bottle. I had noticed she had started to gnaw on the bars of her cage a couple of days in and wanted to be out of her cage as much as possible, so I started doing a bit of research on hamster care.

To my surprise, after hours (probably days) watching hamster care YouTube videos and looking on hamster forums, the advice I had been given at pets at home was completely outdated. I went on a frantic spending spree to upgrade her enclosure. I went for the large Bucatstate 3.0, bought big bags of carefresh paper bedding, platforms, sprays, tunnels, hides, logs, a sand bath and more. I also upgraded her daily food to the Hammykins Syrian mix which looks soooo much better than the pets at home muesli I was sold. I think my family and friends (especially those who’s Amazon account I had been using) thought I’d gone mad with the amount I had spent.

Anyway, fast-forward to today I’m not completely satisfied with her enclosure but it’s miles better than where we started. I’ve attached a picture of how we started to where we’re at today. I do have a 3 chamber dig box and substrates on the way (Aspen bedding, Coco fibre, Beech chips and hemp bedding). I’d like to get her a multi-chamber hideout if anyone has any recommendations? I’m also thinking about getting some white bedding so I can see pee more easily and would appreciate any recommendations on this too. Is the niteangel paper bedding worth the higher price? Any advice on how I could improve my setup would be greatly appreciated! Is there anything i’m missing? Be brutal, I can take it I just want Penny to be happy and thriving!

 

[Maz]

Hello. I'm so sorry you went through that - it's still happening. The Habitat 3 is not a bad size but it's a bit low for a Syrian and doesn't have good access doors. Plus female Syrians are notorious for needing more space, so she probably would be going stir crazy in there. Not enough height for deep bedding and a suitable sized wheel. I wish they would stock different things - not just wood shavings.

Anyway you've done really well and given her a lovely home and I bet she's very happy. Something similar happened to me with our first hamster and others as well.

Her Bucatstate looks great. Has she settled in ok? She has loads to do in there. I can't see everything clearly, but just a couple of access issues you might want to think about. Eg can she actually get to the wheel easily? One option might be to have the bedding deeper at that end so the platform is only about an inch above the bedding, then the wheel is easy to access, if she jumps out she just has soft bedding to land on and she can enjoy digging under the platform. That would mean moving the four way tube somewhere else.

However, if she has only just moved into it, you don't want to be changing things around too much for a while or it'll stress her out, so it was just a thought for the future. She can probably get to the wheel by climbing on the four way tunnel (unless there's another access I can't see).

Also, sorry to ask, but is her wheel big enough? Syrians need an 11" to 12" or larger wheel and females can grow quite large! They often keep growing until about 6 to 9 months old. I bet she loves rummaging in there. They often like to rip up cardboard as well so old cardboard egg boxes now and then can help keep her busy

 

[Penny’sWorld]

Thanks sooo much for the advice! Yes you’re completely right I definitely need more bedding especially on the left hand side of her enclosure. That’s the next thing I’m going to buy but I’m having trouble choosing one because there are sooo many mixed reviews online. At the moment I’m set on the niteangel paper bedding but it’s super pricey.

She is managing to get to her wheel from the tunnel but definitely don’t want her to fall and hurt herself so I’ll try to fill that up with some of her current bedding today before she wakes up! The wheel is probably the only thing I got right the first time (I hope ). I checked the dimensions and it’s just under 12 inches in diameter but she’s small at the moment so I’m going to see how she goes with it when she gets bigger. Do you know if there’s anything I should look out for so I know she’s running comfortably on it?

Thanks so much for the advice she’s super active so I’m constantly looking for ways to keep her busy! She looooves digging in her sand bath so can’t wait to see her with the new dig box substrates!! I did get her a playpen from pets at home but she climbed over the bars immediately So trialling free roaming in my empty hallway but it’s a bit nerve wracking.

 

[Socks' Mum]

Congratulations on being owned by a cutie Penny is gorgeous. Looking forward to piccies She seems to be quite a confident young lady

 

[Maz]

The Omlet playpen is very good But it's also quite expensive........... I get Fitch paper bedding. It comes in 70 litre bags and a bag will last for ages. It's not too big to stuff under a chair or in a wardrobe out of sight One bag of that would probably give 6 to 8" in a 120cm tank. And you already have quite a bit of bedding already, so you'd probably use less than a third of it and the rest could last a year with spot cleaning and partial cleans.

Fitch recycled food grade paper bedding

 

[Penny’sWorld]

The Omlet playpen is very good But it's also quite expensive........... I get Fitch paper bedding. It comes in 70 litre bags and a bag will last for ages. It's not too big to stuff under a chair or in a wardrobe out of sight One bag of that would probably give 6 to 8" in a 120cm tank. And you already have quite a bit of bedding already, so you'd probably use less than a third of it and the rest could last a year with spot cleaning and partial cleans.

Fitch recycled food grade paper bedding

Ooo okay i’ll have a look at getting the fitch bedding! Looks like it has good reviews and loads cheaper than niteangel thanksss!!!

 

[Penny’sWorld]

The Omlet playpen is very good But it's also quite expensive........... I get Fitch paper bedding. It comes in 70 litre bags and a bag will last for ages. It's not too big to stuff under a chair or in a wardrobe out of sight One bag of that would probably give 6 to 8" in a 120cm tank. And you already have quite a bit of bedding already, so you'd probably use less than a third of it and the rest could last a year with spot cleaning and partial cleans.

Fitch recycled food grade paper bedding

Congratulations on being owned by a cutie Penny is gorgeous. Looking forward to piccies She seems to be quite a confident young lady

This is Penny! She’s difficult to photograph because she’s so active and she only comes out when it’s dark. She’s super confident and she looooves a bit (a lot) of attention So cute

 

[Maz]

Kaytee Clean and Cosy is also popular. It's similar to Fitch but comes compressed. Strangely the same equivalent volume doesn't go as far as Fitch though, even when uncompressed, so in that sense it costs more for the same amount. Fitch is paper. Kaytee Clean and Cosy is paper based but probably cellulose. Fitch is dust free. Kaytee usually is but I've had the odd batch with some fine dust. The Kaytee can take up less space though.

This is the 85 litre bag. It's supposed to expand to 85 litres but I honestly find that 70 litres of Fitch goes way further!

Kaytee Clean and Cosy

 

[Maz]

This is Penny! She’s difficult to photograph because she’s so active and she only comes out when it’s dark. She’s super confident and she looooves a bit (a lot) of attention So cute

View attachment 13734

She's gorgeous She's landed on her feet and has a lovely home

 

[Amy]

Congratulations to your beautiful little hamster Penny and welcome to the forum you have really upgraded her enclosure perfectly and it’s lovely to see what a nice home Penny has got. Looking forward to lots of fotos and stories of your sweet girl

 

[Angel’s Teddybear]

yes!! i agree with everything said here; as someone who also bought a lovely female syrian on impulse, i know how it feels to drastically change your hamster care. never again buying a hamster from a pet store after finding out how they are bred!!
I spent hundreds of dollars out of pocket all in one day to buy a new cage, sprays, substrates, etc. I also like the aspen bedding from niteangel, which is about $30. it lasts a while and my hammy loved it as an addition to paper bedding- just laying some aspen atop the paper bedding or using it in a dig box. There are also tons of ways to make diy chews that the hammy’s love. let me know if you are interested in any. I have found that in the US, it is really hard to find good food mixes. Just make sure the food mix you are using doesn’t have anything bad in it! I used to use one with a questionable ingredient in it- so then i switched to a homemade food mix. Pricy but worth it, for me. It is a lot of work and a lot of calculations if you decide your food mix isn’t fit for your girl- of course don’t feel like you have to build a custom mix, since maybe the mix you found is better than the ones i looked at.
Anyways, be on the lookout for any pee areas and just note what place your girl usually does her business in. If any bedding or food molds, there could be booklice infestations or mold mite infestations. Very itty bitty bugs, but very annoying. As a seasoned booklice exterminator (have had multiple infestations), it is really annoying to have them so i would take some precautions in advance just to make sure. I have a dehumidifier that really works wonders. The bugs thrive in high humidity, so the less humidity the better. And less humidity doesn’t harm the hammy! Make sure that you clean out those pee areas and if you find less pee around than usual, your hammy may have a new area. Meaning you should find that one.
Learn what toys your hammy best likes- i recommend getting a variety of toys before getting tons of one kind. For example, my baby only liked a few specific textures of wooden balls. She only liked specific chews. So, i had to do my best to keep her entertained by using those specific toys.
Females are a handful. They always act like it is never enough. The more bedding the better; the more substrates and sprays the better; literally, the more the better. The hammy’s don’t get as overstimulated as they do understimulated.
Any questions, comments, or concerns, i would love to hear! Congrats on your sweet baby!

 

[Vanessa1]

Welcome to the forum, it's a very friendly group of people who are always there to give advice looking forward to seeing more pictures of Penny, she looks gorgeous Ness

 

[Maz]

Don't worry about bugs I seem to remember Angel's outbreak came from a specific source of wood chew sticks. So the key is to freeze all edibles - hamster food, sprays, chews. To kill off any invisible moth eggs or other bug eggs that can be in pet foods. If you haven't - don't worry, it's probably fine, but from now on its best to freeze any bags of hamster food or sprays for a week. If you're using Hammykins it is much less likely to have bug eggs anyway. I also freeze any bark wood items. Things like cork or smooth wood can be baked in the oven. But not houses with glue obviously or the glue will melt. They are usually fine.

 

[Angel’s Teddybear]

yup!! it doesn’t happen to anyone as long as you are careful with freezing and baking!!