All change! Winter and Rocco's new cage

So, a while ago I changed Annie's cage, meaning that her old cage, the Ferplast Mary, ended up being put in the bottom of the wardrobe. I thought about selling it, but to be honest wasn't keen on the hassle. It just sat there, taking up space, forgotten about.

Recently, I had a thought. The Mary, at 80 by 50 centimetres, is larger than the zoozone the boys are in (72 by 46 centimetres). While it's not much difference in size, I figured it was a big difference when you're only a couple of centimetres long!

I had two worries. One was access -- while the zoozone has a large top door, the Mary has one small side door and one larger top door. The other was the bar spacing. However, I know many people who have successfully kept Roborovskis in cages with one centimetre bar spacing before, and tested it out with Rocco. He could not fit through the bars, and I decided more space for the hams beat any access concerns I had, so today I swapped them over.

Whole cage

I've tried to leave the layout as similar as possible to the one from the zoozone, although I did swap their wheels to eight inch wooden wheels rather than the flying saucers they had. Winter had started doing impressions of the Amazing Flying Robo off the saucers, which was concerning me. The eight inch wheels are larger than necessary, but there's more space for them to run together in an eight inch wheel than there is in a six inch one, the smaller size down in this particular wheel. (I coated them in plastikote, a waterproof child safe paint, so that they're easier to clean.)

Left side

Wheels on the right side

The rest of the right side

Usually I scatter feed, but because of the new JR Farm food I've received recently (eventually -- parcelforce were a pain in the backside about it, but that's another story), the boys have two bowls, one with their old mix and one with the JR Farm, to see which they prefer. The jury's out with these two, although Darla prefers the JR Farm.

As for the zoozone, well... Darla got it, so the last cage tour for him is out of date already, although I did try to keep the layout as similar as possible.

Darla's cage

Darla cage tour May 2013

I mentioned doing a cage tour of Darla's cage a while back now... so here it is!

Here it is. It is still the 62 litre Crystal storage box from Wilkinson's, external dimensions 79.5 by 39.5 cm, 25cm tall. On the left he has his little house which he stores his food in, a bendy bridge up to the roof, and his sand bath with a wicker teepee over it.

 In the middle he has his wooden swing thing and a tube leading under his platform. You can also see his T-shaped alfalfa tube.

Then we have his platform, made by the lovely woman who also let me adopt Winter and Rocco! It's made from an Ikea magazine rack, and there's a detailed thread about her making them over here on one of the hamster forums I go on. On the platform he has his flying saucer, a hedgehog shaped antos dog chew and a strawberry wooden chew. His T-shaped alfalfa log leads to his water bottle, and as you can see he likes sitting half in the log to drink.

He also nests under the platform.

And a bonus Darla pic!

My gorgeous Robo boys

I took a couple of pictures and videos of the Robos this morning!

Darla was not co-operating!

I think this is Winter on the wheel and Rocco behind

Rocco in front and Winter under the cork

      

I need to do a cage tour for Darla too, as you can see he has a new platform in there! Today is clean-out day, so we shall see.

Apologies for the radio silence!

I've had rather a hectic week, so not really had time to blog! I moved out on Wednesday, had an interview both Thursday and Friday, and packing and unpacking is taking up most of my spare time. Plus we don't have internet yet in the new house -- I am using my phone as a wifi hotspot, but it's not very quick and is limited so I don't want to use it all up. Of course, most of my internet usage is used by keeping up with hamster people. I am fairly predictable!

Annie and Darla, ready to go!

Both Darla and Annie were fine during the move. I was concerned at first, as while Annie's cage fits perfectly in the boot of my car, I was not happy with the idea of having her in there! Darla's carrier is still at my mum's house from when I moved out of there six months ago (Darla did the move in his old mini duna, something I would not have done if I had been the one moving him, but it was my mum making the trip with him), so I ended up putting Darla in Annie's carrier, and Annie in the mini duna that had spent the last six months in the shed. Darla was quite contented with sleeping the move away in the carrier, and Annie... Well, she decided that the best thing to do was to pile up the substrate into a mountain in the corner and sleep there!

The blog will be fairly inactive for another few weeks I'm afraid -- we're having a bit of drama getting the internet sorted out, all of the phone companies think there isn't a phone line, although there is quite definitely a socket.

Oh, and a small update on Annie's showing experience. She came fourth (out of six) in pet class at her last show, but since her mix change she has been looking healthier, with a shinier coat and better condition, so I'm going to go ahead and put her in the main class at her next show.

You can teach an old Robo new tricks!

I've had Darla since January 2012, and reckon he's nearly a year and a half old. He's never been the friendliest of chaps, and has always been the archetypal look-don't-touch Roborovski.

Recently, I've been looking for work, meaning that I've spent a lot of time at home. One of Darla's active times is mid morning, between eight and ten -- a time when I wouldn't be at home if I was working, but am while I am currently looking. This means that I have been able to interact a lot more with him than I have done previously. Normally, that means talking to him and letting him run around in his ball -- Darla has never been very confident in playpens, I think the enclosed nature of a hamster ball gives him a sense of security. However, because of the recent hamster diet issue I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I've been handling him a lot more, checking over him and making sure he is healthy.

Darla eating a grape. Because why not?

The upshot of this is that, for the first time ever, he has been calm enough while being handled for me to risk getting him out for just general interaction and "cuddles". Sunday morning, we had a good ten minutes of him running up and down my arm while I was sat on the sofa, something that I would never have risked a year ago. His age has probably played a part, as he has slowed down a bit, although he's still faster than Annie. It's lovely to be able to stroke him, let him walk over me, watch him sit in my palm and wash himself. It's an honour and a privilege, and I am so pleased that we have managed to get this far.

Cage Tours (March 2013)

So, since the hamster cages are lovely and clean, what better time than to give a little cage tour!

First up is Darla. He's currently in a bin cage made from the 62 litre Crystal storage box (I got mine from Wilkinson's). External dimensions are 79.5 by 39.5 cm, and it's 25cm tall. On the left he has a 6.5" flying saucer supported underneath by a DIY cardboard table, a sand bath, a T-shaped alfalfa tunnel, and two wooden tunnels (one leading down underneath the flying saucer to where he makes his nest) and a yellow strawberry chew toy.

On the right side he has a swing thing, a willow bendy bridge, a willow teepee filled with kitchen roll, his water bottle and house with his food bowl inside.

 Next is Annie. She's in a Ferplast Mary "rat" cage from the big green pet store, with dimensions of 82 by 52cm, and a height of 37cm. The left side has an 11" wooden wheel from zooplus.co.uk, her burrowing box, a wooden bridge with a piece of slate on top to help keep her nails down, and her food bowl.

The right side has an old shoe box that she uses as a house, with the roof off her old house on top to disguise it, and two arches cut out of the sides with a bendy willow bridge and another wooden tunnel thing as doorways. She also has a wooden see-saw and a Tesco value jar as a sand bath/toilet.

Suspended from the bars, she has a rat tube leading from the house roof to the digging box, a daisy chain chew toy, a small sputnik, a cargo net hammock, and a wooden hanging bridge. (Her water bottle is also fastened on to the front of the cage.) 

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Introducing Darla!

He does love his food!

In my last entry, I mentioned Darla. Well, in this one, I'm going to give you a full bio for him!

Who?

His Imperial Majesty Lord Darlaman Fuzzbum, aka Darla.

What?

He's an agouti Roborovski hamster.

When?

I got him on 17th January 2012. I've estimated his date of birth to be 17th October 2011

Where?

I aquired him from the adoption centre in a certain big green pet store.
       

Why?

As I said in a previous post, I had decided I wasn't going to get a Roborovski hamster. The only thing was, I saw him in the adoption centre, with a small boy and his family eyeing him up, and I couldn't let such a tiny cute thing go to live in the minuscule cage, to be roughly handled by that boy. I am so glad I did take him, because he has been a real joy to own. He's skittish and not really one to be handled, but I can't not love his little face!

Isn't he the cutest? (Maybe I am a bit biased!)

I started calling him Darla when I first got him, back when I thought he was a she. Of course, I discovered I was wrong a few months later, but by that time the name had stuck. I decided to extend it to Darlaman Fuzzbum instead. The "His Imperial Majesty" and the "Lord" parts came from my boyfriend, who for some reason thinks I spoil Darla. I have no idea where he gets that idea from!

Favourites?

• Toy: His wheel.
• Treat: Mealworms or millet.
• Time of day: The middle of the night!
• Activity: Running like a loon on his wheel.

Feel free to ask any questions!

All about me

So. Hi.

Darla's grumpy face. Because why not.

I am a (currently) 22 year old girl (I feel weird putting "woman" there) who, among other things, loves hamsters.


When I said I love hamsters, I mean I am slightly obsessed by hamsters. I spend too much time reading hamster forums, hamster articles, looking at hamster cage designs, reading about hamster diet, looking at cute pictures of hamsters... Of course, that means the best thing to do is to start a hamster blog, right?


I was one of those children that had hamsters as a kid, but my obsession began shortly before my 21st birthday. I was in third year at university, and my boyfriend of nearly two years had failed his second year. After two years of being so close (we met at uni), suddenly the relationship was long distance. It was something that I struggled to cope with, and one of the things that I struggled with was having someone or something physically there to love.

Half way through third year, at Christmas, I started to think about having a pet. I had always had cats at home, so that was my first thought, but having a cat in student accommodation is a bad idea. I settled on a hamster, researched lots, and once I was back at uni after the Christmas break, I went to get myself a Russian dwarf or a Chinese.

I had actually decided against Roborovskis during my research, as they were widely described as non-snuggly hamsters, and I really wanted something to snuggle. I didn't feel like I had the space for a Syrian-appropriate cage, though, so a dwarf it was. And then I got to the big green pet store, and there was this young boy who wanted the "cute" "tiny" hamster in the in-store adoption centre. As much as I had told myself I wasn't getting a Robo, I couldn't leave this little girl, who had probably never been handled in her life, to a roudy boy and the tiny cage his parents were holding. I adopted her before they could, took her home, and renamed her Darla.

This is Darla's cute face.

It turns out Darla was a boy, and he was everything I hadn't wanted in a hamster -- skittish and virtually untameable -- and yet I could not help but love him, and could not help but fall in love with the whole species. Who could not love this little face?

Since then, I've gained another hamster (a Syrian called Annie, who was also missexed in the big green pet store), attended my first few hamster shows, and have decided that hamsters have got to be an important part of my life. I suppose that means that the main reason for this blog is to catalogue my owning, showing, and eventually breeding, of these gorgeous critters.

Well, it's taken me an entire blog post to come up with a sentence describing what I am doing here. One more important point -- I tend to ramble. I suppose that can only be a good thing when you're starting out a blog, right?