Archive for July, 2009

A Hamster’s Cage should be preferably cleaned every night. Hamster usually picks a certain place to do the excretion of urine and feces. Where as that urine-soaked bed should be cleaned regularly both for hamsters health and smell. The Cage must be cleaned completely about once a week removing all bedding and replacing it with fresh one. To reduce the urine smell the use of waffles is a good remedy as the chlorophyll in them helps reduce the urine smell; the Cage then smells cleaner for a much longer and so does the resident.

Hamsters when born are hairless but gradually grow quite a lot of hair and the kind of activities they usually get involved in, as a result of that their hair gets a lot of greasier and starts to smell as well but don’t ever think of giving Hamster a bath, Hamster can get seriously ill as they cannot bear extreme temperatures, therefore the options that you are left with are to clean the Hamster softly with a toothbrush or let the Hamster roll in the chinchilla sand or perhaps if the Hamster is literally very dirty then dip a cotton bud in lukewarm water and squeeze it out then dab the Hamster with it.

Hamster’s teeth do not stop growing through out their lives; you don’t have to worry about their teeth as their diet and habits keep their teeth clean without any need for brushing. Hamsters need gnawing surface to keep the incisors to the right length for that purpose wooden blocks and huts made of natural material should be provided in the Cage for Hamster.

Hands should be properly washed before taking Hamster into hands as it affects the health of both.

Hamsters are small cuddly creatures and they are solitary rodents. So providing them with a little world of their own would be the best thing to do and not to mention a Clean One.

They are kept in either a Cage or an Aquarium; if the house you are going to give to your little hamster is a Cage then you should make sure it’s a wire cage with solid tray bottom, solid levels and a coated wire top. The Cage should be a minimum of 2 square feet with no more than half inch of spacing between bars and also make sure that the material it is made of is not chewable as they are very fond of chewing and swallowing such material may cause problems for them.

On the other hand if you go for an Aquarium it should be at least 24 inches long and 12 inches wide. The aquarium must be secure, well ventilated with coated wire and screen lid. It is better to have a long aquarium with more floor space than tall aquarium with unused height.

To ensure that the hamster has adequate supply of water, use a hanging water bottle that has a stainless steel sipper tube with a ball bearing in the spout. The water should be changed in every day or two.

As Hamsters have poor eye sight and mainly rely on their smell and hearing senses. Therefore they should be kept relatively in a “silent” environment. As we should be very careful for choosing a place for the hamster Cage to place, as they sleep in the day and are active at night.

Hamsters are basically omnivores; and like all other creatures to maintain a health life they need notorious and balanced diet. Below is the list of certain items that Hamster is likely to enjoy the most.

Vegetables and Fruit seeds are what they benefit from the most, especially sunflower seeds and peanut seeds. But the ratio of their intake of food needs to be regulated, as these items specially sunflower seeds carries a lot of fat and too much consummation can cause obesity, specially in dwarf hamsters; therefore 3-5 pieces a day is enough.

Since Dwarf Hamsters commonly know as “Russian Hamster” they are mostly kept as pet, it is important to mention that they are prone to diabetes, so avoid giving vegetables and fruits with high level of glucose; such as banana, mangos and carrots etc.

Vegetables are also a favorite of hamster and they love Broccoli; lettuce is what they also like and carrot is what that gives them something to chew at; therefore they are fond of this as well but always wash it before serving it to your hamster.

Some of the common vegetables you should be giving to your hamster are

Peas
Zucchini
Corn
Turnip
Cucumber
Chestnut
Walnut

Don’t freak out if you see hamster eating their own feces; hamsters are hindgut fermenters just like horses, koalas, possums, wombats and pigs. They uses microbes that are washed out because they cannot be digested and therefore high-quality protein is lost therefore they must eat their own feces in this way they are able to extract the necessary nutrition from its food this process is called coprophagy.