Monday, May 24, 2010

Is this normal for hamsters?

well i bought him some foodmix for hamsters at the pet store that the manager suggested i get, but he is only eating the seeds! i was wondering if its ok that he is only eating the seeds and nothing else. also i have been giving him little pieces of lettuce and carrots. he is a male syrain.
Answers:
it is fine!! He is just a little picky...To rid this habit don't give him more food till he eats the rest of his food too. If he is hungry he will, trust me. Don't want to waste good money too!
I have two hamsters who get the foodmix type of hamster food. They each have their favorite things they eat out of it and leave the things they don't at the bottom of the bowl. You might want to try different brands of mix and see if he prefers those. Also, continue giving him bits of fresh vegetables and fruit. My hamsters love seedless grapes, cucumbers, broccoli, carrots, and strawberries. Petstores also sell special treats such as yogurt drops.
My hamsters do it, too. They don't always like the other stuff. My hams, they pick%26#92;choose there favorite things. One will take ONLY seeds, the other will take seeds, and maybe these little red 'cereal' looking things. All the rest, is history. Soon I'm going to switch them to just organic pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds at my local health-food store. And carrots,letuce, and apples. They can live longer without the other stuff, anyways. And it's cheaper!
I had gerbils, and they did the same thing. It's not too unhealthy, but a diet of only seeds might be pretty fattening. But hamsters. can be picky, so as long as he gets excercise, he should be fine.
Please don't give the hamster any Iceberg lettuce, it's bad for them and may cause diarrhea. The carrots are fine to give. We started feeding our hamsters and other small animals the hoard their food every couple of days to get them to eat all their food. The pellets are alfalfa and they need this for digestion and to trim their teeth on. He has stored food in the cage and needs to eat this before you give more. We use small bowls and fill them partly full, like I said, every couple of days. We still throw out a good bit of food at cage cleaning time even with doing this.
LOL! He is as picky about his hamster mix as my male syrian!
Yes, hamsters are naughty when it comes to being selective with their hamster mix. Mine turns his nose up at the brown pellets, and dives straight in for the nuts and seeds. This will not affect your hamsters health at all. Give him a varied selection of small pieces of fresh fruit and veg, and hang a cereal chew bar in his cage.
IMy male syrian is 14 months old now, and im sure you will agree they are the most wonderful pets, Very laid back and chilled!

Is this normal for a hamster ??

Whenever sum1 comes into the room my hamy is in he runs and hides and wil not *** back out until you offer him food or if you leave.i have had him for more than a month and he lets me hold him, but the only way he will go onto my hand is if theres food on it.is this normal for a hamster?
Answers:
hi, why yes when i got my new hamster for to months he was like that he would't even come for food . so every day put you hand in the cage for 5 mins and he will sniff you and get use to you . oh yea when you put your hand in dont put any food in you hands .
yes. it is. your hamster is probably just scared of people, so you should get a new one.
Hamsters are meant to be fed to their superiors like reptiles. They shouldn't be allowed to live without fear.
yes, mine never let me hold her when he gets older he might get more confident
Yes it is normal for your hamster to be doing that. But you should get another hamster and keep them separate. I also suggest that you get a young hamster and introduce it to people at an early stage.
Of course it's normal. He's just a little guy terrified of giants coming in and out of places. I think it should be allowed to panic every now and then.
yes it is espically if its a male cause the males really don't want to be bothers and they jsut want to eat eat eat u jsut have to get it more use to u
yes it is especially if you got him from a mainstream pet store because they dont have the time to hold all the future pets in there store thats why its best to go to a small pet store like a local pet store.
they are very smart my hamsters do to

Is this normal behavior for my dwarf?

My hamster just had babies and she bites the cage bars and climbs all the way to the top and drops off!! What is her problem?? The babies are a few weeks old, by the way.
Also, I was wondering if my hamster babies will bite me if I try to hold them.
WHO EVER ANSWERS BOTH OF THESE QUESTIONS FIRST ANDS MAKES THE LEAST BIT OF SENSE WILL GET BEST ANSWER!!!!
Answers:
well if you dont have wood in the cage she is just trying to ware down her teeth and if you do have wood she migt just not like it andddddd she is prolly just stressed out.
the babie may try to bite you but if they do it probably wont hurt because there teeth are not bit at all. you might want to wait another week before you try to handle them so that they can sort of understand what is going on. when you pick them up, have there mom also.
they wont bite.and umm...hmmm..i guess shez happy or depressed cuz she just had babies
She is trying to get some alone time from the babies. I would give her something little to climb up on for alone time. It is okay for you to start picking the babies up. Just remember to wash your hands first so they don't smell funny to the mom after wards. Be extra careful that you don't drop them they are quite fidgety.
dont touch the babies until they are three weeks old and leave the mom alone so she wont get stressed its normal
If the babies are beyond two weeks (preferably three) and are eating solids on their own, try taking momma hamster out for a little while (10-15 minutes at most) to get some 'alone' time. She might just be stressed out or claustrophobic, or even just bored. Some quiet time in a running ball away from her kids should help, especially since she's been cooped up in her cage for the last couple weeks with nothing to do but nurse.
Also, once the babies hit four weeks, you should seperate and sex them to keep them from fighting or mating together, especially if the mom's already getting antsy from being around them so much. You don't want them to get too crowded.
The babies shouldn't bite (and if they try, I doubt it would hurt), but be careful when handling, as they do try to jump from your hand from time to time. Only handle them if they're past the two week mark (at least) and have fur and open eyes, because by that point the chances of momma rejecting them are less.
I had a dwarf to it is normal for her to chew on the cage and jump, umm the babies shouldnt bite just dot take them away from mom for long
its ok it just her hormones probably in a while she will stop
my hamster bits the cage bars 2 but she only does that to trim her teeth

Is this marketable?

I am sitting at my computer and my gerbil climbed up my trousers, onto my lap, then up my belly and my chest, onto my shoulders, up my neck and sat on my head where she began to groom my hair. She's a legend! I've been thinking of setting up a massage parlour where gerbils come in and groom people. Would you pay for that?
Answers:
I would I love gerbils and I would bring my gerbils in everyday I have 6 gerbils.
is it for sale
no! sorry x
Good luck.
i would mr orange ...If you can guarantee to me that the gerbil wouldnt be leaving a small brown rice like object or two on my scalp..
Umm..are you serious? Do you really think people will pay for that?
that would tickle.. youll have to have a damn good insurance on this idea . they can bite!
I wouldnt pay for it, got goose bumps just thinking about it
lol i kno i wouldn't they might leave little presents in your hair, if u know what i mean! lol
yeah, that would be awsome... but not gerbils... rats
Our rats do that! One of them also trims my hangnails for me, very gently %26 expertly.
As long as they don't pee in my hair! My daugher's bunny did that to me. Yuck!
I used to have a kitten that massaged the back of my neck as I dropped off to sleep. Of course, she also suckled on the back of my nightshirt, but the massage was just so nice.
Rats are better

Is this hurting my hamster? How to help him?

I saw about a month ago, that it looked like my hamster had some stuff in his cheek, but i thought he was going to spit it out, and I kept seeing his cheek full of stuff.
last night I felt his cheeck, and I think he had some seeds stuck in his cheek pouch. Is it hurting him? How do I get them out?
Should I take him to the vet? I don`t want my lil` baby to suffer- Pleeze help :)
Answers:
As you've seen from the other answers they do stuff things in their pouches. If its jsut seeds then no, they can always get the seeds out. If it was something else like crackers then yes it would be stuck. the hamster knows what is safe to stuff in their cheek pouches. you can rest easy.
Hamsters do store food in their cheeks, that's perfectly normal behaviour :)
well idk were u read that crap cfrom but its a normal thing..he will also spit it out and save it for later...its just something they do...its not hurting him at all...u will probably hurt him if you try getting it out
hi,yep they do that and its normal.BUT if it doesnt take it out and stash it somewhere then it could be stuck.if so the best bet is a trip to the vets,that way they get bit and not you.if it stays in too long it can get infected.
if it lets you do it you can try to gently push it out,dont go fishing around inside as you can do more harm than good.or if you feed it something like bits of apple,this could bring it out with the apple.
it might be an infection already,and can still be touched by you and it not bother it.they are quite hardy,i had one that broke its leg and its foot stuck out sideways.i took it to the vets he said do nothing and it will be ok.it looked wierd but still got around on its stump no probs.good luck
no because that's how they eat when they are in their house and don't want to get up so they eat
I don't think u should b that worried. Hammies always store food in their cheeks and it rarely if ever gets stuck.
if you are that worried about it head for your vet right away. even if the trip wasn't necessary at least it made you feel better and it's better to be safe than sorry.

Is this healthy for my hamster?

well i noticed that my hamster when he poos sometimes, he has sausaged linked poos. His poos are linked, like its one poo, then another poo starts. They look normal and healthy, but is it okay that he does that?
Answers:
It is perfectly fine! It is very normal for them to be "linked", and that is just how it comesout for them. Im thinking its because they have smaller bladders. :p If your still worried though, you can always contact a vet. But, this is a common thing among all rodents, especially mice, gerbils and hamsters. Good luck!
haha. Yea, its okay
Maybe he swallowed like a string or something that is connecting them. Just kidding. He should be fine.
Your hamster is fine! BTW, don't use cedar in the cage as that will cause nosebleeds.
Yeah that completly okey, wut u should worried about when they pooh is watery, that means they have diareah. anyway your little fellow should be okey :>
gross, he makse links! should be fine give it some apple slice or carrots once in awhile.

Is this hamster cage healthy... read on please?

ok I bought my hamster pregnant (without knowing) she had babies 5 weeks ago, males in one females in the other. They have all been homed except for one.
I have been waiting for my friend to give me her old cage which I picked up, but its huge, the second level has a ladder with other three steps which a hamster cant even reach, the base is plastic and cracked at the bottom so u can feel sharp plastic. the white bars are all rusty and the sides of the plastic base are all snapped and cracked.
is that healthy for a hamster?? im a bit over protetive giving them away and so far so good, just this cage is a bit... I dunno am I being silly?
oh and it has no wheel and the bottle drips. so im going to tell her to buy them which I know she wont, she will use her old bottle and wont bother with a wheel.. is this wrong?
Answers:
I bought a feemale hampster last year and she was also pregnant,she had seven babies.I know exactly what you mean,I too was very fussy when it came to the hampsters. As regards the cage, Ipersonally think that a brand new cage is always best.You see there are a lot of people who would just put sawdust in and thats it,a lot of illness can be passed on by using dirty cages,one of the worst is Wet Tail.Unfortunately,I lost some of my own to wet tail,and the main cause is stress.It is very highly contagious therefore,using secondhand cages,when you dont know the history of the previous animal,is not advised Hope this helps you.
yes dont let her have it if it bothers you that much
ermm
it does sound a little bit cruel yes. hamsters love their wheel! and im guessing that it will need a proper water bottle. it could chew the plastic that is broken and cut its cheek pouches which could lead to an infection...
please have a word with her..
not being nasty but...
that doesnt sound good at all a hamster needs a wheel.. and doesnt wanna get soaked under his bottle... and the cage being rusty doesnt help as it can harm the hamster if it decides to chew the cage
yes!
just go to petsmart and get a ONE LEVEL cage.
my hamster can never get down from the second level and the end up falling off.
make sure you buy soft bedding to put at the bottom.and you reallllly need a wheel and a new bottle. and maybe a little plastic house that it can sleep in.
if it bothers you have alittle word and if she really won't budge don't give her the hamster!
Evie
xx
No you're not being silly. That sounds like a disgusting cage. lol.
I would get a tank for your hamsters because they are escape-proof for hamsters, especially babies.
This is not a proper house for hamsters. She also needs to know that you can only house one hamster to a cage or else they will breed and fight. There is no way a hamster will be safe in a cracked and rusted cage. If she is going to care for the hamsters she has to do it right. If she has one cage, that means she gets one hamster. Tell her that the cage doesn't look safe and you don't feel comfortable with them living in that type of situation. Tell her she needs to buy another cage from the pet store and then we will see. She also needs a wheel for proper exercise and a bottle that doesn't drip. You should also put an add in the paper for baby hamsters for sale or free. PetSmart or something like that can take them. Ask around in your family and other friends.
do not use this cage it is very un safe for a hamster and please don't give the babies away for free they will be neglected. ask you friend for some money and suggest that she buys a new cage as this cage harbours disease and could cause injury it sounds like this cage isn't actually a hamster cage more like a rat cage.
i wouldn't let my hamster go in a cage like that Mr.P!nKy (my hamster) wouldn't be too pleased
dont let her have them the cage is no good
It sounds like the cage is a breeding ground for bacteria. I'm like you, everything has to be perfect for my pets so I wouldn't use a cage like that. Go with your instincts on this because it may just be a hamster but it's a living creature which deserves a decent quality of life, and it doesn't sound like it will get it in that cage.
Personally I would throw away that cage and tell her that if she's serious about wanting the hamster she needs to go and buy a new cage. If she can't be relied upon to provide the basic equipment (i.e a bottle that doesn't leak and a wheel) then you really shouldn't allow her to have one of the hamsters your giving away.
As much as you need to get new homes for them you also have to make sure that the people you're giving the babies to are gonna be responsible owners and will look after them properly. It sounds to me that your friend can't be trusted to do this and that poor hamster is gonna be neglected.