The Lifelong Cost of the Smallest Hamster in the World.

So, I had this idea, right?

But I suppose I should start with the full story.

I went to my local pet shop on Friday with the distinct idea in my head of buying a couple more fish to add to my platy tank in my room. When there, I got annoyed with the time it was taking (some bloke in a suit was there buying loads of complicated fish, and so just took the lightbulb and filter pad and went to the checkout. But that que was long as well, so I went for a wander. While wandering, I came across the adoption section and was gazing longingly at one of those rabbits that have fringes. You know the ones? Never mind, it isn't really relevant. I was sort of inwardly sighing to myself about not having enough money for one when I looked up, and there was a little face staring back at me.

This little face:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/bdb9f8a6e036.jpg[/atsimg]

I literally couldn't say no, and went straight over to the woman on the counter and proclaimed my love for the little'un. After a fair amount of questions, the cage was gathered, some toys were bought and the adoption paper was signed and little Libby was mine. (Although I did change her name to Dina because you just can't can't all a hamster Libby. It's in the rules. #48 of hamster care: don't call it Libby).

Well, anyway, me and my grandad (helped my my jealous dog Jack) set up the cage and put her in it, and I rearranged my shelves completely to be able to put her somewhere she wouldn't be bothered by curious dogs and stumbled over after her owner has had a couple of drinks (I fell over a door once).

Now, little'un is actually a good name for her, as she's a Roborovski hamster, and, quite literally the smallest breed in the world. I have gerbils ( s well as the ferrets, horse, dogs and fish), and, even though I'm convinced their mutants as they're the biggest gerbils I've ever seen, she's about the size of Ray's head. She's smaller than my thumb, and roughly goes up to the shoulder blades of the super-gerbils (I don't know for sure, they haven't met). She's brilliant as well, coz she's actually too small to make much of a noise and so she can live in my room quite happily. Egon and Ray are way too loud and live in the spare room. Sh also loves banana.

So, for some reason unknown to me, I've decided to do an experiment. For one little hamster,

I had a friend who had these when we were in high school. He got the first one a little friend because it seemed lonely. They were two boys, supposedly. Turns out pet shop people are really bad at hamster gender identification. In the end he had more than 30 of them.

So good luck with your experiment (very interesting, btw!) and I recommend not getting her a friend.

reply to post by Schkeptick


No, I'm not planning on getting her a friend anyway. She was given up for adoption because she was fighting with the other one her previous owners had as they'd bought 2 at the same time, so yeah... They're supposed to live in pairs, but sometimes you get one that's a bit of a knacker, no matter how cute they look! And I've now ended up with it lmfao.

Pet shops aren't great at that LOL! I've been lucky so far as I've had quite a lot of rodents and no babies. I've had both sexes of most though, so I'm probably better at ID'ing the babies than the shops (and they wouldn't give me a job!). I had a scare with the super-gerbils, coz Ray's so big, but he's just a fatty. And a mutant. I thought they were older babies when I got them, turns out they're just massive anyway.

But Dina is really sweet. I couldn't help myself. So yeah!

Thank you!

She's quite lovely!

Maybe you can build her a fun place to explore. As a kid I always wanted a kid-sized version of those crazy tubes they have for gerbils. The ones that are in different colors, and you can connect 100 of them together and make like... a giant maze with lots of different paths to take, and sometimes one path will let off into a secret little room (usually another plastic cage, but I saw them as secret rooms), and the secret rooms usually had something great in them (Maybe a treat-bar for her? For me it would have been some kind of waterfall-pool thing). (Wow, looks like I still kinda want one of these for myself. Kinda sad, eh?)

Here is a funny video of someone's evolving "Ham-tropolis". Youtube: The Evolution of Ham-tropolis


I hope you and she enjoy each other's company for a long time to come! Congratulations on the new friend!

reply to post by AlphaBetaGammaX


Ahh! My gerbils live in one of those Rotastack monstrosities. They're a complete nightmare to clean out, and they always manage to chew through the tubes or push the water bottles out and escape, but they are quite fun to build. Egon and Ray don't have too much to run around in because I've had the cage years and wear and tear got rid of most of the tubes. I'm also paranoid about them escaping so I try to stack it instead of connecting them like I used to. They are fun though.

Thanks

reply to post by Ayana


I just noticed the worst grammar fail ever.

*they're, not their...

Urgh, double post.

Dina is a 10 on my AWWWWW-meter.

What a sweetie! You sound like an animal lover, so she went to a good home. Good for you!

You gotta luv that little mug

Dina's adorable, I love rodents and my last one was a little white hamster. She had the run of the apartment and her life wasn't much different than if she'd lived in the wild, in principle anyway.

She'd come out every night to forage and it was always amazing to me how many peanuts she could stuff into her pouches. She had little hidey holes and nests all over the place - all of them full to overflowing with nuts.

She used to come over to me and tap my ankles so I'd know she was there and I'd load her up. Sometimes she'd climb up my leg which was always cute until the day she followed me into the bathroom..... (I caught her in the nick of time)

So, how much to keep a hamster over the course of their lifetime? Well, a walloping great bag of mixed nuts would last a week or two at a fiver a time, I seem to remember peanuts being a bit cheaper and lasting a little longer. She didn't really need much else.

I won't factor in the cost of the table or desk that became unusable after she'd nested in them because I didn't replace them. Same goes for the bookcase that she chewed all along the bottom so it wouldn't stand up straight The hole she chewed in the stair carpet was negligible and when she got in my wardrobe I was quite pleased with the way she customised my clothes. I still wear them and think fondly of her every time I notice her handiwork.

Dear little Rosie, I had such fun with her.

Best of luck your your new lil friend! Hamsters are great but fear to have one around because of my cats. As to say it's hard to cat proof a cage with my sneaky felines, while they didn't get to my last hamster they were obsessed with trying, poor girl(Russian dwarf) was probably very scared!
Just don't use cedar or pine bedding*(if ya don't know already), can hurt her.

*studies from the House Rabbit Society

reply to post by Tasty Canadian


She's gorgeous. She's really nervous though, which is what I'm guessing was the reason behind her being brought back to the shop instead of the other one they had. So I'm sat every day fishing bits of banana out of the feed bag to put on my hand to see if she'll come over. She hasn't yet, but she'll now pick up the food if I put it down, so at least she's getting used to my smell and the fact that I'm the one giving her the food.

I'm sure I'll make a breakthrough eventually. You've just gotta be patient

And yeah, complete animal lover, so she's in the right place

reply to post by berenike


Aww, that's really sweet. I'm a complete rodent lover as well, always have been, I just tend to use 'small animal' now because of the ferrets LOL. It's a bit broader.

But yeah, I had rats and they had run of the room they were in. Unfortunately with my dogs I can't let them run riot, as much as I'd love to!! I know the damage they cause though. One of my gerbils managed to chew through the laptop cable (I'm an idiot, left it far too close to the cage). I noticed pretty quickly, but when I picked it up I got a massive electric shock LOL. He was chewing away with no effect and I was the one getting the shock... But never mind. No harm done, really.

But yeah, I think it'd be interesting to find out how much, in total, it'd cost to keep her.

reply to post by dreamingawake


Aww, thank you!

Yeah, we have dogs, but they don't seem too bothered by the rodents. They tend to leave the gerbils alone unless I'm feeding them, where Jack will try and shove his face in the cage, and again, with Dina it was only Jack who was sniffing around her, and that's just because he's jealous of her getting attention and him not (even more so because my grandad was helping me set the cage up!). But she's up on some shelves so she's pretty safe. It just means I've gotta keep the door shut, which is what I do with the gerbils anyway.

I can imagine cats being worse though. Definitely.

reply to post by Ayana


Oh, the joy of electric cables Once I spent ages taping up all the wires after my gerbil had chewed through them and I'd just finished the job and plugged everything back in when I noticed a tiny piece of copper sticking out. 'Oh' I thought 'I'll just whack a bit of tape on that bit, it's only small' Owwwww

Another time I noticed my two rats playing with a cable and whatever I threatened them with 'You'll be sorry if I have to get up to you' (as if) they wouldn't leave it alone. So I got up to see what was so fascinating about it. Well, they'd chewed through it and found that if they batted it with their paws little blue sparks would fly off

Anyway, I don't want to spam your thread with my silly anecdotes, but I do enjoy swapping stories with fellow small animal lovers.

They're a complete nightmare, aren't they? I went to buy a new laptop cable and it was £67. You know when you're like, I don't think so, so I just had to sit and tape it all up. The shock hurt like hell though. I can't believe they can just chew through it. It amazed me.

LOL!! Aww, I miss my ratties. I loved them. I always made sure to put any wires out of their reach but they were always trying to jump up at them. I remember putting frozen peas into a little dish of water, and they'd do like, apple bobbing but with peas and come up with their little heads all wet. Too cute! To b honest though, I reckon I'd be fascinated if something was sparking, so I can't blame them LOL.

Ahh, it's okay. I like the stories! I don't know too many people who actually like rodents.

Tonight I bought her a proper food bowl (99p) and a spaceship to play in (£4.99)

So that's £5.98

-------

Total: £42.06

Add £3.99 for a new water bottle as I was ridiculously paranoid about her not being able to use the bigger one (I probs just couldn't notice coz she'll drink so little). But anyway, she has a new one without a ball in quite a cool design, which I'll leave til tonight and if she hasn't mastered it switch back. She's currently being a contrary little thing and pushing loads of shavings up against it. I have no idea why.

But, as an up date, she's put on weight since I got her, she's grown a bit, and her fur is nice and shiny now, rather than as greasy as it was. She's also coming up to me and sniffing my hand, and even took food off me yesterday, so she's doing well!

--------------

Total: £46.05

So I bought Dina a hamster ball for when I clean her out so she can have a run about on my bedroom floor:



= £3.99

I also bought her some wooden chews, but she doesn't seem to be a chewy sort of hamster, so I'm not sure why I bothered.

=£1.99

But, I'll -99p from that, because although they were bought for her, half of them went to the newest addition to my family - Howard. He's evil and he doesn't even LOOK cute. I dunno why I brought him home. But I fell in love (again) and just had to. Even after he bit the woman trying to get him out of the cage 4 times.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/3480678f209d.jpg[/atsimg]

You get free food with the cage and stuff, so I have half a bag from her and a full bag from him - so food and bedding will last a little longer for me at the minute. Which is always a good thing.

=£4.98

--------------------------

Total:
£46.05 + £4.98
= £51.03

reply to post by Ayana


My three cats would take one look at her and say in unison...
mama, thank-you for bringing home a boxed lunch to play with.

Well, I bought Howard a wheel because I broke his and discovered how amazing these tiny 'silent' wheels are. Dina is a bit small to move hers without a lot of effort, so I bought her another one for £6ish, but it was an import so the postage was a bit pricey. Anyway, I think it came to £9.22. It was worth it to see her little face when she finally got the courage to go near it and start running. It made my day more than my little girl ferret biting me on my cheek after I'd tried to give her more fuss (because the boys always steal it).



--------------------------------------------------------------------

Total
= £51.03 + £9.22
= £60.25

And here's a picture to go with it (without the new wheel, of course)

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/95a3c739b1cc.jpg[/atsimg]