Dwarf Hamster Blog

The Dwarf Hamster Guide

How Much Does a Hamster Poop in One Night?

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In case you were curious (lol):

hamster-toilet

This is the Syrian’s ‘toilet’ which was converted from one of the dwarf hamsters’ older small cage. I changed the sand only about 12 hours ago, so the number of turds you see were all produced in one night (awkward topic, I know >.>).

Hamster ‘toilets’ are awesome

For anyone who doesn’t have a bath/toilet for your hamster, you should really consider getting or making one! Most hamsters will do their thing in the sand bath or you can train them to. It makes cleaning up much easier. And you can go longer between bedding changes if you just clean up the toilet area and spot clean the few turds that might be outside of the toilet.

You don’t have to have a huge toilet like the one in the photo. A smaller bath/toilet like this one put in the corner of the cage would work too. Alternatively, you can use Chinchilla sand in a plastic container or ceramic dish, just make sure your container it’s deep enough so the sand doesn’t get kicked out so much.

You can also make a DIY hamster bath house out of old gift boxes and popsicle sticks like the one in photo below:

diy hamster bath house

October Blog Update

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Hamster store

Sorry about the lack of updates. If anyone’s wondering where I went, I’ve been working on a new project — a hamster store! The store stocks only products that I think are safe for hamsters — which means no scented bedding or scented bath sand or runged wheels or fluffy bedding that can kill your pets. The store ships only within Singapore at the moment but in the near future, I’m hoping to sell stuff internationally — especially the awesome hamster accessories that are common in Asia but kind of hard to find in the US.

I’m also trying to find products that are great for hamsters — an example would be Wodent Wheels which are now sold in the store. If you make hamster products that are safe and improve the well-being of pet hamsters or if you know someone who does, please get in touch! I would love to carry your product in my store 😀

Starting a store also means the hamsters get to try lots of new food, treats, toys, and so on. I’ll be doing plenty of reviews and perhaps an international giveaway of some of the stuff in my store soon!

Rant-kind-of-but-not-really: It’s not as easy as I thought to get a store up and running. I have no experience and it’s scary as heck because everything is so new. And I’ve been so busy setting everything up it feels like I’m working 16 hours everyday. Nevertheless, it’s pretty exciting and I’m sort of having fun even though it’s super tiring.

Hamster Food App

I intended to release the hamster food app in October but it looks like it would have to be delayed >< If you’re interested in getting an app that tells you which foods are safe or unsafe for your pet hammy, be sure to sign up here so you get notified when it’s ready.

DIY hamster stuff and in-depth guides

According to the poll at the sidebar, most of you are looking for DIY hamster stuff or in-depth hamster guides. They are being planned at the moment and I might get some help with these so you should see more posts on these topics in the next few months.

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to vote 😀 And if you haven’t, please let us know what you want by voting at the sidebar — it’ll help us decide which posts to write first!

Thank you for coming back

Before I go (to bed), I just wanted to thank everyone who has been returning to the blog (even though we haven’t been updating much). I can see from the site stats that quite a number of you are coming back to our blog every day (don’t worry, it’s anonymous so we can’t tell who it is specifically).  It’s nice to know that people are interested in what we’re doing here. Whatever it is you are here for, thank you for coming to check us out!

Diabetic Hamsters and Fruit

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Which hamsters are prone to diabetes?

Like humans, hamsters can get diabetes. Some species of hamsters including Russian dwarf hamsters (Campbell’s, winter whites or their hybrids) and Chinese hamsters develop diabetes more easily than others. Although purebred winter white hamsters supposedly do not develop diabetes as easily, most of the hamsters labeled ‘winter white’ in pet shops are hybrids and not purebred. As such, I consider them ‘diabetes-prone’ too.

Conventional hamster wisdom (I just made up that term) says no to fruit but…

A diabetes-prone dwarf hamster biting on a piece of fruitMany hamster web sites and forums advise against giving fruit to diabetes-prone hamsters. The assumption is that fruit are naturally high in sugar and giving them to your diabetic/diabetes-prone hamster will worsen its condition. Up until recently, I have avoided giving fruit to my winter white dwarf hamsters because of this. However, other than being higher in sugar than say vegetables, fruits are healthy and packed full of vitamins and minerals.

Not all fruits are high sugar

Fruits are also not all equally high in sugar, some of them don’t really have that much sugar in them. And who decides how much sugar is too high anyway? None of the information I came across mentioned a specific amount.

Blackberries vs Bananas vs Turnips

Take blackberries for example — every 100 grams of blackberries contains just 4.9grams of sugar. Compare this to bananas which contain 12 grams of sugars. And turnips, one of the ‘safe’ foods listed on Hamster Hideout for even diabetes-prone hamsters, have 3.8grams of sugar.

Why is it that turnips are okay at 3.8grams of sugar but blackberries are not? Does the 1.1g of sugar make a difference or are blackberries incorrectly assumed to be high sugar simply because they are a fruit?

I’ve been guilty of making this assumption myself on my dwarf hamster food list (to be updated with a fruit section soon). If you look at the comments, I’ve advised against giving carrots…but 100 grams of carrots contain just 4.7 grams of sugar so that’s even lower than blackberries.

Okay, some fruits (and carrot) have less sugar, now what?

The amount of sugar in a fruit doesn’t really tell us much about whether we can give them to a diabetic hamster. All we know is that some fruits have less sugar than others and not much more sugar than turnips. Instead of looking at the amount of sugar and trying to figure out whether it’s good or bad, why not look directly at what research says about diabetes and fruits:

Fruits are good for diabetic people (so maybe they’re okay for diabetic hamsters?)

While this is for humans, the American Diabetes Association says that fruits are okay for diabetic people. Also, human studies show that eating whole fruits, especially blueberries, grapes, and apples, helps lower the risk of diabetes. You can find the news article here, and the actual research here.

So…does this mean I should give my diabetes-prone hamster fruit?

While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that whole fruits lower diabetes risk in hamsters, I am of the opinion that feeding the occasional fresh fruit isn’t so bad even if your hamster is diabetic.

This article was inspired by Taxonomist’s thread on questioning conventional diet recommendations

Would you give your diabetic dwarf hamster fruit?

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Wodent Wheel Review

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What is a Wodent Wheel?

Oatmeal posing with unassembled wodent wheelWodent wheels are safe running wheels for hamsters and other rodents. They are supposedly quieter than regular wheels and safer because they have a solid running surface. According to the manufacturer, Transoniq, these wheels were approved and recommended by the ASPCA during their Seal of Approval Program (1999 – 2006).

Wodent wheels come in three sizes: Junior (8 inches diameter), Senior (11 inches diameter) and Wobust (12 inches diameter).

I’ve read a lot of good reviews about Wodent Wheels by other hamster owners so I decided to get Juniors for my hamsters. The photo at the side shows Oatmeal the winter white dwarf hamster posing with the unassembled parts 😀

Here’s a photo of an unassembled blue wodent wheel junior:

wodent-wheel-parts

Here’s what it looks like assembled, it was pretty easy to put together:

assembled wheels

More wodent wheels from the manufacturer’s web site:

lots of wodent wheels

photo by Transoniq

Are Wodent Wheels better?

I would say yes! I thought my regular wheels were already pretty quiet since they don’t make squeaking noises, but the Wodent Wheels were even quieter when used by my dwarf hamsters. I specify dwarf hamsters because when my Syrian uses it, it isn’t really quiet (although still better than a regular wheel).

Also, because my regular wheels are on plastic stands, they’re much lighter and tend to get toppled over by the more active hamsters. My Syrian hamster topples her regular wheel a lot because she’s much heavier than the dwarves. With Wodent Wheels, the stands are made from steel so it’s impossible for a hamster to push it over 😀

Although I’m using the Wodent Wheel Junior, it’s big enough for my Syrian and she seems to prefer it over her regular wheel. I just tried replacing the Wodent Wheel with her regular wheel again and she wouldn’t run on it (was trying to make a video). When I put the WW back, she went on it immediately o.O This is completely based on the preferences of one hamster though.

Any negatives?

The smallest wheel is 8 inches wide so it’ll probably not fit in smaller cages (i.e. Crittertrails or Habitrails).

Also, they aren’t available everywhere so you’ll have to get them online. International shipping can get really pricey.

You have to take them apart to clean them well, some people don’t like that but I don’t think that’s really a big deal.

Where to get Wodent Wheels

The cheapest way to get these wheels would probably be to get a group of people and buy a dozen directly from Transoniq. However, if that’s not possible, the wheels are available here on Amazon US. If you are in the UK, you can find Wodent Wheels on eBay UK

Transoniq also has a list of online dealers in the US as well as international dealers if you are in other countries.

If you are in Singapore, you can get the Wodent Wheel Junior at Hamster.sg

Noisy Hamster

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Noisy hamster keeping you up at night? Hamsters are active mainly at night and if you are losing sleep because your pet hamster is making too much noise in its cage, the following might help:

Noise from the wheel

Photo Credit: captainmcdan

Photo Credit: captainmcdan

  • Try switching the position of the wheel. Many times, it’s rattling because it’s in contact with something else
  • Lubricating the noisy hamster wheel with some olive oil might make squeak less
  • If that doesn’t work, consider getting a silent wheel
  • If you’re using a wheel stand and the noise comes from the wobbly stand, consider gluing it to the bottom of your cage/tank.
  • Move the hamster cage to another room
  • If you can’t do that and the noise is unbearable, temporarily remove the wheel. Your hamsters need a wheel so this is not recommended as a permanent solution

Noise from hamster chewing cage

hamster chews bars

Photo Credit: cdrussorusso

  • Provide chew toys so your hamster has something else to bite on
  • Chewing may be due to boredom, get more toys for your hamster
  • Chewing may also be due to small cage size, consider getting a larger hamster cage
  • Instead of using a bar cage, make your own bin cage or get a tank
  • Again, put your hamster in a different room if you can
  • If nothing else works, smear lemon juice or vinegar on cage bars to deter chewing

Noise from hamster digging around

  • Get heavier cage accessories (like ceramic ones) that your hamster won’t be able to move
  • Get lighter bedding (such as these) that don’t create a ton of noise when your hamster digs in them
  • Again, move the hammy into another room if you can 🙂

If this article helped or if you have tips you would like to share with other hamster owners on how to deal with a noisy hamster, please leave a message below. Thank you!