#what is up with this guy. you can't stop thinking about that igloo for one second

[its-a-me-mango]

Why was that your best example of being too close to someone, what is wrong with you.

[kikikid1412]

Okay, so in Kiki Rambles About Hamsters: Part II, we're going to be talking about hideouts. The most popular ones I've seen are these plastic, see-through Igloo hideouts that come in different colours.

They're not dangerous per say, but they're not exactly the best for your hamster, either. Hamsters are nocturnal, meaning they sleep during the day and stay up all night (much like me and the rest of the userbase on The Tumblr). However, they do like to sleep in the dark. So, you can see where a see-through hideout would be an issue. You want to make sure you get one that's completely solid and you can't see through so your hamster can get proper rest during the day. You can either buy one, make one out of wood or cardboard, or use something like a large mug half-buried into the bedding. There's also lots of tutorials online, too, to make very cute hideouts for your pet on a small budget!

So, next thing we should talk about is food. You gotta feed the little guy, after all! You wanna make sure that you give them a nice, healthy mix of all sorts of different seeds, grains, vegetables, and proteins. Also, keep in mind that hamsters are not herbivores as most people think; they're omnivores! So in addition to giving them things like seeds, grains, and vegetables, you also want to give them mealworms, cooked and unseasoned chicken, cooked shrimp, ect. You want to make sure you give your hamster a nice, rounded meal that isn't just all fatty and sweet foods. Things like sunflower seeds, yogurt drops, and strawberries make good treats once in a while, but no more than once a week.

Here's a video of safe and unsafe foods for hamsters. Personally, I plan to get a little creative with this and cook some meals for my hamster.

So finally, we get to the fun part; toys and enrichment!

But first, let's talk about things we shouldn't give to the hamster;

No hamster balls! They're dangerous for them and they can get hurt really easily in them.

No other hamsters! Hamsters are solitary animals and don't really like companionship. They'll literally fight and cannibalize each other if you keep them in the same cage. If you want to keep more than one hamster, make sure to keep them in separate cages.

No hamster death trap mazes! I don't even know why I have to say this. Those videos are ridiculously dangerous and abusive. A little maze with decorations is fine, but you shouldn't be adding in things like death spikes, large falls, other animals, syrofoam balls, scaling walls, and no hamster Squid Games. just... No. Please stop this. I used to think these were cool, but now with how extreme they're getting and knowing what I know I just cringe at them because there's so many things the hamster can get hurt on and those hamsters didn't ask to be there. They're not good enrichment, they're just stressful.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's talk about the things that hamsters will have a good time with!

Any wooden chew toys are great for the hamster. They'll keep their teeth nice and short (because hamster teeth continuously grow) and keep them from chewing on things they're not supposed to.

Also, things like grapewood vine, cork logs, anything like that would be fantastic for your hamster to run on, hide in, and bite on. If you're on a budget, you can easily make toys and things for them to climb on with cardboard and toilet paper rolls. Just be sure to use a non-toxic glue any time you're putting things together!

You can even make little puzzles for your hamsters, as well, where they have to figure out how to get the food out of the toy. Another way to enrich your hamster via food is to scatter feed them, essentially sprinkling the hamster food around the cage so they have to find it (a yummy version of hide-and-seek!)

If you want to play with your hamster outside of their cage, you can get them a playpen! They enjoy time out of their cage to explore someplace new, and a playpen is the perfect and safe way for them to be able to do that. Just make sure the walls of the playpen are high enough that they can't get out, and that it's not set up near anything dangerous like an electrical socket or water. You can also place a blanket down in a dry bathtub and bond with your hamster in there!

If you enjoy gardening, you can also make a little hamster garden playpen for your little friend, as well! ErinsAnimals has a couple of videos talking about hamster-safe plants that you can use for this.

That's all I've got for you guys for now! If any experienced hamster owners have anything to add onto this, feel free to chime in!

I hope you guys have learnt something from this post. I definitely was shocked by a lot of these facts myself when I learnt them, so I'm sure that there are others who need to know this, as well. Thank you for reading, and I'll also link some good YouTube channels to check out, as well as a forum full of experienced hamster owners where you can ask any questions that you might have! Also, always be sure to do your own research, as well. Maybe you'll find something even better than what I have here!

ErinsAnimals: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFmrfBN7qjyP5j8nbw6sO1w

Victoria Raechel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMwnCA2CMDQnoQ-UOrwVMUw

VanillaHamHam: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTSvFDZmB2i8N8TJSvJYq5w

HoppingHammy: https://www.youtube.com/user/HoppingHammy

Munchie's Place: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgHYG9zj6GFMlL-fqOWhAfg

Hamster Hideout Forum: https://hamsterhideout.com/forum/

Hamster Care

Okay so, a while back I decided that I wanted to get a pet hamster. It's going to be the first pet that I'll be taking care of completely on my own since I'm living in my own apartment now, and I wanted to be sure that I'll give it the best care possible, so I've been doing LOTS and LOTS of research. And, as it turns out, a lot of cute hamster videos I've seen floating around on this site are actually quite abusive or not cute at all!!! And then, I realized, it's December. The holidays have started. Someone is going to get someone a pet hamster somewhere. And they probably are going to get them a cage that's too small, with a tiny wheel, and nothing to eat but sunflower seeds, thinking that they're giving everything their hamster needs but aren't. So, I'm going to try to put together a little guide of stuff I've learnt about hamster care. As a warning, this post is going to be a bit long, but they're really not as easy to take care of as you think, because it certainly wasn't as easy as I thought it would be at all.

So first, these cages that you normally see at the Petsmart and Petco?

[Image description; Two different Hamtrail cages. They are bright, and colourful. The first one is a small plastic cage with many colours, and metal bars on the sides and top. Inside are a little platform, a little wheel, and a plastic hideout. The second is a set of pods all connected in complicated ways through various tubes that's also bright and colourful.] Yeah, these are apparently bad for the hamsters. Usually these have a floorspace of about 150-250 square inches, when the bare minimum a hamster needs is 450 square inches. And 450 isn't even the recommended size, that's just the bare minimum. I know, shocking right???? And not only that, but they need 6 inches of bedding minimum (not even the recommended inches) so that they can burrow and make tunnels with different chambers (Which they do like rabbits). Also, keep in mind that you want to use aspen or unscented paper bedding. You don't want to use pine or cedar bedding because it could give your hamster a respiratory infection (which they are VERY prone to) So, why do pet stores sell these?

Because apparently when hamsters were first brought to the U.S., people didn't know a lot about them... and one particular company decided "Hey, you know what would be neat? If we had a bunch of small, plastic cages that we connect together via tubes and kids can collect them all!"... That company was Mattel Toys (You know, a company that totally knows all about hamster care and doesn't just want you to spend as much money as possible) So, you might be asking, where do you find a proper cage made for a hamster? Well, the short answer is, you don't. You don't find a cage for a hamster. The actual answer is you use cages that aren't made for hamsters. "Huh????" I hear you ask "Kiki, what the FUCK are you talking about??? What am I supposed to actually keep them in???" Well, first of all, calm down just a little. Secondly, there are options that are right in that same petstore! What I need you to do, is walk all the way to the end of the hamster isle.... Then leave it. Walk a few isles away, leave the rodent section entirely, then go into the fish isle. Pass by all of the beta fish glaring death at you, then turn your eye to these;

A fish tank. You want a fish tank.

Specifically, a 40 gallon fish tank per minimum. (You can get one for 40 dollars during Petsmart's a dollar a gallon sale)

If that's still too much money and you're working on a budget, though, you can walk out of the Petsmart, get in your car, drive to your nearest superstore, and buy one of these instead;

A storage bin. A storage bin also works. Just keep in mind that you do need to modify the tops so that the hamsters can... You know.. Breathe. There's plenty of tutorials online for how to do this properly from many different hamster owners who know what they're doing. I don't know what I'm doing so I'm asking someone else for help with this. There's no shame in asking for help. As a matter of fact, if you're a minor, I would highly recommend asking an adult for help with this step otherwise you're gonna hurt yourself. Heck, I hurt myself trying to do this and I'm 25.

So, now that you've gotten yourself a proper tank, you probably think that you're ready to get all of the hamster supplies.. A cute little wheel, a plastic igloo hideout, any ol' water bottle will do... Hahahahaha, I thought the same as you, my friend. But I was so so wrong. So.... so..... wrong....

These wheel's here?

[Image description: Two hamster wheels. The first one has a wire mesh. The second has wire bars] Apparently they're bad for hamsters too! I've been learning a LOT of things they sell for hamsters are bad for hamsters and... [screams into a pillow] I'm NOT okay! [Takes a deep breath] But that's okay. That's why I'm writing this post. So someone has a chance to see this and not have the same assumptions I had about hamster care before doing research. So, these particular wheels are bad for hamsters for a couple of reasons; 1. Because of the wire mesh/bars, your hamster's foot can get stuck in them and they can break their foot, or get something called "bumblefoot" where their feet swell up and get giant nasty bumps.

2. Chances are these are also probably WAY too small for hamsters.

Anyway, what you want to get is one of these;

[Image description: A wooden running wheel with a cork surface. Also sitting inside is a hamster that looks almost comically small inside of it.]

So, that hamster might look almost comically small sitting inside of it, but believe it or not, that's what you want to aim for! Hamsters need much larger wheels to run on, otherwise they'll have back problems. As long as the hamster can still run on the wheel, it's not too big for them.

You see this hamster?

[Image description: A hamster running on a wire bar wheel that is too small for her. Her back is bending backwards as she runs]

Her back shouldn't be bending backwards as she runs. That is bad. She is going to have reserve scoliosis. ...Okay, maybe that isn't the technical term, but that's essentially what's going to happen. You don't want your hamster's back bending when they're running on their wheel. The wheel doesn't strictly have to be wooden, it can be plastic as long as it's big enough and has a solid running space.

Now, let's talk water bottles. Water bottles are generally okay, but are really best for hamsters that are prone to falling into their water dishes. Otherwise, a water dish is the way to go. Make sure it's not too big to the point your hamster can swim in it because they're not supposed to get wet.

Speaking of; Don't give your hamster a bath!

Generally, hamsters groom themselves and are pretty clean animals. But, they still need a bath, just of a different kind... Specifically a sand bath.

[Image description; A hamster in a round container filled halfway with sand. Over half of the container is a wooden slab.]

You can easily make this out of a tupperware container or a cardboard box if you're low on funds. Just make sure to add a hideout for your hamster inside the sandbath so when they go to clean themselves or do their business, they have a place to feel safe doing so. Now, you want to avoid getting anything that says "dust" on it. Hamsters are not chinchillas and they're not going to have a good time with that. In fact, they're going to have a very bad time because they can get a respiratory infection from it. You want to buy soft children's playsand (if you go with this option, be sure to sift it and bake it to decontaminate it), or lizard sand which can be found at the petstore. This is NOT OPTIONAL, by the way. Hamsters do need sand baths so that they can keep their coats nice and clean.

I'm going to have to add on a reblog to continue since I have more pictures to show and I've hit my image maximum. But I have more to talk about, so please be patient as I add on more.