I've spent a while thinking about what to title this - dwarf hamsters and diabetes? How to spot if a dwarf hamster has diabetes? How we're treating our hamster with diabetes? But I think this pretty accurately sums up how confused and lost I was about the whole thing.
Is there anything cuter than a squishy little baby hamster munching on something with his little paws though? For real?
A couple of months ago, my hamster Jeff passed away and I was gutted. I missed him so much, and I genuinely missed having a happy little creature pottering about his home in my office. So, we got two new little additions to the family. They're both very different, and I'm so excited to introduce them.
Meet Sid
Sid is the little furball pictured at the start of this post. He's a Russian Dwarf hamster just like Jeff was. These are a lot smaller than normal Syrian hamsters, and have a distinctive dorsal stripe. That's the strip of dark fur you can see along Sid's back.
I get asked this question every time somebody sees Sid, so yes, he does have red eyes; it's not a trick of the camera.
We've had him for a month and a half now, so he's almost four months old. He's still very skittish, but is quite happy to be picked up. If you swoop down on him whilst he's in his nest he will give you a good nip. We still very much have to wait until he's ready and waiting to be bribed with a treat or two. At the moment, his favourite is a little bit of kiwi.
He loves to burrow under the bedding in his cage, and will only pop his head up to munch on a bit of food. Once you've got hold of him, he's very easy to handle, and quite happy to be carried about and stroked. He's still not tame enough to sit still on your hand, and likes to roam, but he doesn't run for the hills!
Meet Frank
Frank is a whole other kettle of fish. I'm totally not squeezing him in the first picture by the way, I had him in my hand (he's weeny) and he popped his little head out to see what was going on!
Frank is a Roborovski dwarf hamster. They're smaller than Russian ones - he's actually two weeks older than Sid!
Frank is a LOT harder to handle. As in I've not yet properly held him. And he's escaped eight times. You have to be really careful with these little guys: any tiny gap in their cage, or your hand and they're gone. The first time I tried to hold him I assumed he was like a Russian hamster. He was in his plastic house, so I picked it up, put it next to my hand and expected him to slowly clamber on. Nuh uh. Instead he saw the opportunity for freedom and whizzed right over my hand, into the air and onto the floor. Oh, and yeah, they can jump really far as well. I'm not even going to explain the stress of waking up one morning to find that I'd left a door in the roof of his cage open at night ...
But he is super cute and very loveable. We've got a taming box for him, which is what he's in in the picture above, and he's gradually getting used to the idea of taking bits of food from us. Another perk is that he never bites or nips. He just scarpers instead.
So there we go, there's my two new little babies. They are so cute, and I love them already. I'm doing everything I can to keep them cool in the heat, but it's important to remember that you can't get either breeds wet. They've got a little sand bath in each cage instead! They also can't be housed together, and it's unlikely that we'll ever put them near each other; hamsters can be very defensive, and I'm pretty sure Sid would give Frank a nip or two to protect himself!
Have you got any pets? What are they?
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A couple of months ago, I decided to make the plunge and buy a pair of dwarf hamsters for me and my boyfriend to own together. Totally #couplegoals right (ha)? I *may* have been a little naive heading into this, assuming that because they're small and look pretty darn cute that they'd be fairly easy pets to keep. Plus, I've owned rabbits in the past, and my best friend's rats get along totally fine, so I was super excited to see my new little fluffies playing together in their cage. However this wasn't to last *insert dramatic Disney movie soundtrack here*.
I had SO much fun buying their cages and all the little hamster-sized accessories they would need - I was basically a little kid let loose in a pet store. These guys were my first 'real' pet as an adult, and not something my parents had bought. Naming them was fab too - mine is Hammy and my boyfriend's is Jeff (and yes, that is because of 22 Jump Street.
Once we got them home and their cage set up we had to leave them for a few hours before touching them to let them get a bit used to their cage. I was practically chomping at the bit at this point - I really just wanted to give them a cuddle! After this initial period, it is recommended that you do handle them frequently so that they become used to it at a young age. You really need to make sure you're around a lot in the first couple of weeks, as if they don't get handled frequently enough in that time period then they may never become 'tame' and it's likely that they will rarely allow human contact with themselves for the rest of their (fairly short) lives.
After two weeks of having Jeff and Hammy in the same cage, we started to notice a bit of a problem. Although young Russian dwarf hamsters do 'play' by nipping and chasing each other, and can occassionally squeak when doing so, one of ours was squeaking increasingly frequently. We also noticed that the 'playing' was very one-sided, and Jeff was always the one being chased. I popped back to the pet store to enquire about this (I was basically that mum that takes her kids to the doctors every time something tiny happens) and was told that everything was fine unless one of the hamsters had a visible wound. A few hours later, I was back in the store with Jeff as Hammy had bitten him so ferociously he was bleeding from the area near to the scent gland on his belly. Their fighting escalated in just a couple of hours to this, and I've heard so many horror stories from other owners about them not catching it quite in time, and coming home from work to find one hamster mostly eaten by the other (ew).
We were faced with two options: send one of them back to the pet store, or buy a whole second set of accessories and a new cage. I went for the latter because I just couldn't bear the thought of having to choose one to send back.
Now, even though they are completely separated from one another, if they get anywhere near each other's cages, Hammy will launch himself at the bars, and try to bite Jeff through them. He even jumped off my hand a few days ago in an attempt to get there! We also have to be really careful with our own limbs. If I touch Jeff and smell of him, and then attempt to stroke Hammy he will (and has) give me a nasty chomp. I've been nipped by a bunny before, but the ferocity of Hammy's aggression made this far more painful.
So, my advice is that although these creatures look super adorable, it may be best to just get one. But, if you want to get a couple, the best idea is to make sure you have two bottles, two food bowls and two houses for them to sleep in, as it makes them less territorial. Moreover, keep a very close eye on the for the first month or so that they are together - often they will play-fight as youngsters, but if you notice any injuries on the hammies you need to separate them straightaway as it can escalate very quickly, as I've shown!
Don't be put off entirely though! As with all pets, it takes time and effort to care for them, but the rewards are there (as you can see in how adorable these photos are!). Do you have hamsters? How do you find their behaviour?
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