Nibbles the Ninja 🐹 🥷

[Danibear18]

Hi All,

This is Nibbles (the Ninja) and he is 12 weeks old.

We’ve had him 4 weeks now and he has made quite the impact in our family, kids in particular! He is quite the Houdini and managed to escape and have a fun filled weekend of freedom roaming our kitchen/utility room. Thankfully we managed to catch him and he is safely back in his habitat, much to his disappointment

He is really good at being handled, and is incredibly smart. He has learnt to climb onto our hand and up our arm when he wants to come out and interact. His favourite snacks are cucumber, carrot and any seeds. Here are some photos from his first 4 weeks

 

[Danibear18]

Nibbles’ new cage setup

 

[Danibear18]

Is there anything cuter than a hamster in a clog!!

 

[Maz]

Hello Nibbles - he's so adorable Looking forward to hearing more about your journeys. Glad you've lowered one of the shelves in the cage a bit. I might suggest a bit more fall risk tweaking at some point

 

[Socks' Mum]

Nibbles TN’s home looks very nice The moss and wood look lovely and natural. He is a sociable fellow

 

[Danibear18]

Nibbles having a little snuggle

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[Danibear18]

Nibbles enjoying some carrot turn your sound up for this one

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[Maz]

He's absolutely adorable I love him! He seems to have really bonded with you all and seems to enjoy his strokes and snuggles. He looks cheeky somehow as well ha ha.

The only thing I'm a bit worried about is if he monkey barred across the roof and fell. Do you know if he climbs up there? Sometimes they only do it at night! Normally putting fabric in a cage isn't recommended but I did once have a giant fleece hammock attached right near the top of the roof for that reason, with our Robo. He wasn't supposed to be able to get up there - but he did! Is he a chewer? Looks like he didn't chew the slipper. Some fabric hammocks are worse than others for chewing, I had one of the large fuzzbutts ones. You can also get grass hammocks like this one below. If he did happen to get up there at night and drop he'd only land in the hammock then - providing it covers most of the top - and it would break a fall.

Trixie Natural Grass Hammock | zooplus.co.uk

Order Trixie Natural Grass Hammock now at zooplus. Free delivery from £39. Check out customer reviews to see what others think!

www.zooplus.co.uk

They don't stay attached very well on their own so you'd probably need some sisal or seagrass string as well.

 

[Socks' Mum]

Gorgeous, Nibbles is an extremely charming young hamster! Lovely chewing sounds,

 

[Socks' Mum]

Yes, Socks often climbs up, dangles from one paw and then drops like a sack of potatoes. A soft landing is a good thing!

 

[Maz]

Yes it helps if there is plenty of soft substrate to land on, but things like ladders can be a hard landing! I sometimes cover bendy bridges with hemp mat for that reason - I'm not sure if that's available in the US.

 

[Danibear18]

A festive NTN

 

[Danibear18]

Little NTN update as my camera roll is just full of pics of him

Should I be concerned that he doesn’t use any of his wooden gbawing items within his cage? Don’t they need to keep their teeth in check this way? He has soooo many wooden options to gnaw on but he doesn’t use any of them!

 

[Maz]

Gorgeous . No don’t worry - mine only chew wood if it has food stuck to it . You can get vitastix sticks which are wood with food on. I get the honey and spelt one. But I don’t give them too often because it’s best not to have too much sweet stuff for their teeth.

Whimzee mini toothbrush chews are usually loved by hamsters. They are sugar free.

Don’t have time to add a link right now but Hamstets we love sells them by the bag - that could last you a year or more!

 

[Socks' Mum]

He is such a confident little fellow Yes, regular hamster food is enough to keep their teeth worn down

 

[Danibear18]

You know when people have kids and their camera roll is full of kids pics …. Well mine has now become hamster pics!

Nibbles just loves a slipper and it’s my perfect opportunity to get some snaps whilst he sits still

New question - do hamsters need their claws clipping? Nibbles have gotten very sharp recently

 

[Maz]

Lovely! I used one like that to edit to make the advent calendar photo of Nibbles The software turned it into a Christmas sock!

Their nails are naturally a bit sharp but you may feel it more if the hamster is a feeling a little bit nervous or uncomfortable the odd time as they can grip harder then. No their nails don't need clipping regularly - only if they get too long and that is normally not until they get very old and are less active. Their nails naturally get worn down with activity, but it's important to have something like a rough tile or stone in the cage to help with wearing them down. I use a granite tile or large terracotta saucer under the water bottle, so it roughens the nails every time they go for a drink

 

[whortleberry]

Nibbles is so gorgeous!

 

[Danibear18]

Absolutely gutted to share that Nibbles had to be put to sleep this afternoon at only 5 months old

Pretty traumatised by the whole ordeal as he seemed fine yesterday, then scratched off half his face during the night (such a shock to find him like that this morning). Vet said it was an eye infection, took him home with antibiotics but then he started loosing his balance and becoming paralysed. Rushed him straight back and they said it was neurological and put him straight to sleep as he was very distressed just rolling over and over

My kids are heartbroken and I have some awful images I’m can’t stop seeing at the moment. I noticed for some time now that sometimes Nibbles would freeze for ages and just stare blankly. At first I thought it was natural reaction like they would do in the wild to not be seen. Sometimes he would stay frozen for 5 minutes before moving. Does anyone else’s hamster do this? I’m now wondering if they were maybe seizures.

We may have only had him 5 months but he made quite the impact on us. He was absolutely spoilt rotten and very loved

 

[Danibear18]

Can’t stop looking through my whole album of photos and videos of him

This was him recently enjoy a little bit of watermelon

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