Back2Nature is not cat litter...... it is for small animals.

WW are territorial dwarfs. They hate new comers. All dwarf hamsters hate having new comers into their homes. Switching cages and tanks, and letting them smell each other is pointless. The correct way of introducing is putting them in a neutral environment, like a freshly cleaned cage or new one. Put nothing but just wood shavings inside and let them get to know each other. If 1 attacks, that one is the bully so you must watch out. Fighting always have squeaks, they chase each other to get a bite. If it is a squabble, it would just be a bit of rolling around. When fighting the attacker would target the neck, face and bum.

If I were you, I would just let the WW have their own individual homes. Why? They are happier. By introducing and letting them fight, they would just be stressed up. WW can only live peacefully if the cage they are living in is more than 1.5ft, with lots of hiding places and space. Siblings or WW that are introduced when very young only can live with each other. If introducing a younger one to an older one, it is gonna be super duper tough. As we do not speak nor understand hamsters, we can only assume alot of things. The best thing to do is just let them live alone.

SPCA won't accept hamsters. PAWS and SPCA put down rabbits if they do not get adopted. So how about hamsters? Some people would either resell or donate back to the pet shop they bought from or they just set them free into the wild, as if a hamster could survive in our jungles.

Chipsi Classic, apple and lemon.... they are all softwood... fir,spruce and pine. The ones with the apple scent and lemon scent is not treated properly to get rid of the phenols, they use the perfume to cover up the phenols smell. Chipsi classic has no perfume, so the treatment for the wood is slightly better, coz they have to try and dry out the harmful oils. The perfume is also harmful. People may think it is nothing, but you imagine yourself living in a room with air freshener being sprayed every minute in your face for 24 hours a day? About your question.... why use another type of wood? Pine, fir and spruce is cheap and easy to get. That is why there are so many pine wood shavings in the market. Try looking for Aspen, damn hard to get here and is more expensive.

Chipsi Super is also made of softwood. Chipsi Extra is made of beech wood, which is healthier.

Yups.... chipsi mainly uses fir and spruce, but sometimes pine also termasuk coz these woods are all soft woods. On their pack, they just print soft wood. I have been smelling alot of wood shavings for the past years... and I can only trust Chipsi and Delikate coz so far the phenol smell is not as bad as other brands. All of the cheap woodshavings are not so safe for our animals. That's why some people go for corncob or the recycled newspaper bedding. My hamsters are using Healthy Pet and Breeder Celect now.... I can see their health is much better, fur grow longer, then they are easier to potty train.

Hamsters have padded paws, dwarfs being more furry padded than syrians..... corn cob is ok to use. You made a good choice coz it is much better than wood shavings.

Mecool, petshops would just ask from you Rm6 per hamster.... and they would just simply dump them in a tank, never bother and just let any tom, dick and harry buy be it in 2s or 3s... how?

Even if it is an accident, you gotta be responsible. If no homes, find homes.... Breeding is never cheap anyway. If I were you, I would rather put for adoption than just sell to a petshop. You can always ask for an exchange in adoption, like each hamster adopted, the adopter must give you a packet of wood shavings or hay or whatever you request.

Yes, you can. Not to much

Today I feed Aloe's siblings with plum, red bell pepper and a bit of cauliflower.

As long the adoption is not dealt with money, is ok. I also ask for trade when I put my pets for adoption, like a packet of Habitrail food or wood shavings. You just put your condition, some people are ok with exchanging goods than trading with money.

Brother and sister, if they breed, that is called inbreeding loh. You should not keep brother and sister animals together as animals do not know the meaning of family, they do not know what is brother or sister or mother or father, as long male see female, they would breed.... and that is inbreeding.... and it would lead to alot of health complications when the young are born.

Is best you exchange loh. Get same sex. Coz related.... and different sex, not good.

You can try a trick. Get the food flavouring for vanilla or pandan. Take a cotton bud and wet it with the food flavouring. Put a dab on the back of the neck of each hamster. The smell may help them like each other since both have the same smell. You can give this a try. This tip is from my old hamster care book.... of course they said use perfume, but I think food flavouring is safer.

Alot of petshops are like that, space.... so they just dump every syrian into 1 tank, they do still fight, as sometimes there are dead bodies in the tank.

Coz the suppliers sell them young. The suppliers do not care how old or how healthy they are, as long they can sell to petshop is fine.

I actually saw a supplier dump a shipment of Syrians at a petshop... the worst thing! 10 babies that haven't open eyes! I managed to take 2 and nurse them on milk. Now they are ok. I wonder what happen to the rest. Poor things. Even the petshop owner cannot do anything coz supplier don't want to take back.

Well, the best brands of food for hamsters would be Prestige and Harry Hamster. The OVO comes with a bottle and wheel. So far the OVO loft is good, as it is 2ft in length, suitable for a Syrian. The normal OVO suite is small, a bit too cramp for a syrian and ventilation is bad. The OVO loft has better ventilation.

Money loh.... all is about business.

It was not easy to feed those 2, had to use syringe and pets own lactose milk. But then they grew up super tame coz 1st thing they see when open eyes is me and they know my voice and smell.

Actually, WW is smaller a bit than Campbell. The campbell can be as large as 4 inches, WW can be between 3.5 to 4 inch but RC are rounder. Pet shops call them mini hamsters because they are dwarf. They do not know that it is called Campbell.

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Added on December 8, 2008, 9:15 pmThe pregnancy is usually around 18 to 21 days. What hamster species is it? If she has not given birth, you can clean the cage but make sure you give nesting material like hay or tissue paper. Once she gives birth, you cannot change the cage and need to wait till the babies are 2 weeks old, only then can you change the bedding safely.

Hamster toilet.... actually, not every hamster uses it. I see syrians use it more often than robos or dwarf. Some hamsters may even use the toilet as a sleeping place or food storage. Training is simple, which is to take all the poo and some bedding with pee and place in the toilet with the toilet sand. Make sure it is not bathing sand coz bathing sand got different use like for fur of robos and campbells.

This post has been edited by crazymouse_yyh: Dec 8 2008, 09:15 PM

It clumps to make things easier to clean, but it should clump into a hard ball like how clumping cat litter does.

Ah, WW.... well, it depends on your luck. Like some people say they keep 5 syrians in a cage and no fighting, but by nature they are solitary. Well, we shouldn't follow what people say coz facts is already written to say Syrians should be kept alone.

Now about WW, it really depends. Sometimes they can live together if the cage or tank is large enough. Try putting 2 WW in a small cage, then fighting sure occur.

You are better off separating the male away from the female so she doesn't tire herself from over breeding. Hamsters are happier when they do not breed often. Breeding is tiring, it causes the hamster to become too focus on caring for it's young that it may not eat or sleep properly. You can get storage boxes as tanks to keep hamsters, and just buy a wheel for it. I use that and it works fine, better than cages. My friend used to keep her Syrian in a Habitrail OVO but after listening to me, she realize her hamster is better in a storage box. Now can see the hamster is much more active and happier.

It clumps into a hard ball?

If it clumps and you use your finger to press on it and it break's up, then that is normal with some toilet sand. The clumping cat litter ones really clump into hard clumps, and those become sticky when wet, so that is dangerous as it can get stuck in a hamster's cheeks.

Coz if the brand is for hamsters, then it is fine and should be safe. Very hard to explain how sticky it should not be.... next time I bring my sand and show you lah.

Pregnant, it can be seen when the female looks fatter, like pear shape, meaning the belly area is bloated. Then the female would make nest to sleep in more often. How did you come up with the conclusion that your female is pregnant?

Storage boxes, the ones that can get from Carrefour and Jusco. A dish of water is not good as it creates a breeding ground for bacteria, and contaminated water that has touched food, paws and pee or poo is unhealthy. Use a bottle. I use wire to make my own hanger, or you can go buy water bottles that can hang from the top. I can share pictures later. If the storage box is stall enough, they won't escape. I don't use any lid coz I want the tank to have good ventilation.

Yah, it should be shouldn't... typo error. Not used to using my dad's laptop now.

Syrians are easy to toilet train if you give them different bedding to use. I find wood shavings a little hard to toilet train. Breeder Celect or Back to Nature bedding is the best to use for toilet training. My Syrians are toilet trained this way. The whole tank I use BC or B2N bedding, then in a bowl, I use non-clumping litter. In the bowl of litter, I place all the dried poo and also some wood shavings with pee in it. Place this bowl at a place your hamster tends to pee. This works.

Syrians bite when scared. Also, Syrians kept in cages tend to be more timid and easily frightened.

Oh, your hamsters are not communicating coz they wanna be with each other. Why they stare is coz they wanna fight. Once hamsters start to fight, they must never be reintroduced back coz it is risky. People don't realise WW can be territorial towards each other. So if 2 WW have been together since birth and one day they fight, it is considered normal as they are fighting for space and rivalry.

Coz in a cage, it would hear the scary ticktack of cage opening, and also to see your hand inching to grab it is scary. A tank you can get, like a storage box or a 1.5ft to 2ft plastic fish tank is good too. The best is the plastic tank as hamster is able to see properly when you approach the tank and your hands can cup it up instead of grabbing.

oh yes, that is one of the signs too. Aggression.... is more like being protective already coz got mother instinct kicking in.

Normally I would take away the wheel after she give birth coz it is dangerous as sometimes the baby get stuck below the wheel or the mother put the baby on the wheel and run on it.

Now just give her some quiet time. Put in a quiet area of your home and feed plenty of food and give lots of hay. Thats the best you can do for now.

It's normal. Stoning It's an instinct for them to stay still at certain moments when they think they feel the need to do it.

Yes, you can but you must provide lots of hay for it to hide. Hamsters actually burrow and sleep in dark corners, I provide lots of hay for my hamsters to burrow and hide. Another is putting large cardboard rolls for them to sleep in.