New hamster - tips please
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Hello 
Do you have a photo of her and we can let you know what species she is She'll either be a russian dwarf hamster, a roborovski dwarf hamster or a chinese hamster. The roborovski's are the tiniest ones
DIY bedding is tricky and can be hard work! If you have a paper shredder you could shred rolls of kitchen paper. However if you can access aspen bedding (reptile stores stock that sometimes) that is ok, and also some horse bedding stores have hemp bedding which is also ok.
I'll let others give tips about diy cages as I haven't made one, but there's a thread here about diy cages using ikea flatpacks which are inexpensive - do you have an Ikea? They seem to be in most countries!
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Do you have a photo of her and we can let you know what species she is She'll either be a russian dwarf hamster, a roborovski dwarf hamster or a chinese hamster. The roborovski's are the tiniest ones DIY bedding is tricky and can be hard work! If you have a paper shredder you could shred rolls of kitchen paper. However if you can access aspen bedding (reptile stores stock that sometimes) that is ok, and also some horse bedding stores have hemp bedding which is also ok.
I'll let others give tips about diy cages as I haven't made one, but there's a thread here about diy cages using ikea flatpacks which are inexpensive - do you have an Ikea? They seem to be in most countries!
Large diy cage options
This thread is to show options for extra large diy cages. There are a few good cages big enough, as listed on our cages thread, but sometimes people want to go bigger and then it means making a cage. Ikea Hacks can be an easy way. DIY isn't always cheap. You need to have tools available (or...
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Welcome to the forum ❤ Congratulations on your little Hammy 
Some people use bin cages, which can also be useful as playpens. The YouTube Channel, "Rachel got Hamsters", is great and has lots of DIY cages for dwarf hamsters ❤
Some people use bin cages, which can also be useful as playpens. The YouTube Channel, "Rachel got Hamsters", is great and has lots of DIY cages for dwarf hamsters ❤
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Sweet little girl ❤
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She's lovely She's a Russian dwarf hamster - almost certainly a hybrid. Nearly all dwarf hamsters are hybrids of two russian species - campbells and winter whites due to decades of interbreeding. Unless they're from an officially recognised pedigree breeder and they are very rare and mostly in the Uk and Europe I think. So it makes no difference - they are wonderful little pets. The only thing to be aware of with hybrid dwarf hamsters is they have a genetic predisposition towards diabetes. So they need a sugar free diet. Which is not difficult to achieve. Not all dwarf hamsters will have that genetic predisposition but there is no way of telling which ones may get it and which ones won't, so it's a precautionary measure to help prevent any onset just in case. The other precautionary measure that can help is a bit of parsley leaf once a week - if possible, but not essential
She looks like she's still a baby Do you know how old she is?
As she's a dwarf hamster, a bin cage could be a good option for a fairly easy and inexpensive diy - providing you can find a large enough bin (as in storage tote - plastic thing with a lid that you cut out and mesh). In some countries (including the Uk) there aren't any big enough - you'd want something about 100cm long by 50cm deep by about 45 - 50cm high approximately (or about 200 quarts volume and similar dimensions).
Are there any commercial cage options where you are or does it need to be diy? If you have a link to a site for hamster cages available, we could have a look and see if there's anything suitable, but often they are all just tiny cages.
Do you have an ikea? If not then melamine/foil covered type board would do the same thing it's just you'd have to work out the joints using metal brackets etc on the outside to hold it all together.
She's a Russian dwarf hamster - almost certainly a hybrid. Nearly all dwarf hamsters are hybrids of two russian species - campbells and winter whites due to decades of interbreeding. Unless they're from an officially recognised pedigree breeder and they are very rare and mostly in the Uk and Europe I think. So it makes no difference - they are wonderful little pets. The only thing to be aware of with hybrid dwarf hamsters is they have a genetic predisposition towards diabetes. So they need a sugar free diet. Which is not difficult to achieve. Not all dwarf hamsters will have that genetic predisposition but there is no way of telling which ones may get it and which ones won't, so it's a precautionary measure to help prevent any onset just in case. The other precautionary measure that can help is a bit of parsley leaf once a week - if possible, but not essential She looks like she's still a baby
Do you know how old she is?As she's a dwarf hamster, a bin cage could be a good option for a fairly easy and inexpensive diy - providing you can find a large enough bin (as in storage tote - plastic thing with a lid that you cut out and mesh). In some countries (including the Uk) there aren't any big enough - you'd want something about 100cm long by 50cm deep by about 45 - 50cm high approximately (or about 200 quarts volume and similar dimensions).
Are there any commercial cage options where you are or does it need to be diy? If you have a link to a site for hamster cages available, we could have a look and see if there's anything suitable, but often they are all just tiny cages.
Do you have an ikea? If not then melamine/foil covered type board would do the same thing it's just you'd have to work out the joints using metal brackets etc on the outside to hold it all together.
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Ok so aspen is available but too expensive is that it? Do you have a paper shredder? (Office type portable shredder for documents)? If so you can just buy kitchen rolls and put those through a shredder - that is quicker and less laborious but won't be that cheap either.
What other beddings are available? Things like Hemp bedding are usually sold in bulk and can work out more economical. Also, if you get a cage set up well, it takes a lot of bedding at first but then you don't need much very often. Basically the more bedding in the cage, the less often it needs cleaning and it's mainly just "spot cleaning the pee" and with say 6 to 8" of bedding the rest of the cage stays clean and dry and you can just do a partial clean maybe every three months (ie one section of the cage) and may never need to do a full clean (each partial clean will be a different section).
What other beddings are available? Things like Hemp bedding are usually sold in bulk and can work out more economical. Also, if you get a cage set up well, it takes a lot of bedding at first but then you don't need much very often. Basically the more bedding in the cage, the less often it needs cleaning and it's mainly just "spot cleaning the pee" and with say 6 to 8" of bedding the rest of the cage stays clean and dry and you can just do a partial clean maybe every three months (ie one section of the cage) and may never need to do a full clean (each partial clean will be a different section).
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Yes the groom a lot Including scratching and maybe looking like biting as they wash themselves etc. This is all quite normal. You would only really be concerned if scratching and biting led to sores and wounds as that could be a sign she could be in pain or have mites, but she looks very furry and healthy there, and it's a normal part of grooming. And she's still very young. They are very clean little things generally and keep themselves clean - the only unhygienic thing is their pee and they don't pee very large amounts, hence spot cleaning - that's if you can actually find the pee! If you can't find it, or smell it, don't worry about it until you can!
With sprays and forage and enrichment, it is possible they may go a bit crazy for some sprays - especially flax - it doesn't mean they eat all of it - it's just the foraging instinct and most of it will probably just be hoarded and they eat from their hoards. The main issue with flax sprays being stripped in one night eg, is the cost of having to keep replacing it! So some people don't replace it for a week or so if the first flax gets stripped straight away.
Hamsters generally just eat what they need and hoard most of their food (a security thing) and they also tend to eat from their hoards, so they don't really eat the food put out - they pouch it, hoard it and eat when they feel the need, from their hoards.
Dwarf hamsters are meant to look quite rounded. The only way they could possibly get overweight is if giving too many sunflower seeds as treats (eg daily) as they are high calorie - but it really isn't common for them to become overweight. Pumpkin seeds can be a better treat
Including scratching and maybe looking like biting as they wash themselves etc. This is all quite normal. You would only really be concerned if scratching and biting led to sores and wounds as that could be a sign she could be in pain or have mites, but she looks very furry and healthy there, and it's a normal part of grooming. And she's still very young. They are very clean little things generally and keep themselves clean - the only unhygienic thing is their pee and they don't pee very large amounts, hence spot cleaning - that's if you can actually find the pee! If you can't find it, or smell it, don't worry about it until you can!With sprays and forage and enrichment, it is possible they may go a bit crazy for some sprays - especially flax - it doesn't mean they eat all of it - it's just the foraging instinct and most of it will probably just be hoarded and they eat from their hoards. The main issue with flax sprays being stripped in one night eg, is the cost of having to keep replacing it! So some people don't replace it for a week or so if the first flax gets stripped straight away.
Hamsters generally just eat what they need and hoard most of their food (a security thing) and they also tend to eat from their hoards, so they don't really eat the food put out - they pouch it, hoard it and eat when they feel the need, from their hoards.
Dwarf hamsters are meant to look quite rounded. The only way they could possibly get overweight is if giving too many sunflower seeds as treats (eg daily) as they are high calorie - but it really isn't common for them to become overweight. Pumpkin seeds can be a better treat
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Which mix is it? A lot of mixes have sunflower seeds and that’s fine
. It’s only excessively giving them a lot extra as treats that can create issues - occasionally as extra treats they are fine.
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You can use anything as a sand bath - some people use an old plastic ice cream tub or a Pyrex kitchen dish
. Can you get hamster safe sand? Reptile sand is ok if it’s calcium free. Or desert sand or natural sand - all made by companies for reptiles. Hamsters don’t actually need hay - that’s mainly for guinea pigs who definitely need it. Personally I wouldn’t bother as it can be spiky. If you do use some then it’s best to feeeze it for a week first so no little hay mites hatch out. It’s also a good idea to freeze hamster food for a week. That kills any bug eggs that aren’t visible to the naked eye and unfortunately most pet foods tend to have them - moth eggs usually. It isn’t really an issue generally if the food hasn’t been frozen as the eggs are dormant - but in very warm conditions they can hatch out if the food hasn’t been frozen first .
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That does sound ok but it would need sterilising - washing and baking. The main thing with sand is that it's not dusty and not too coarse grains - you can tell that though. Komodo natural sand is one you can buy. It's difficult to know if it would be ok or not - the commercial desert sand may be graded for grain size and coarseness - but you can probably tell by feeling it
Komodo
or
Zoo-med reptisand
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Paper bedding holds burrows well
Hemp bedding doesn't but you could use half paper and half hemp - if you can get hemp bedding that is.Enrichment - you would look at things like Cork logs (interesting texture, makes a nice big tunnel and something to climb over) - sometimes sold by reptile stores again. Some kind of multiroom house is good, especially if you only have about 6" of bedding at first until you can sort bedding out more easily. It's somewhere dark for them to nest. You can make an equivalent one-room large house that's dark inside, just using a cardboard shoebox. Cut the base out so it's open underneath and sits on the substrate, keep the lid as a lift-off roof (so you can check inside without having to take the house out and keeps their nesting area in tact), and cut a hole for a door. The best place for a door is on one of the long sides towards one end/corner, as that means the other end is dark (light doesn't go round corner).
Additional hidey places are also good enrichment - coconut huts, (A hollowed out coconut with a hole for a door - the hole needs to be at least 5cm diameter for a dwarf hamster), a square tissue box can make a hide, and you can get various little houses and hides for hamsters but just check that there are no openings smaller than 5cm or they could get stuck in a hole (which is a major crisis). Eg some houses have small windows. But you can always block of small additonal holes/windows by glueing a piece of plywood or similar across it so it can't be used.
Stones or a granite tile under a water bottle or bowl help keep nails trim when they go for a drink as it roughens them. Some people have a pile of smooth stones in one corner as a feature - if doing that, they needs sterilising. If you can't get something like a tile - rough granite is good, or even just a normal kitchen tile if it's terractotta on the back (ie rough side and have it upside down). A tile is better on a platform or shelf as it's quite heavy.
A platform is fairly essential as it gives them overhead cover - something to dive under or sit under and they also seem to like running up to a platform and sitting on that too. That can also be a good place for a sand bath if it's heavy ceramic eg.
Platforms can be difficult to get hold of and especially to get leg lengths right so they sit above the substrate. They are quite easy to make, if you or someone you know can do a bit of diy! It's just a piece of wood and dowels for legs screwed on. But you need to drill starter holes for screws to screw the legs on really.
A tunnel or two at floor level - for tunnels you'd want them 6cm diameter really at least but it doesn't matter if they're bigger. You can get various things like Hyacinth or seagrass tunnels (interesting texture) or cardboard ones or a favourite easy tunnel for some people is just use a pringles tube (cut the metal end off and wipe out inside).
You could have a look at these threads for some ideas
Cardboard creations
This is a thread to show how many things you can make for your hamster or enclosure, out of cardboard :-) Cardboard is your friend.
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DIY cardboard setup!
Hi everyone! 🐹 So my hammy and I absolutely loveeee cardboard, so here is what I managed to create so far! 💕 P.S If you have any suggestions or ideas ( DIY enrichment, hideouts, etc.) feel free to write them down c:
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Show us your cages 2023 onwards
A new thread for 2023 to show cage set ups :) Some may have changed or be new but feel free to add your existing set up again. It's mainly so all current ones are viewable in the same place.
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