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jyrenze
10-18-05, 12:05 AM 10-18-05
Of late the pet stores have been selling dwarf hamsters and I have been thinking of getting some. I used to rear hamsters when i was small but that was more than 10 years ago and I notice that the way of hamster rearing seems to have changed a little.

In the past the stores only sold syrians so my dad bought 3 of them for me and my sisters. They lived in a network consisting of 3 large aquariums and one store bought hamster compartment joined by interconnecting tubes. After the first litter ( 9 hammies) was born we seperated the adult males and females and had a network of 4 aquariums, 2 store bought compartments joined with the tubes. One aquarium was filled with sand. The hamsters would all go there to pee. Bedding was shreded newspaper which they loved. They like to drag the pieces of newspaper into the cubes and sleeping places provided and make some sort of nest. The siblings never fought with each other.

The hamsters were all happy and healthy hamsters that will all gather in the compartment that i usually feed them in when i tap on the cage and jump around begging for food. I fed them a mix from the pet store with a few types of grains,nuts and sunflower seeds. Occasionally we give them cabbage. I had hamsters for almost 3 years then my dad sold them off because my sisters were getting allergic to them.

So I would like to ask you guys, was I doing anything wrong in the way I kept them in the past? For one thing I think shreaded newspaper isnt used as bedding for hamsters nowadays. But last time that was what the petshop told us to use. Any advice would be appreciated but please dont flame me if i did anything wrong then I was like only 10 and we followed the pet shop instructions.

PetLuver21257
10-18-05, 01:31 PM 10-18-05
Well, that's surprising that they didn't fight, maybe the set up was so big, they didn't need to fight. Shredded news paper is not reccomended, you know that now though...

So overall, I think that you did a GREAT job with them, getting syrians to not fight is hard, and I always thought that it was impossible, but I guess I was wrong, good job!

jyrenze
10-18-05, 06:05 PM 10-18-05
Thanks. But actually I'm curious, why is newspaper not recommened? Is it harmful to hammies?

yodelinghamster
10-19-05, 10:28 AM 10-19-05
The ink can be harmful, and it is just plain messy! VERY much so if you own white hamsters or hamsters with white on them. The ink gets all over their coats.