Hamsters (merged)

samboette

Hi again

Unfortunately [EMAIL="P@H"]P@H[/EMAIL] are known for not supplying suitable sized caging for hamsters, mainly Syrian Hamsters. The cage you have is ok, as previously said, for Dwarves as they can get underneath the platform and use the wheel, however, even with dwarves, I remove any wheel that comes with the cage and replace it with a silent spinner

If your hamster is already showing signs of arching when running, you will need to replace the wheel asap. We have wodent wheels for some of ours and Comfort Wheels for the others, all are 8" in diameter. You'll be able to buy comfort wheels easily online but be prepared to have to replace them in a few months, especially if you have a hamster that is a runner. We prefer wodent wheels but as already said, they are hard to find!!

We use Imac Fantasy Cages, as already stated and Perfecto Tanks. I'd highly recommend the Imac Fantasy, they are extendable, easy to clean and you can fit an 8" wheel inside on either a stand or attached to the bars.

I really can't stress enough of the importance of having a large cage and wheel for hamsters, believe they will appreciate it!

kb36

Just after a bit of reassurance hopefully! My daughter has had a hamster for 6 months now who is friendly and happy:-) The past few days he has been making an incredible amount of noise when in his cage/house. Seems to be mostly when he is sleeping and there are no outward signs of distress or illness - he is his usual cheery self. Some of the posts on here seem to say it's normal or a sign of illness or distress and I don't really know what I should do although my gut instinct tells me he is OK.
Any further thoughts....

Fiver29

After Sam's comments I decided to buy him a new home. Hopefully this one (on the left) will be big enough. It'll have to be, it was the largest I could find in town.

gingermuppet

Does anyone have experience of keeping a dwarf hamster in a cage like this? I bought my daughter a dwarf hamster today and it looks as if the poor thing cannot get up the tubes. I feel a bit stupid as it never occurred to me that this could be a problem!
Any help/advice would be much appreciated

Rosnor

Have you got any ladders for the tubes?

These are prob essential for dwarf hamsters.
They have some at Petcompany (sorry can't post links)
Also some other useful add-ons.

You can maybe change the layout too, so there is less tube to climb up.

Silaqui

Hi there,

I am after a bit of advice about my hamster. PLEASE don't think that I would rather ask here than take her to the vet - if I was seriously concerned I would be straight there like a shot.

Over the last couple of weeks, my hamster Poppy (she's about a year and a half old) has developed a bit of a limp. She's dragging her left leg behind her, and when she runs on her wheel her bum goes sideways because she isn't running at the same pace with both sides.

Now if she was off her food and drink, or sitting listlessly in her cage, I'd be down the vets. However her appetite is normal and she is drinking as she usually does. She isn't favouring the leg at all and when you stroke it or touch it she doesn't flinch or show any sign of pain. She hasn't stopped running, or climbing, and is still interested in everything around her.

Do you think I should take her to the vets for a check up anyway, even though she doesn't appear to be in any pain or discomfort, or would you let her carry on as normal as she seems to be coping? I've had animals all my life and anytime they have been ill you could tell by the way they were acting. Poppy is currently in her cage next to me tearing up a toilet roll...

She's been twice to the vet, once for a broken tooth (cage biting) and once because I was worried about a lump on her front leg which turned out to be fine. Both times she hated it and got all distressed and took ages to get back to her normal happy self. I don't want to stress her out unnecessarily if she is fine, but equally I don't want her to be suffering.

What do you think?
(sorry for long post!)

Frugalista

Silaqui wrote: »

Do you think I should take her to the vets for a check up anyway, even though she doesn't appear to be in any pain or discomfort,

Yes!

If she's limping and dragging her leg it definately needs investigating.

picklepick

She neeeds to go to the vet.
It could be something as simple as a sprain injury but it could be also something much more sinister, so it wouldnt delay in getting treatment

the_devil_made_me_do_it

At the very least telephone the vets and ask for advice.

Silaqui

Hi all,

Thanks for the advice - I popped into the vets today to get their advice (took a video on my phone of her running around to show them:o) and they said that looking at her it's not worth bringing her in as she is eating, drinking and acting as normal and there wouldn't be anything they could do for her anyway as they wouldn't be able to operate or anything. They thought it was probably a sprain or an old minor injury that had already healed.

They also said to feed her a little bit of bread and milk every few days to keep her calcium up and to bring her in if she stops acting normally.

Thanks for all the second opinions
x