Mango aka The Hamlet

[Hamlet]

So the Hamlet, as I refer to him, has been with us now since Easter Sunday. After a slow start the taming has suddenly taken a nice leap forward and he's actively seeking the cage to be opened so he can try and climb out. The bonus of being a little tamer is he's easier to take photos of. So here are a few from this evening. Who knew hamsters had such big ears

 

[Hamlet]

We rearranged the cage during half term to remove the inaccessible cardboard tube Hamlet had set himself up in. He is now nicely installed in the happy henry home which is much more preferable. He did do a LOT of excavation the night after we did the move around. So much so he impressively buried this little blue ball!

 

[Maz]

Aw that's great news he's using the house now! He is absolutely adorable I love his ears! He might grow into them - or they might remain a special feature One of mine has special feature ears

It's great he is getting more and more tame and he looks really happy there. Looking forward to hearing what he gets up to next!

 

[Hamlet]

The lady we bought him from said she thought he was going to be a big boy because he really liked his food. We shall see. I quite like the idea of having special feature ears

 

[Maz]

He's beautiful! That little face

 

[Maz]

The lady we bought him from said she thought he was going to be a big boy because he really liked his food. We shall see. I quite like the idea of having special feature ears

I mentioned it because there's a thread at the moment about your Hamster's special features But Hamlet may have some other rather special things as well - he's a lovely colour and I love his white markings too. So as many special features as you want!

https://www.thehamsterforum.com/threads/special-features-%E2%9D%A4%EF%B8%8F.2201/#post-92588

 

[Socks' Mum]

So the Hamlet, as I refer to him, has been with us now since Easter Sunday. After a slow start the taming has suddenly taken a nice leap forward and he's actively seeking the cage to be opened so he can try and climb out. The bonus of being a little tamer is he's easier to take photos of. So here are a few from this evening. Who knew hamsters had such big ears

Oh, he is gorgeous He will grow into his ears, but they are gorgeous too

 

[Coco61]

To Be or Not To Be - gorgeous Hamlet with statement ears!

 

[Yorkie]

We rearranged the cage during half term to remove the inaccessible cardboard tube Hamlet had set himself up in. He is now nicely installed in the happy henry home which is much more preferable. He did do a LOT of excavation the night after we did the move around. So much so he impressively buried this little blue ball!

Sooooo cute

 

[Yorkie]

So the Hamlet, as I refer to him, has been with us now since Easter Sunday. After a slow start the taming has suddenly taken a nice leap forward and he's actively seeking the cage to be opened so he can try and climb out. The bonus of being a little tamer is he's easier to take photos of. So here are a few from this evening. Who knew hamsters had such big ears

He is so adorable,and I think he knows it.

 

[Hamlet]

So we just weighed Hamlet. He is 115g. He is 13 weeks old. Does this sound ok? Google seems to suggest it might be a bit low?

 

[Yorkie]

Average hammy size is100 to 150 grams,and by now he should be full size. So maybe this is normal for him? Does he eat well ?

 

[Hamlet]

He's our first hamster so I don't have anything to do compare him to! He seems to eat ok. Leaves the bits he doesn't like in his bowl.

 

[Yorkie]

What food is he on?.For reference ,my hammy is on Hammykins mix paired with science selective pellets.And of course fresh veg throughout the week. He is 220 grams and 7 inches tall . And isn't chubby . Boys are usually smaller than girls on average.

 

[Hamlet]

He's on tiny friends Farm Harry Hamster. Plus we have an entire draw of treats from an online place I can't remember the name of, but we don't seem to be getting through those. The thing I find hard is knowing how much we should be giving him, and of what. At the moment he gets 1.5 tablespoons a day of the mix. My daughter seems to think you can very easily over feed hamsters. She scatter feeds half of it and he does seem to go searching and find it all. Veg wise he gets a bit of broccoli every day or two about the size of his ear.

 

[Maz]

He sounds fine He still has some growing to do at 13 weeks as well. They can keep growing up to 6 months old and sometimes as long as 9 months before they're fully grown. Syrian Hamsters vary in size hugely and as Yorkie says, anything from 100g to 150g is normal. If he's about 115g now, I imagine his full size weight will be about 150 to 170g which is average, but it may be more. Harry Hamster is also fine too and contains everything needed - a tablespoonful a day (even if he doesn't take it all). You can't really overfeed Syrian hamsters - they will eat what they need and usually from their hoards and just pouch what's put out. It would do no harm to give him the odd bit of extra protein - half a walnut a couple of times a week goes down well usually, or occasionally a bit of egg (scrambled or chopped hard boiled). Protein is a building block for them in their first year for their muscles and bones so they have good health in older age. Harry Hamster does contain the right level of protein though - about 18% - but they can easily have 22% as well without it being too much. But really everything is fine

I've had some big chunky syrians as well! But our previous one, Raffy, was only 97g when he came to me and he wasn't a baby. He was really small and I did think that was a bit underweight - although he didn't look underweight. He was a rescue. Once he came to me he thrived and ended up being a healthy 180g He was still a small hamster but he clearly wasn't thriving before.

 

[Yorkie]

It's best to feed a hamster a lab block,like science selective,which is available everywhere. And a high quality muesli mix like Bunny Nature hamster dream expert ,or Hammykins. Harry hamster is okay ,but has a lot of fillers ,so is best if mixed with a good quality mix. And the science selective would stop him being selective with his food . It wouldn't harm him to put a few more grams on,and harry hamster alone won't do this unfortunately as he will pick out his fave bits ,like you said. Some protein in the form of dried meal worms or dried chicken will help him too. I hope this is a help?

 

[Maz]

Posted at the same time as Yorkie I haven't actually heard of Hammykins - is that a new mix? I give a 50/50 mix of Harry Hamster and Bunny Dream Syrian Hamster food (which has more variety) and supplement the protein with fresh food for the first year. After that the protein level is about right as they don't need as much over 1 year and too much can be bad as well when they're older. But I've had hamsters live their whole lives just on Harry Hamster and they do fine - there are more varied mixes available as Yorkie says, and if one of those is low in protein then adding a few science selective pellets is also an option to ensure the right nutrients and protein - I prefer to give fresh food for protein supplements

With my mix, it lowers the overall protein so I supplement. Harry Hamster is ok for a simple beginner mix if you want to ensure they get everything needed and you could maybe look at other mixes with more variety at some point as well

 

[Maz]

I just looked up Hammykins (previously Chubby Cheeks) - so they must have changed the name! It looks like a great mix, and yes that one probably would be good with science selective as well as no commercial vitamins added etc Good tip, thanks @Yorkie

 

[Yorkie]

Posted at the same time as Yorkie I haven't actually heard of Hammykins - is that a new mix? I give a 50/50 mix of Harry Hamster and Bunny Dream Syrian Hamster food (which has more variety) and supplement the protein with fresh food for the first year. After that the protein level is about right as they don't need as much over 1 year and too much can be bad as well when they're older. But I've had hamsters live their whole lives just on Harry Hamster and they do fine - there are more varied mixes available as Yorkie says, and if one of those is low in protein then adding a few science selective pellets is also an option to ensure the right nutrients and protein - I prefer to give fresh food for protein supplements

With my mix, it lowers the overall protein so I supplement. Harry Hamster is ok for a simple beginner mix if you want to ensure they get everything needed and you could maybe look at other mixes with more variety at some point as well

Maz,you have the same idea as me,a mix of a couple, ticks all the boxes. I also have had hamsters only survive on harry hamster,but that's all we had then. There are brilliant choices now,thank god,for variety . Hammykins used to be called Chubby cheeks,it's a laboratory tested new mix available through their own website or Etsy. The ingredients are basically an organic version of Bunny Nature ,with chicken and meal worms.