As most of you know a couple of weeks ago I lost Marli my beautiful copper brown syrian hamster. She was around two and a half years old (not 100% sure as she was adopted) and I found her curled up asleep for the final time. I was heart broken as I always am with the passing of any of my pets and as always there was a huge hole in my life. I decided on getting another pet, I had an empty hamster cage and naturally kept looking in there everyday and having the realisation that nothing was in there hit me everyday. I know my readers will know that these are never "just hamsters" to me so will completely understand how I feel.
I started to research the different types of hamsters to have a change and also a challenge from what I am used to owning and that is where I came across roborovski hamsters. I still have Gusgus, who turned two a couple of months ago - my little old man.
Gusgus is a syrian hamster pictured above, he's cream and brown with short hair. Syrian hamsters have to live on their own otherwise you will wake up to a murder scene, they are solitary animals. Syrian hamsters are the easiest to own in my opinion just because they are big so easy to handle and as I have learnt they are a lot slower than the little monsters that I also now own. Gus (and Marli and Louis!) all love to escape and I have found them in a variety of places. Including in the foundations of our flat.
So now we are on to the new arrivals. First up you need to meet Jaq and Lucifer. I did introduce them a few weeks ago and explained how I got these two but I will give you a brief run down again. I know somebody who works in pets at home and I was talking to her about getting new hamsters and she said that there was a litter that had been born in store and they were 8 weeks old the day that I wanted to get new hamsters. She bought out a cage with all 6 of the litter in and we picked out two male (I prefer male hamsters) in the middle of the store which was hilarious. So off I went with Jaq and Lucifer, yes named after Cinderella characters and that was that.
No prizes for guessing why I got these two, how adorable are they! They are much more difficult to handle, I've had them about 3 weeks now and they are still not comfortable with being picked up. I handle them every night, feed them treats from my hand and they are used to me but they are naturally jumpy. I only hold them over the cage so if they do jump they land in there - if these guys escaped I don't think I would have a chance in getting them back. I'm looking for a play pen type area for them so they can get out of the cage because they haven't quite mastered the ball yet! They are very different to keeping syrians but for an experienced owner I don't think that it's too difficult.
Fast forward two weeks and I see my friend who works there again. She tells me that the four other brothers are still in the shop and because they are so overcrowded at the moment they haven't had a chance to find a home. Well that was it, heart strings were pulled and I went to pets at home that same day and adopted the four other brothers. As I was doing them a favour they kindly sorted me out with a cage and everything for them (what they were living in in the store so they weren't too disrupted) and they were glad they had gone to a good home.
So I would like to introduce Alfie, Bruno, Chubs and Donald. Now, I can tell Chubs apart from the others and no prizes for guessing why. Yep one is rather chubby than the others. The other names are just names I heard and I liked but Donald is named after my Bampi. So in another cage in our flat these four live. Owning multiple hamsters in one cage is also very very different. You have to make sure there is surplus food, water and toys at all times. Of course you have to make sure all animals are fed and watered but with numerous animals in one place if there isn't enough they will fight. They are sitting in what is a cat bowl full of chinchilla sand (NOT DUST. This is dangerous to them) so you can see how tiny they are.
I now own 7 hamsters. Wow.
And last but not least my beautiful Bertie, also named after my Bampi. Most people think that Bertie is an indoor rabbit because I live in a flat, but actually he has his own balcony. The balcony is fully secure and we have made some adjustments but he has his hutch and roams free out there. Of course there is plenty of shelter out there for him to hide and if I am away for more than a few hours I lock in away in his hutch for safety. He's about 6 now, again unsure because he was adopted and he is in perfect health whilst being very cheeky.
I'm thinking of doing a caring for hamsters/animals series on my youtube channel? What do you think?
Do you have any pets? Please link me to posts with them in - if you couldn't tell - I love animals!!
Charli...
ps we also have 7 fish!
