The Chinchilla Dance!.mp3
 | Where you got your first hamsters.. Where you got your hamsters isn't very important after all. Whether you bought them from pet shops or breeders, or you got them from your family, relatives, or friends, it's the same. But one thing you must take note of is the hamster's health. Health is the most important of all in getting a hamster. Some hereditary disease can cause real pain. Here is where Celia got her first hamsters (photo to the left). Did you see the pups over there? Two of them eventually belonged to her. |
Hamster Preparation!
Before greeting your first hamster, you must first make "Hamster Preparations!". The must-haves are hamster cages, their healthy dietaries, wood shavings for the base, & water bottles.
Your very own hamster cage!
Hamster cages can be easily obtained. Whether you bought a new one from pet shops, or you got one from one of your friends who used to keep hamsters. Here is a simple data for your perfect cage (take a look at the picture to the right as you read through the data to fully understand it) : Brown cage Size : Large Recommended population : 5 hamsters (an assortment of adult-hamsters and teen-hamsters would be good) or below Cage-wash level : Normal Orange cage Size : Normal Recommended population : 3 hamsters or below Cage-wash level : Easy Green cage Size : Small Recommended population : 1 hamster Cage-wash level : Super easy Pink cage Size : Large Recommended population : 5 hamsters or below Cage-wash level : Hard KFC L-Bucket Size : Small Recommended population : 1 hamster Cage-wash level : Super easy P.S. : KFC L-Bucket isn't ideal for a permanent cage, as smart hamsters can easily climb out of it. |  |
Wood shavings, Bowls, & Bottles
"No cage is complete without wood shavings, bowls, & bottles."
These 3 items can be easily found in pet shops, and it's a doubt that you can't find it. Wood shavings are often packaged in a range of amount, starting from 250 grams to a kilogram. Some brands even had the wood shavings scented. 2 scents that Celia had ever bought was the Chrysanthemum and Lavender. Celia's trusted brand is the ONO brand, which is equally suitable for rabbits, chinchillas, & guinea pigs. Bowls are often included when you purchase a hamster cage, so you hardly need to buy one. However, pet shops do sell them. A cheap price for a plastic bowl, and if you want to buy a ceramic one, you'll have to fork out more. Bottles are made in plastic and there's only one way out the bottle, which made it hard to wash. If you don't wash it, then moss (greenish-germ-like thing) will come growing inside the bottle, which is dirty and of course, not healthy for our pals. Recently, Celia found out a simpler way to wash the bottles, and that is to use cotton buds instead of using a wire and a sponge.
 Hamster Healthy Dietary The most popular menu for our pals here is a package of hamster mix foods. A scoop of it means sunflower seeds, popcorn, pellets, and colorful seeds. Buy it, serve it, and it's done. It's easy, yes, but won't your hamsters grow tired of the same menu everyday? Give them a change of the menu, and serve fruits & vegetables instead. But you must not give them a surprise by a sudden change. You must give them a try first or things could go bad. Based on Celia's experience, carrots are a hamster's favorites. Besides that, bananas & papayas work out well too. Celia serves carrot as the main dish, while bananas and papayas act as treats.
| Other hamster-needs Besides the 3 main items, you may also buy some additional items for your hamsters to have fun. A house for your hamsters to hide when it gets cold and when they're scared. A wheel for your hamsters to exercise when they get bored. The diameter of the wheels should be adjusted to how big your hamster is. If the wheels is small, while your hamster is big, it might hurt his back. A toilet filled with sand will make the cage less dirty because hamster do know that it's a toilet. They scrub themselves with the sand as if they're bathing, and they tend to pee and poo there. Of course, the sand must be changed now and then. Bathing sands are often packaged in a zipped bag, so that you can zip it after pouring the amount of sands needed. Bathing sands are often fragrant with fruit-scents. However, they also have the cheese-scents and vanilla-scents. Besides being fragrant, they're also made colorful, according to the scents. For example, the orange-scented bathing sands are orange in color, while cheese-scented bathing sands are yellow in color, and so on. Be careful though, if your hamster is white or has white parts in his/her body, they might get stained by the bathing sand's color. The same goes for spray shampoo, which is next. Spray shampoo are often used by hamster-owners to spray their hamsters so that they won't be as smelly. It's easy to use with just a spray, but take note. Never spray too much, your hamsters won't really like it. Bathing sands and spray shampoos are almost the same, so if you have one of them, it is not recommended to have the other one. Chewing treats are much loved by hamsters. It was to stop the hamsters' teeth from growing too long or it might cause problem. |
Hamster Babies!
A few months or maybe weeks after you got your first hamsters, you'll realize that your hamster-numbers won't stay the same.
How hamster babies actually look like.. There are bound to be lots of reactions to this picture. Some might scream and run away, or they will sit still and look for as many details as possible. Some would say, "Aww, aren't they the cutest?", and some would say otherwise. If this is your first hamster babies' picture, you might be shocked and scared because they're not as fuzzy and furry as hamsters in your mind. That's normal, because Celia was shocked too to know that hamster babies are pinkies! But she got used to it right away. They're tiny, pinkie, and also a cutie (great minds think alike)! What you should do if you find out that your hamster has matured and has become a mother! Let your hamster do her job. Hamsters have instincts to take care of their babies so you don't have to worry. Of course, there are some cases where hamsters won't take care of their babies, for example, not milking them. That's because of they're lack of water and foods, so you must make sure that your hamster has enough food and water so that she can produce milk for the babies. TRICKS to keep TRACK of your baby hamsters..
You will need this data for the TRICK : The 1st day : The litters are here! The 4th day : The first fur appearance. The 6th day : The second fur appearance. The 8th-9th day : The third fur appearance. The 14th day : Babies' eyes are open! The 22nd-29th day : Babies are ready to leave their mother. So, all you need to do is to input this data into your calendar. Calendars on your phone would be good since you use your phone often. You may input this data as a Reminder or Memo according to the day in your calendar. For example, 14th February is when your litters are born (1st day), so 17th February should be when they make their first fur appearance (4th day), and 19th February will be when they make their second fur appearance (6th day), and so on. |  Preparations to welcome new family members..
Some of you might want to make preparations to welcome the new members such as Celia herself. But first, you must know when your hamster is pregnant. Obviously, hamsters would have bigger tummies when they're pregnant but the big tummies could hardly be discovered! You must cleverly predict when your hamster is pregnant and when she will deliver her babies. Of course, you will need your first or second experience first before you could predict. Here's a tip : If you see your male hamster doing "something" to your female hamster, there might be a high possibility for your female hamster to be pregnant. Usually, it's a few weeks after that. If you had predicted on what day your hamster will deliver, then you should clean your cage so that the babies could live and grow up in a clean environment. It's not too late for you to separate the daddy with the babies after they're born. The daddy won't do much harm to the babies. So why do we need to separate them? Because male hamsters are gonna do "something" to the female hamsters whilst they're taking care of the babies and won't it tire the female much? She's taking care of the babies and yet she has babies again in her tummy. It's a great blow to her and it's not good. Recommended time for the second litter would be a few weeks after the first litter is born. |
Wise Decisions! A list of hamster-wise decisions :
If you feel that our WISE decisions are not enough, and you would like to add some, send what you would like to add to 4pawstales@gmail.com. We'll add it as soon as we receive your email. Feedback is also welcome! *wink* |  |
