Just got mine today

2 female Winter Golds, name's Itchy and Scratchy






Used to have short haired Syrians few years ago, so it's not my first time keeping hamsters, but first time having such tiny little things -- cos Syrians are much larger!

My two Winter Golds are sure very fussy eaters

They're still small and hardly eat much, especially the kuaci. So I peeled the kuaci since they had trouble nibbling through it, and they even passed the peeled kuaci bye!

They're sooooooooooo different from my 2 Syrians, who eat everything under the sun 24/7. My WW only eats from the Sluis snack bar... and ocassionally their normal food (which I have to bury for them to dig up and eat. If don't bury they're more likely to just passover it only)

Is this normal for WW? I mean, the extreme fussiness with food?

The thing is... it was only after I put the snack bar in that I actually saw them munching on stuff from time to time. Before that I see them drinking water, sleeping or playing only, and usually end up throwing out the same volume of food I put into the bowl for them.

I guess maybe cos from their size they eat much much less, that it seems unnoticeable. Considering that I had 2 greedy Syrians before these WWs, who are bigger in size too, it's noticeable when they eat and the amount of food in the bowl decreases noticeably.

I'll remove their snack bar temporarily and see how it goes.

Do bear in mind mine are baby WWs. They're very very small still, that one chinese soup spoon is larger than them. But surely can't be until there's literally no difference in the food volume. I see them eat maybe a few grains of their staple food, and I have to throw out 99% of what I give them.

Hehe... my bf's neighbour used to have 2 dogs named Har Gao and Siu Mai too

My hammies still not eating food Or at least the amount of food is still the same and the amount of kuaci is still the same as the amount I put in the food bowl for them

Already removed the treats stick as per Reanne's suggestion, and I noticed this morning that the mineral salt had a small chunk chewed off. So I removed that as well, leaving only basic staple food and water. Don't see any difference

They can't be that fussy over what sort of food is given to them, right?

Living World/Habitrail Staple.

As above. I won't say there's no variety or its boring. It's got quite a bit of variety in there. I mean, I never had any feeding problems with my 2 Syrians. I fed them plain pellets + kuaci and they were happy enough with those.

As for my 2 WWs, I only gave them the treats recently. Even before the treats their eating habits were already worrying me. They ate soooooooooooooo sparingly. Sure, they're small, but... even when my Syrians were that size they were gluttons already. So that got me worried. At least seeing them bite and snack on the treats made me feel a little less worried, but I cannot be feeding them treats forever.

Will try that only as a last resort... I hate buying bread as I usually can't finish the whole pack alone.

Well I guess what worried me the most was that my hamsters even refused to eat even the kuaci!

I guess I'll get a small pack of a different brand and mix them up with the Habitrail ones. Thanks for the recommendations!

The point of bringing up the kuaci here essentially is, hamsters love 'em.

Well except my hamsters, it seems. Wave it under their nose also don't want.

All other hamsters that I know of all eat kuaci. Some eat it like there's no tomorrow.

This post has been edited by djspinnet: Feb 21 2008, 12:32 AM

Aihh... put back the mineral salt and the treat stick and my WWs attacked it like they had been soooo deprived of food.

Gonna go Pets Wonderland later to see if I can find Prestige or Harry Hamster. Hopefully my hammies take well to whatever new brand I buy for them.

Yeah. I had 2 male Syrians before, and they were really fat so the balls looked like it was being dragged all over under their body. Such an eyesore! Gave me a shock as I thought it was tumours too at first

Going... going... gone!

Last time refuse to eat any food... now look what happens

Also, eating time is the only time my hamsters can stay still enough for me to take pics... aih. Too hyper.

My two sibling WW who've been living together since young started fighting all of a sudden One of them got injured (very slight bleeding) yesterday and bled and I had to separate them. I put the aggressor sibling into a plastic cookie jar with holes punched out in the cover and the other sibling in the cage.

My poor hammy was so panicky and frantic all night in the cookie jar before it settled down and slept Now it merajuk, burrowing under as much shavings as it can in the cookie jar and curling up to sleep...

I hope I can reintroduce them someday. Have to look for a temporary cage for one of them today... sigh.

Update: I managed to find an ice cream box and "upgraded" it to the ice cream box. But its fur still looks so dull and its so quiet... couldn't go out earlier to get a spare cage cos the property agent came over. Gotta go and find one later... I tried to reintroduce the two siblings together, but Scratchy (the one that got bitten yesterday), upon seeing its sister Itchy, started squeaking like mad and running away. Looks like I might not be able to reintroduce them...

This post has been edited by djspinnet: Mar 15 2008, 12:17 PM

Scratchy is ok but Itchy is rather stressed and restless now ever since I took it out of the cage, put it in the cookie jar then later "upgrade" to ice cream box. Didn't have a chance to go out yesterday to get a new cage, going now in a few mins time.

Sigh... I actually got this sibling WW pair as a gift. I really wish they'd get together. As it is, I'm thinking of getting a second cage and maybe put a connector in between. If they fight, remove the connector and use it to connect some other extension instead.. hopefully once they get their own space they'd stop fighting even with the connector connecting the 2 cages.

Both are females. But one is rather alpha-female, the other is quite meek.

Anyway I've gotten a Habitrail Mini for Itchy (the alpha female). She seems really happy with her new playground. Was exploring it in and out non stop. Maybe someday I'll put a connector between the two cages and see if they can take to it well, since now each have their own "territory" already. See how it goes lah.

Yeah I am aware of that. Actually, I had two hamsters years ago who managed to get along well, even though when they were younger they fought here and there and I had to separate-reintroduce-separate-reintroduce till they got used to each other. So I know the steps to reintroduce hamsters, like mixing the bedding, putting them together for few minutes a day and increasing the time they spend together and all.

But this is the first time I see a hamster soooo utterly terrified of the other when it lost a fight. So I'm not so sure if reintroducing will work.

But I figured that at the worst case scenario if the connector doesn't work. I'll leave them separate and use the connector for something else, like a loft or outpost or what not.

Scratchy says hi

It's recovered from its bite injury... and happily running around now.

My chubby WW



ps, she's not being squeezed although the pic looks like it