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| PREPARATION OF OWNING HAMSTERS |
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| Choosing your hamster When choosing a hamster it is best to get animals from a well known pet shop. Try not to acquire hamsters from people who are not breeders, because if the parent animals were bad temper with problems this would normally be inherited in the babies. A breeder has more skill in selecting certain hamsters for breeding. When choosing, the following points should be noted: •It should be in the age range of four to eight week of age •Its cage must be clean with water and food •Select a colour which appeals to you •The nose should be dry to moist with no discharge •The eyes should be round, wide open and clear with no sign of staining of the fur. •The fur should be smooth and unbroken with no signs of breaking •The sex of the hamster does not matter and is your choice Choosing a cage There are many types of cages available on the market today. In my opinion I would say that the Habitrail tube cage is the best for Syrian hamsters. Try to get the largest cage you can afford with your money and as many hamster accessories as possible to give your hamster most excitement. Always buy your hamster a wheel, water bottle and one or two bowls for food or water. Provide fruit tree branches to gnaw on. Here is a list of all the cages and my experiences with them. Metal cage The metal bar cage is the most common hamster cage. I would recommend this type of cage to first time hamster owners. The base is easy to clean, but the metal frame of the cage is harder to clean. The door for the cage if placed sideboards can be easily pushed open. In these cages it is easy to see that a hamster is stressed because it will constantly try to nibble at the bars of the cage. My own personal rating for this cage is 7/10. I have also noticed with smaller dwarf varieties of hamster the can squeeze out of the bars. So for smaller hamsters of the dwarf varieties get a plastic/glass tank. Habitrail Tube cage This type of cage is attracting to the eye and can be furnished to your hamster personality. They provide a lot of fun for hamster and keeps their burrowing nature with them. The cage is plastic and gnaw proof. The cage has small hole for airflow at the top. Because the cage is enclosed in this way it acts as a greenhouse to the hamster. It is known that this type of cage because it has less ventilation than the metal cage, it can be smellier. This means it has to be cleaned a little more often. Also this cage is primarily suited to Syrian hamsters. I have also noticed with my hamster is that my hamsters use the solarium as a food burrow, This is great because it is just like a hamster burrowing. My personal rating is 9/10 Rotastak Tube Cage The Rotastak cages are similar to the habitrail cage, but the units to the cage are circular. This is a big disadvantage to the hamster because a hamster love corners to hide in and excrete in, but this cage has no corners, therefore the hamster will not remember where to excrete again. Afterall the disadvantages, this cage is easy to clean and can be upgraded with other units. The cage is good because it has more ventilation than the habitrail cage, and can be stacked easily. I also noticed that the water bottle is very small. My personal rating for this cage is 5/10. Glass or plastic tank This cage is a popular and fairly cheap type of cage. It will provide the hamster with as much fun as the metal cage, but suffers from the same problems of getting smellier faster than metal cages. New toys can be easily added to the cage, but the cage with the metal cage cannot be upgraded to make it larger like the Rotastak and habitrail tube cage. A new cage must be brought unless the owner can cut a circular hole in the cages to use a tube to link them together. These cages if accessorise can be the ultimate cage for your hamster. I give this cage 7/10. Wooden This type of cage is not too good because it is harder to clean and over time hamsters can gnaw their way out. I give this cage 3/10. SAMS Tubes Cage Recently I've been to a hamster page to be saddened by the news that three hamsters have died by chewing the plastic in SAM's hamster cage which can harm your hamster. I also have dodgy suspects on the company and have had more letters on dying hamsters. The company do not reply to any letters. Also if my memory serves me correct it has a metal barred floored which hamster's do not like because it prevents the practice of pseudo rumination. So all you with a SAM's cage be aware. So my advice is get a 'habitrail cage' which is far safer, I know because my previous hamsters have had a habitrail cage, and chewed the cage sometimes in a fit to escape but never died. |
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