You need to buy one without the rungs. Make sure it's at least 8inches in diameter.

I'm a cruel hamster mummy. I only top it up if it's getting empty. Otherwise they only pick their favourite bits out and leave the rest.

The food dish is a human invention. You hamster will not object if you just throw the food on the cage floor (though miss the bed and the toilet corner!). Cermamic bowls are best as the hamster can't tip them over or eat the bowl.

Generally they calm down as they mature, but they are all individuals. Mine move almost constantly out the cage, but mostly at a pace I can catch them.

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I find that Alfie gets up when he wants! But does tend to get up when the lights are dim and its nearly dark!

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ive got 8 hamsters and they all seem to get up at different times,Pippin is always the 1st up around 4pm ...then i have a couple who dont get up until about 9pm....the rest somewhere in between, they do also pop out in the daytime but dont usually stay up for very long if ones up i always get them out so they can have some freedom.

good luck with your new addition....dont forget to post some piccys

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"If the wolf is to survive, the wolf haters must be outnumbered. They must be outshouted, out financed, and out voted. Their narrow and biased attitude must be outweighed by an attitude based on an understanding of natural processes."
L David Mech

We have doomed the Wolf not for what it is, but for what we have deliberately and mistakenly perceived it to be..the mythologized epitome of a savage, ruthless killer..which is, in reality no more than a reflexed images of ourself." -Farley Mowat

Awww well congratulations on your new hammy!! I too can't wait for pics hint hint

What kind of cage do you have...ie what are the dimensions? If it has a cheap wheel it is likely the pet shop sold you a wrongly sized cage for a Syrian....they do get quite big!!

Yeah your hammy should calm down. If you got him/her from a pet shop it may take slightly longer as they may not have been handled regularly. I got my Dini from someone who had handled her so whereas she was very tame...she was ULTRA quick as a baby. Calm, quiet talking and treats when they respond to you will help tame them!

Oh and yeah my Syrians tend to get up mid to late evening...from 8-9 all the way through till 12-1am. I have one dwarf who often doesn't get up till 6-7 am! xx

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MY ZOO-LET
Syrian: Dini
Winter Whites: Alaska, Apollo, Hero and Ares
Bunnies: Saffy, Gus, Cookie and Cream and 5 babies!!
Piggies: Bubble and Squeak

RIP Tilly, Thom, Tiny, Cassius, Stuart Little, George, Baby Pom (Mice), Melvin (Chameleon) Harry (Cambells Russian) Charlie and Roma (Syrians) Eros (Winter White) Jet, Rainbow and Angel (Rabbits) Neva (Ratty girl)

I just scatter the food on the floor of the cage, it makes it more interesting for them because they have to find it all, I also sometimes put the food inside a cardboard toilet roll insert and stuff it tight with tissue so she has to tear up all the tissue to get to the food. It makes mealtimes more interesting.

I feed mine every two days, about a large heaped dessert spoon, my syrian at the moment stuffs all food into her mouth and moves it to her little stash so it can be hard sometimes to tell how much food she has left so it took my a while to figure out roughly how much to give her without starving her or having too much food go to waste. I never bothered with a dish after the first week because all she done with it was take all food out of it and then try and pull the dish (which was quite big) into her bed.
But every hamster is different, I had a pair of dwarfs that I had to use a dish with because they liked to just take a few bits at a time and eat those before coming back later for some more.

As regards wheels the silent spinner wheels are great, I think Iv heard people saying wodent wheels are good too.

After a while hamsters tend to alter their sleeping pattern to suit you a bit, when they're young they tend to be awake at night and sleep during the day but Iv found as they get older mine tend to wake up during the day a bit more if they hear me coming into the room. I could be completely wrong but that is just my observation with my own hamsters.

Wow, eight hamsters! That seems like quite a handful, although I'm the type of person to have more than a couple of pets at once as well. :3 How old are they all?


I just measured it now, with a regular ruler, so the dimensions may be off a bit, but I got 15.5" x 10.5" x 15". It has a plastic base and a wire top, like a basic hamster cage. In the pet store, they had about three or four different sizes of hamster cages, one was very small, around $50, the other one that I got, $65, and then two more around $70-75. I figured I'd settle on a mid-sized hamster cage, it is two storeys so I thought it would be large enough.

I sure hope he calms down, because I want to put him on my bed and pet him while he eats/explores, instead of always being on edge that he's running off - of course I'm not going to try this until I can handle him, I don't want to risk him falling off and injuring himself!

Also - I could tell that he hadn't ever been handled, or rarely, because he still seems to be scared of me when I put my hand in the cage. Yes, I've let him sniff me and crawl over my hand, but it's quite a hassle to pick him up, since he keeps wanting to escape. I'm sure he just needs some time.

That's an interesting idea! Their noses are strong enough to sniff through wads of tissue paper? Because I may try that. :3