Long time no post! AKA Annie's cage tour June 2013

So I am back from my holiday, all nice and relaxed, so I decided to do an overhaul of Annie's cage layout!

 This is Annie's cage, which is a zoozone 2 aka the zoozone large, which has dimensions of 100 by 50 centimetres. As you can see, the bar spacing on the top is quite large, and needs to be meshed to prevent escapes. I used 6 millimetre square mesh because it is impossible for Annie to chew it, but mesh with larger spacing such as 13 millimetre square mesh is also fine if you don't have to worry about your hamsters trying to chew anything metal or bar like!

On the left she has her coconut (currently containing nesting material), her hamster sized sputnik, her climbing frame with a piece of slate on top and a chewed up toilet roll tube underneath, a wooden log tunnel with a flavoured wood chew underneath it, a ping pong ball egg thing, and parts of her old daisy chain chew scattered around on the floor. I've filled this half with tonnes of substrate to try and encourage her to start digging again -- she did it all the time in her old barred cage but now she can't fling substrate all over the floor outside the cage she seems to have lost interest!

In the middle she has her sand bath/toilet jar and her "guinea pig" sized corner house, with a bendy bridge so she can climb onto the roof from the shallow substrate half of the cage. It's also the table for her water bowl (she can't have a bottle due to her metal chewing habit). At the bottom of the picture you can just about see her kitchen roll tube which I have torn into one long spiral so she doesn't get trapped in it -- the diameter of a kitchen roll tube, and a toilet roll tube for that matter, is perfect for dwarfs but too small for Syrians to get through comfortably or with full cheek pouches.

On the right she has her 11 inch wooden wheel, her see-saw, a grass nest and a hedgehog shaped antos dog chew that appears to be lying on its face! You can't see it in this picture, but there's also a carrot shaped chew meant for rabbits that's blocking the water bottle hole so she can't chew the plastic there, which is in the picture below. Also in the picture below, you can see her Ferplast rat tube, which spans across the cage, and the other part of her daisy chain chew which is hanging from the bars by a cable tie.

 

And that's it! It's a fairly big layout change for Annie, but she seems to be enjoying it so far!

How much does a hamster cost?

It's easy enough to think that hamsters are cheap pets. Walk into any large chain pet store and they'll be on sale for £10 or less. Just because the hamster is cheap, however, doesn't mean that their care is cheap!

(I'll be going through this as if the hamster being bought is a Syrian, however getting a dwarf hamster is honestly not much cheaper.)

The RPSCA minimum recommended cage size for any species of hamster is 75 by 40 centimetres, which equates to 3,000 square centimetres of floorspace. For a Syrian hamster, my personal recommended minimum cage size is 80 by 50 centimetres, or 4,000 square centimetres. This is far more space than most cages sold as suitable for a hamster -- in fact, the only cage suitable for a Syrian hamster sold in store in the well known big green pet store here in the UK is the Ferplast Mary rat cage. At 80 by 50 centimetres, and 37 centimetres tall, it is widely regarded to be too small for a pair of rats, but makes a good sized Syrian home. This cage, however, currently retails in said pet store for £70. (The store also sells the Hamster Heaven, but only online, not in store, and it can be found cheaper elsewhere.)

Buying online is definitely the way to go to get a good sized cage without breaking the bank. The Alaska, at 84 by 48.5 centimetres, is larger than the Mary and is currently available at zooplus.co.uk for £39.90. The Mamble 80 is also good value for money, currently at £34.99 at littlepetwarehouse.com. If you want to go larger, the Mamble is also available from littlepetwarehouse in a 100 by 54 centimetre version for (currently) £44.99. Another cheap option is making a bin cage; the Ikea Samla bin at 78 by 56 centimetres makes a good sized Syrian home. This does, however, require a bit of DIY!

Lets say you decide to go for the Alaska cage. That's nearly £40 spent on the cage alone. The next important item is the wheel. Most wheels aimed at Syrian hamsters are only suitable for the dwarf species, and a wheel with a diameter of at least eight inches is needed, as a hamster needs to have a flat back when running. Personally I would not recommend buying a wheel less than eleven inches in diameter for a Syrian, as there is no such thing as a too big wheel, but a too small wheel can cause back pain and spinal issues. Since we're on zooplus already, lets get the Trixie Rodent Wheel. This is a plastic wheel, so is easy to clean, that isnot going to break the bank -- the 28 centimetre (eleven inch) version is currently available at £7.99. Other options include the 12 inch flying saucer and the 29 centimetre Karlie Wonderland wheel (both currently £11.90).

Annie's old Ferplast Mary and Trixie Rodent Wheel, plus
her Ferplast rat tube

Next on the list of necessities is a water bottle and food. Both of these are easily got from the big green pet store, with a 75 millilitre classic water bottle at £1.50 and a 700 gram bag of Harry Hamster food for £2. In my experience, more expensive brands of water bottles are not worth the extra money, and the 75 millilitre is fine for a Syrian even though it is branded as the "mouse" sized bottle. Harry Hamster is the only food endorsed by the National Hamster Council and is actually cheaper than the store's premium brand (called Healthy Handfuls). Also from the big green pet store, you can get an extra large pack of Snowflake brand shavings for £9.49. These shavings are dust free and the only brand of shavings I'd recommend using. The best bedding material you can get is actually torn up tissue paper or kitchen roll (the fluffy cotton wool bedding is actually really dangerous and should never be used -- even if it claims to be pet safe, it can tangle around limbs and cut of circulation, or cause a blockage if ingested. There's a thread about it on one of the hamster forums I frequent).

There are also other things that you may want to buy for your hamster that are not strictly necessary, like a house (a cardboard box will do fine from the hamster's point of view) or a food bowl (scatter feeding is actually an enrichment activity for the hamster). If you want to buy a house, a "guinea pig" corner house that is the perfect size for Syrians is currently on zooplus for £7.49. Similarly, a hamster food bowl is currently £1.59 on zooplus. A "must have" toy in my opinion is the bendy bridge, with the medium one, ideal for Syrians, currently £2.79 on zooplus. A Ferplast rat tube (most "hamster" tubes are too small for Syrians) is currently £6.99 from zooplus. A small hamster climbing frame from zooplus is currently £3.99. If you want to potty train your hamster, a Trixie corner toilet is currently £3.29 from zooplus, and a kilogram of chinchilla sand is currently £3.99. Most Syrians will use sand bath as a potty, and they may also love digging in it and using it to clean themselves like dwarf hamsters will.

Then there are also hamster treats. A bag of JR Farm mixed flavour yoghurt drops is £1.39 from zooplus. Dreamies cat treats are loved by my Syrian, and a 60 gram bag of these is currently £1.49 from zooplus. A 200 gram bag of mixed nuts by JR Farm is currently £2.99.

Finally, there is pet safe cleaner for cleaning out the cage, which can be got from the big green pet store for £3.50.

Even with buying all of this online, often at discounted prices, this comes up to a lot:

An old layout of Annie's Ferplast Mary.

Cage: £39.90
Eleven inch wheel: £7.99
Water bottle: £1.50
Food: £2.00
Substrate: £9.45

House: £7.49
Food bowl: £1.59
Toys: 13.77
Sand bath/potty: £7.28
Treats: £5.87

Pet safe disinfectant: £3.50

Total: £100.34

Yes, you read that right. It costs just over £100 to get this rather basic set up for a £10 hamster. True, some of the things are not necessary, and you can buy cheaper toys or make some yourself, but hamsters are not cheap to look after properly. This total would be even higher if it was all bought in stores rather than online; obtaining all of the essentials, a handful of different toys and treats from the big green pet store would cost nearer £150 to £160. Plus there is the emergency vet fund to consider, which depends on how expensive your local small animal vet is.

If you think hamsters are cheap children's pets, well, think again!

Having a wheely good time

I have no apologies for the awful pun!

Hamster Species

One of my pet peeves is that time and time again I see people refer to the different types of hamster as hamster breeds, when in fact they are different species.

The difference between breeds and species? Well, think of it this way. There are many different breeds of dogs, from chihuahua to great dane, but they are all Canis familiaris, e.g. the domestic dog. There are five types of domesticated hamster, however, they are as different from each other as dogs and cats, or horses and snakes. The five species are:

• Mesocricetus auratus, the Syrian or Golden hamster
• Cricetulus griseus, the Chinese hamster
• Phodopus sungorus, the Winter White dwarf hamster
• Phodopus campbelli, the Campbell's dwarf hamster
• Phodopus roborovskii, the Roborovski dwarf hamster

Because these are all different species, not breeds, they can't be bred together. Two breeds of dog, for example the husky and the terrier, can breed and have adorable puppies. You can't breed, say, a Syrian and a Chinese hamster and expect to get something in between.

One exception to this is that hybrids between the Winter White and the Campbell's are possible. However, this is not because they are different breeds of the same species. Rather, it is because the two species are similar enough to mean that mating the two hamsters can produce young. It is similar to how a horse and a donkey can breed to produce a mule, or lions and tigers can breed to produce ligers.

This hybridisation would not happen in the wild, however, and there are many potential risks involved with hybrids as opposed to their non-hybridised counterparts, so I would never recommend breeding them.

Blog hop!

 

Annie exploring Spotty Mountain

Introducing Annie!

Annie's first piece of cheese!

And now it's time to introduce Annie, my little monkey!

Who?

Lady Annie Surprise, aka Annie.

What?

Annie is a golden short haired Syrian hamster.

When?

I adopted Annie on 22nd September 2012. I've estimated her birthday to be 2nd June 2012.

Where?

I adopted Annie from the adoption centre of a certain big green pet store.

Why?

I just had to. I had a spare cage at home, and this little bum was sticking out at me in the adoption centre. I asked to handle "him", got her out... and then she immediately pee'd on me and bit me. Well, any sane person would have left her, but I am not really that sane when it comes to animals! I couldn't bare to leave her there, so I took her home.

Opening her Christmas present!

Her name was because she was called Lennox in the adoption centre, and Annie Lennox happens to be one of the singers on one of the Lord of the Rings soundtracks, which I had been listening to recently. The Surprise part was because I may or may not have brought her home to the house the boyfriend and I share without letting him know about it first. He may or may not have found her before I could explain. He may or may not have been very exasperated at me and go on about how she was a surprise hamster.(Don't worry, he loves her really!) The Lady was because I already had a Lord Darla!

Favourites?

• Toy: Her bendy willow ladder thing that she uses to sit on and stare at me, begging to come out. Or her wheel.
• Treat: Dreamies cat treats.
• Time of day: Late evening.
• Activity: Digging her substrate everywhere so that I have a lovely mess to clean up in the morning.