Meet Little Cow!

[Little Cow]

Hi! My daughter and I adopted a baby hamster from Petsmart (ugh… by far not our first choice) but we fell in love with this sweet baby and my daughter was leaving for college in a couple weeks and was taking her with her so we decided to get her. She is our FIRST hamster ever! We are animal lovers of all kinds big and small! From tiny reptiles to large mammals and everything in between.
We have so much to learn and have so many questions but for now (before we bombard you with all our questions) we will poke around the site and see what we can find out! Can’t wait to meet you all!

Here’s our baby

 

[Maz]

Hello and welcome. She is gorgeous! She has a really unusual cute colouring I can see why you called her little cow Yes have a look around and feel free to ask any questions.

 

[Member ID2]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
I can see why you fell in love with this little girl. She is beautiful

 

[Frida]

Hello and welcome to the forum
Your new hamster friend is very pretty

 

[Little Cow]

Okay, so this is all a bit overwhelming (in a good way!) with so much wonderful information though! I think right now we just want to make sure we are doing everything right! Our main concerns at the moment are:

1. AIR TEMP in her cage (she’s in a 40 gallon glass aquarium style tank). Temp reads 77 and humidity fluctuates but thankfully I think we are out of our humid heat wave and those levels should stay in the 30 50 range. But we are freaking out about if the 77/78 degrees is too hot. We are doing all we can to keep her cool (cold ceramics mug, dishes, water bottles wrapped in paper towel). We also have a fan going and know it is not supposed to be directly on her. Is it okay that it blows in the direction of the cage though since it’s glass? We’re so worried she’s not getting enough cool air.

2. The CLEANING debate! Lol I say debate because from watching so many youtube videos we seen so many diff opinions. I should mention we got her about 4 weeks ago and SO WISH we’d found this site sooner! We’ve been spot cleaning her cage EVERY single night removing both pee and poop. Her bedding is fairly deep 6” so we feel like we are totally disrupting everything while searching for urine and feel terrible for doing that to her. She hasn’t picked one particular place to make her “spot” and perhaps she won’t? We have pee inside her favorite house where she sleeps and that worries us. In addition to that spot, it’s pretty much in 3 corners, along the edges and in her wheel! We are hoping to train her to go in one spot, but is it too late? She has a sand bath but hasn’t used it to pee in. Should we have 2 sand baths?? One for bathing, one for (hopefully) peeing?

3. FOOD! We’re so confused on how often/how much fruit/veg she can have. As well as do we give her 1tbsp of hamster food EVERY night even if she hasn’t finished her stash? Is she supposed to finish her stash?? How often can she have her “alligator”. She LOVES it but didn’t think it was okay to leave it in there with her??? Poor baby. She brought it into her house the first night we gave it to her but then we removed it within the next couple days because we weren’t sure if she was still supposed to still be eating it.
How often can she have her seed mix? Or if we choose sunflower, pumpkin, etc how often and how many can she have?
We’re hoping to find a daily feeding schedule on here somewhere to help guide us!

4. AWAKE TIME. We know sleeping all day is normal and that they are usually awake in the evening but this sweet baby doesn’t show her face until well after 11pm and then even then it’s so brief. What are we doing wrong? Is she afraid? Poor little thing! We just want to make sure she is ok!

Oh boy… this was long! I’m so sorry! Any thoughts or help on these topics are so greatly appreciated! I’m sure they’ve already been answered on here in several places. So even if you can direct me to the most helpful spot that would be great!

With love,
Laurie, Hilary and Little Cow

Here’s her current set up

 

[ilguy]

Welcome! What a perfect name for that pretty ham. Honestly, if you're in the States or other parts of North America there's just not much choice when it comes to getting a hamster. I've found that while not perfect, hams from Petsmart almost always end up being tamable & friendly.

 

[Maz]

Her enclosure looks great Do you have a top for it by the way? Hamsters are great escape artists.

Ok ideal temperature is about 20 degrees centigrade (68 degrees F). It's been a lot warmer than that recently and at those times yes, putting a cool mug in the cage gives them somewhere to cool off and a fan in the room helps.

How long has she been with you? If it's very early days then she will be a bit shy at first but will gain in confidence after a couple of weeks. Also baby hamsters can take a bit of time to get toilet trained. They might pee in a litter tray but also pee in their nest at first although they usually grow out of that fairly quickly.

Yes a tablespoonful daily whether she eats it all or not. They won't eat the older food, only the new you put out. So empty that out and put a new tablespoonful out. It might seem like a waste, but hamster food isn't that expensive and it avoids them getting stressed as they're hard wired to be anxious about food shortages (hence hoarding). They tend to mainly pouch and hoard the food and eat from their hoards later.

Could you fit a little corner litter tray inside her house? I can't tell how big the house is. They often use a litter tray if it's "en suite"!

Food - have a look at the safe food list for fruit and veg. Hamster mix. If you're in the US then Higgins Vita Garden is ok and is sugar free (it's good to have a sugar free mix as they can get tooth decay as they get older with too much sweet). You'd need to supplement the protein a bit though as it doesn't have the correct amount. There are various ways to do that and I'll let others suggest things, but one simple alternative is to get some Science selective hamster food (pellets) and put a couple of those out each day, separate to the hamster mix. They contain everything needed nutritionwise and hamsters seem to like them.

Spot cleaning - basically doesn't need doing that much unless it's obvious where she's peeing and starts to smell - then just spot clean the pee. If she has corners where she's peeing then try putting a corner litter tray in one of those corners. If she doesn;'t use it, try another corner where she pees!

Safe and Unsafe Food list for Hamsters

Many human foods are safe for hamsters, but some are toxic to hamsters. Our hamster site has a researched and referenced food list gives up to date information on safe and unsafe foods for hamsters.

www.thehamsterforum.com

 

[Little Cow]

Thank you Maz! Yes, she has a screen top. My daughter just took that pic with it open.
Just to clarify about the food… so, are you saying remove what she has hoarded or remove pellets in her bowl that she didn’t take. And replace with fresh ones?
If we don’t remove the hoarded food, then doesn’t that become old and stale?

Her pellets actually are the Science Selective. But we’ve been doing a tablespoon of those a night. If we only do a few, what would the “rest” of her diet be? The Higgins Vita Garden? With supplemental veg?

I have a lot of reading to do! So much to learn but so thankful to have found this forum!

 

[Maz]

Best to always leave the hoarded food alone. When you finally come to do a substrate change (or a partial substrate change) you can prune the hoard from underneath so just the top, freshest part remains. It's dried food so tends to store quite well unless pee'd on. If it's pee'd on then it does need to be removed but always put some new food back to replace it - in the same place as the hoard you removed. There are reasons for that but it's a bit late and my brain is woozy!

So what I meant was, if you put her tablespoonful a day out into a bowl or dish (or do you scatter feed?) Then empty out anything left in the bowl before you feed that day and add a new tablespoonful.

 

[elusive]

Hello & welcome to the forum.
Little Cow is a beauty, it is easy to see how you fell in love with her!

 

[RainbowBrite]

Welcome to the forum. Little Cow is gorgeous!

 

[Member ID2]

You've only had her for 4 weeks so she's still a baby finding her paws in her new world.

I think it's lovely that you care so much about Little Cow's needs and welfare. For someone new to hamsters, you are doing very well. A lot better than i did with my first hamster.

Maz has already answered your questions so i'm mainly adding what i have observed with our hamsters and do myself.

They love to forage and pellet food doesn't give them that option. I feed a tablespoon of good quality hamster mix daily and hide a few pellets here and there. I also throw the leftover out and don't touch their hoards unless its pee'ed on or prune it during a part substrate change which i only do every few months but keep and re use clean substrate.

I found that toilet training usually happens when they are ready regardless of age. My rescue Syrian Eric was around 6 months when he moved in and had never seen a corner toilet or sand so pee'ed in his house. I had placed a toilet opposite his house which he ignored.
So, Eric pees the nest and human cleans it when he was out of his cage. Eric got fed up and started to pee in the corner behind his wheel so i placed his toilet there. It took a few weeks for Eric to toilet train himself.

Some need a house large enough to accommodate a toilet, nest and hoard which could be an option for Little Cow. I think she'll settle on one toilet area yet as Syrians are quite organised. Don't worry about poops, they don't smell and don't need to be removed often.

As for temperature you are doing all you can. What kind of mesh is the tank top? If it is the very fine mesh used for fish tanks and vivariums i'd recommend replacing the mesh with a 0.5x0.5in mesh for better ventilation.

Btw, Little Cow's set up is lovely and she's a very lucky girl.

 

[Little Cow]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
I can see why you fell in love with this little girl. She is beautiful

Thank you!!

 

[Little Cow]

Hello and welcome to the forum
Your new hamster friend is very pretty

Thank you so much!

 

[Little Cow]

Welcome to the forum. Little Cow is gorgeous!

Thank you!!!

 

[Little Cow]

Welcome! What a perfect name for that pretty ham. Honestly, if you're in the States or other parts of North America there's just not much choice when it comes to getting a hamster. I've found that while not perfect, hams from Petsmart almost always end up being tamable & friendly.

Thank you!!

 

[Little Cow]

You've only had her for 4 weeks so she's still a baby finding her paws in her new world.

I think it's lovely that you care so much about Little Cow's needs and welfare. For someone new to hamsters, you are doing very well. A lot better than i did with my first hamster.

Maz has already answered your questions so i'm mainly adding what i have observed with our hamsters and do myself.

They love to forage and pellet food doesn't give them that option. I feed a tablespoon of good quality hamster mix daily and hide a few pellets here and there. I also throw the leftover out and don't touch their hoards unless its pee'ed on or prune it during a part substrate change which i only do every few months but keep and re use clean substrate.

I found that toilet training usually happens when they are ready regardless of age. My rescue Syrian Eric was around 6 months when he moved in and had never seen a corner toilet or sand so pee'ed in his house. I had placed a toilet opposite his house which he ignored.
So, Eric pees the nest and human cleans it when he was out of his cage. Eric got fed up and started to pee in the corner behind his wheel so i placed his toilet there. It took a few weeks for Eric to toilet train himself.

Some need a house large enough to accommodate a toilet, nest and hoard which could be an option for Little Cow. I think she'll settle on one toilet area yet as Syrians are quite organised. Don't worry about poops, they don't smell and don't need to be removed often.

As for temperature you are doing all you can. What kind of mesh is the tank top? If it is the very fine mesh used for fish tanks and vivariums i'd recommend replacing the mesh with a 0.5x0.5in mesh for better ventilation.

Btw, Little Cow's set up is lovely and she's a very lucky girl.

Thank you so much for your advice and kind words Beryl!!

 

[Little Cow]

Thank you to all of you! Your kind words and advice are so appreciated! So with all the reading i’ve done so far here, I would love to change Little Cow’s house (circled in photo) set up because right now she is sleeping, hoarding and peeing all in that one house. I love the idea of putting a larger house/chamber of some sort in that corner instead. And I’d move her wheel down. BUT will she be upset if i remove the only house she’s known since putting her in there? (About 4 weeks) The actually house area will be the same spot, but basically the actual structure would be the changing factor. Well, that and the fact that it will have 3 separate compartments. I would feel terrible removing her current house, but really want her to use a little tray separate from her food and bed. I want her to be happy and healthy!

If i keep her current house, maybe I could just move it down closer to the wheel and just put a litter tray next to the house? But if i do it that way it won‘t actually be “attached” all under one roof.

Also, I’m still a bit confused on whether I’m supposed to have both a pee pee sandbath (near or preferably IN her house) as well as another sandbath in another part of her living space. Right now she has a sandbox (circled in photo) in the far righthand corner on a table. She’s not really utilizing the space under the table for anything though so I’m not so certain about that set up. And she uses the sandbath a bit but not to pee in.

Here is her current house circled, as well as her current sandbath. The wooden 3 chamber corner thing is what I was thinking I could get to replace her existing house. And perhaps the clear acrylic sandbox would fit inside one of the chambers!?? I need to check those measurements first!

All advice welcome!

 

[elusive]

If she’s had that house all her life then she might get upset or stressed if you took it out, you can’t really guess how they’ll react in advance, i was wondering if maybe you could put a larger multi chamber house where her water bottle is, & put the water bottle somewhere else if there’s room in there then if she does get on well with the new house you might be able to remove the old one later to free up some space.
She might be ok if you just swapped them over as long as you kept the substrate, hoard & nest from the old house & put it back in the new one.
I’m not sure of the size for a Syrian house, someone else will know but a dwarf house is much smaller so I’d be careful to check out the size first.
I would put in a second smaller litter tray for peeing in, they sometimes use both but it’s easy enough to sieve out any clumps if they use the main one but they are more likely to use on close to or in the house if they have one.

 

[ilguy]

It is normal for hamsters to pee in places they store their food, and sleeping in hoards as well. It doesn't bother them as it would if a human lived like that. You do want to make sure it's cleaned when it starts to make an odor, and watch for rotting food. One thing you can try without upsetting the hamster is to place some bedding in there and let it get soiled. You can then move it to a nearby tray or litter area and see if they start going there.