The BRODENTS! Rodent Enthusiast Thread!

[meerkat boi.]

hey everyone. i got some exciting news.
so you probably know me as the annoying person who keeps boosting about wanting to get a syrian and asking my mom,, well, that changed yesterday.
so, i asked my mom about getting a hamster after the holidays, and she said yes. but, there's some changes.
my cousin has a little campbell dwarf hamster that's two years old and shes bored of it- don't worry she still cares for it, but she just dislikes it.
so, when the hamster dies (she's two years old), I will be given the cage. my mom says it's easier and we don't need to spend money on the cage, which is good in all fairness. it's this cage, which in all fairness is good but is too small. the wheel has to be replaced (obviously), and there's no way I can get a syrian.
at least i really love robos.
now just some questions I have:

are dwarf hamsters easier to tame?
are they very skittish?
I've heard they can go 'wild' after being tamed and you need to tame them again, is this true?
is getting just one dwarf hamster okay or do they need a friend in the cage too? can they feel lonely?

Thanks for any help!

[Keriae]

hey guys

so this is my first time owning a syrian hamster, i've owned winter whites in the past, and she's close to a year old now. however, she has this annoying habit of biting the plastic! she did this with her old cage which was not those mini bar cages in pet shops, and she chewed a hole from some small existing drilled hole! so we changed her into a tank, and i have a wheel for her with a plastic stand and now she's chewing that too! i've given her plenty of wooden chew toys but she just seems uninterested. is there any way i can stop this habit? or is she under some kind of stress?

thank you in advance for the advice

This sounds like a stereotypical behaviour c: These occur when an animal has been stressed for one reason or another in the past, and over time become a habit. They are very hard to break.

Can I ask how big the tank is, and the size of the wheel? Syrian hamsters need a cage of at least 80x50cm - studies have shown that this size is the minimum that has no stress indicators. They also need a 12" wheel (such as the Trixie wooden wheels, or a Whodent Wheel) as this prevents their spines from curving uncomfortably. Studies have also shown that a substrate depth of at least 6" allows for capable burrowing, though the deeper the better! I'd remove everything plastic from her tank, so that she doesn't have the option to chew it, and provide many wooden chews. If you can, make puzzle toys out of toilet roll tubes and scatter feed so she has to find her food instead of going to a bowl c:

hey everyone. i got some exciting news.
so you probably know me as the annoying person who keeps boosting about wanting to get a syrian and asking my mom,, well, that changed yesterday.
so, i asked my mom about getting a hamster after the holidays, and she said yes. but, there's some changes.
my cousin has a little campbell dwarf hamster that's two years old and shes bored of it- don't worry she still cares for it, but she just dislikes it.
so, when the hamster dies (she's two years old), I will be given the cage. my mom says it's easier and we don't need to spend money on the cage, which is good in all fairness. it's this cage, which in all fairness is good but is too small. the wheel has to be replaced (obviously), and there's no way I can get a syrian.
at least i really love robos.
now just some questions I have:

are dwarf hamsters easier to tame?
are they very skittish?
I've heard they can go 'wild' after being tamed and you need to tame them again, is this true?
is getting just one dwarf hamster okay or do they need a friend in the cage too? can they feel lonely?

Thanks for any help!

Absolutely try your best to get a decent sized cage! Check online selling sites etc; decent cages or tanks can often be found for cheap!
I've never had a dwarf myself, but I have heard that they are harder to tame than syrians, due to the fact that they are smaller and faster.
PLEASE only get one! While littermates can live well together, you will have to provide two of everything to prevent fighting, and even then they can still fight. It's much safer to get just the one.

[meerkat boi.]

--snip--

Absolutely try your best to get a decent sized cage! Check online selling sites etc; decent cages or tanks can often be found for cheap!
I've never had a dwarf myself, but I have heard that they are harder to tame than syrians, due to the fact that they are smaller and faster.
PLEASE only get one! While littermates can live well together, you will have to provide two of everything to prevent fighting, and even then they can still fight. It's much safer to get just the one.

thank you for responding to my questions!

yes, i know the cage is quite small and I've also seen it in person. i will try to get a larger cage and i'll be saving up for a more decent one.
alright, i was just wondering. i know that caring for two hamsters is definitely harder to do.
as for the taming, i will take on the challenge.

[spiderfish]

Last night, I found my beautiful chocolate LH syrian Bear had crossed the rainbow bridge last night. He's only a few months old, and literally just died.
I swear, I'm cursed. Bear's the third ham over the last year that I've randomly lost, at only a few months old, and all three were literally dream hams (the first, a black tort girl, the second a black tort banded- black tort/tort & white are my all time favourite colours. Chocolate is another favourite colour, and LH my favourite breed.)

And to top it off, I don't have any picture of him. I looked all through the only memory card I've been using, and there aren't any of him on it. I knew I didn't have many of him, but I swear there were some there. I can remember taking them, and they've just...dissapeared. It feels like the curse is even trying to erase the memory of him.

[cornspurrd.]

Gordon's starting to loose his fur,, :(

[meerkat boi.]

Gordon's starting to loose his fur,,

I'm pretty sure that's a sign of your rodent being allergic to something. What rodent do you have? Sorry if you have posted before with Gordon, I'm not too active on this thread and I'm not sure.
If it is allergies, you should change the bedding you are using for his cage.

[cornspurrd.]

Gordon, my 3 year old rat is now really showing signs of age. He's loosing fur, sleeping all day, and he's developed a tumor.

[minimire]

hey guys me again!

quick question, when is the minimum age i can breed my syrian hamster? also is a year too old for my female to be bred?

[Keriae]

hey guys me again!

quick question, when is the minimum age i can breed my syrian hamster? also is a year too old for my female to be bred?

I'd say likely.
Why are you wanting to breed? Is your hamster from a breeder or is she from a pet shop? Pet shop hamsters don't have a known genetic history and therefore you can't take precautions in breeding them as you don't know what recessive genes they might carry.
Not to mention breeding is dangerous and you can loose the litter or the litter and mum too. It's expensive business and you need to make sure you have homes lined up and if they fall through that you can look after potentially a large amount of hamsters with correct sized cages and wheels.

[minimire]

hey guys me again!

quick question, when is the minimum age i can breed my syrian hamster? also is a year too old for my female to be bred?

I'd say likely.
Why are you wanting to breed? Is your hamster from a breeder or is she from a pet shop? Pet shop hamsters don't have a known genetic history and therefore you can't take precautions in breeding them as you don't know what recessive genes they might carry.
Not to mention breeding is dangerous and you can loose the litter or the litter and mum too. It's expensive business and you need to make sure you have homes lined up and if they fall through that you can look after potentially a large amount of hamsters with correct sized cages and wheels.

I'd like to have more litters of my own. I've bred winter whites years ago and this is actually my first time owning a syrian this year. My girl is from a breeder and she's turning a year in September