hey guys so we are in my bathtub today
I asked you guys on my Instagram story to ask me hamster related questions so
today I am going to be answering those and I have with me honey um I thought
this was the best place to do it because then you can watch on the hamsters play
I'm going to be taking out each one so you guys do get to see all of them in
this video so let's get started so I just have my laptop with me this has all
of the questions I saved on it the first one is what is the best type of bedding
for your hamster I would definitely have to say basically anything safe is good
for your hamster so if it is paper based or Aspen shavings
those are great as long as as it's not pine cedar or scented bedding anything
like that my favorite choice of bedding definitely would have to be a paper
based bedding I like carefresh or kaytee clean & cozy both are awesome and work
well aspen is another one of my favorites for
something that's a little bit more natural so the next question is around
how much bedding do you recommend putting in your hamsters cage generally
I recommend at least having one section that is going to have six inches that
just gives your hamster enough room to burrow because hamsters are burrowing
animals it is a very important skill that they like to do so giving them
enough bedding ensures of acid making a burrow so the next question is at what
age would a hamster reach adulthood so for hamsters it is six months of age
which might seem seem a little young for us but it actually really isn't
considering hamsters only really live one and a half to two years sometimes
three years six months really isn't that young for a human sir in a hamsters life
the next question is how often should I feed my hamster so personally I
recommend not feeding your hamster every single
day when you feed your hamster every single day this gives them the
opportunity to become a picky eater so then they'll pick out certain things
like maybe just sunflower seeds because they know they're going to get fed again
the next day so then they can pick out the sunflower seeds once again if you
give your hamster enough time to eat all of the food in the dish that prevents
them from becoming picky so I like to get my hamsters two
tablespoons every two to three days and usually they eat all of the food the
next question is what is the best wheel for a Syrian hamster there isn't too
many options out there most of them are online only my two favorite wheels
though would have to be the silent Runner and the Wodent wheel these just
work best for Syrians because they do come in a large size there also is the
silent spinner I think they have a ten inch wheel and the 12 inch
also works just as well and then there is the comfort wheel I think that comes
in an 8 inch as well so that can also be suitable for a Syrian the next question
is how often do I have to clean my hamsters cage this depends on how large
your hamsters cage is if your cage is above the minimum of 450 square inches
of floor space you should only be cleaning it out once a month of course
you should daily spot clean or spot clean every couple of days but if your
cage is very very large you really do not need to be cleaning and taking out
all of the bedding every single week or sooner than that the next question is
how much should a healthy Syrian weigh so there is a very large gap of how much a
Syrian should weigh a syrian can weigh anywhere from 120 grams to 200 grams
there are some Syrians that actually get a little bit larger than that but that
is usually around how much they weigh Honey here actually is a very very
small Syrian she actually is only around a hundred grams which is very small for
a Syrian but she is active she's healthy she drinks and eats and everything so
that is just how she is so as long as your hamster is looking
healthy and active and eating their weight should be fine
so the next hamster I have is Tater Tot So you guys can watch her play so the first question is
what are the pros and cons of a roborovski hamster I'm thinking about getting
one so I don't think there are a ton of cons the pros obviously are they're
really adorable they look like little cotton balls they're super different fun
to watch and just super cute in general the only con I would have to say is if
you are getting a roborovski you really have to be prepared and
understand that you may not ever tame your Robo they may not become a hundred
percent tame where you can just hold them and they'll sit still robos have a
lot of energy they also are the hardest species to tame so you really have to be
patient with them you can't get upset if they're not the taming isn't going how
you want it some are a lot tougher to tame than others obviously but that is
just something you need to keep in mind and I think that is one of the only cons
I would have to think of when it comes to owning a roborovski the next
question is do dwarf hamsters need to be in pairs or groups no dwarf hamsters
can do just fine on their own I actually recommend you just have one
hamster per cage there are lots of times where someone will have a pair of dwarf
hamsters and they end up later fighting and sometimes they usually will fight at
night when you are sleeping and it's possible that the fight can become so
bad that it will kill the other hamster so you will wake up with only one
hamster which is really sad which is why I really only recommend just getting one
hamster pairs can be pretty difficult you do need to have a very very large
cage you need to have two of everything including a spare cage that is also a
large cage so just one hamster per cage is the best option
the next question is a what type of sand do they
need to bath in so the best sand for hamsters is you are going to want to get
something that is sand not dust so you can get chinchilla bath sand and stay away
from anything that says chinchilla bath dust the difference between sand
and dust is that dust is literal dust so it's dust particles from sand and dust
is very dusty and can cause a hamster to get a respiratory infection which you
don't want so you are going to want to get sand I personally have a really hard
time finding just chinchilla bath sand and so I use children's play sand which you
can get from any hardware store it's actually a super cheap option because
you get like a 40 pound bag for maybe $10 and that will last you probably
your hamsters entire life so it is a really great deal the next
question is if your hamster is an adult can you still tame him or her yes it is
totally possible to tame an adult hamster they don't have to be babies to
be tamed basically the taming process is similar to bonding with your hamster and
just getting them used to people that is basically what the taming process is
and it includes so you tame any hamster at any age the next question is
if you have other loud pets like dogs can you still own a hamster yes you
totally can still own a hamster if you have other loud animals like a parrot or
dog or just any other animals that make a lot of noise it is possible you might
want to keep your hamster in a room that's more quiet and away from those
animals but your hamster will adapt to to those noises and become used to them
the next question is what are the different breeds of hamsters and this is
kind of like a two-part question because first I want to say that hamsters are not
breeds they actually are called species so the difference between breeds and
species is that a breed is an animal that is slightly different from the
other so for example dogs cats rabbits those are all different breeds like pugs
labradors things like that. A species is a whole completely different animal
so an elephant and a turtle hamsters are species which is why they cannot
actually interbreed with each other so if someone tells you they have a Syrian
dwarf hamster that is not true because a Syrian and dwarf can't even breed
because they're not the same species it would be like a tiger and a fish trying
to breed with each other it's not possible and to actually answer the
question there are five different species of domesticated hamsters there
is the roborovski, the Syrian the Chinese hamster, winter white and the
Russian campbell's dwarf hamster and the last hamster that I have out is bumble
my syrian hamster another question that I got is how can you tell when your
hamster is in heat so female hamsters go into heat every four days and basically
on the fourth day that is when they are able to breed and all females go through
this they go through it every four days you're going to smell a different smell
from your female hamster it usually smells like burning rubber it's a weird
scent it's not too bad in my opinion I think each hamster is different when it
comes to how bad they smell my females actually really don't smell that
bad when they're in heat but to answer the question how to tell when they're in
heat is basically that smell you'll smell that and then also when you
kind of scratch your hamsters butt area their tails should stick up like
straight up I'll insert a picture to show that but that's basically that
means they're in heat and sometimes females can act a little bit more crazy
when they're on heat as well which that's totally normal
the next question is, is a hamster ball safe now I know a lot of people are
going to be a little bit angry when I say this because it's such a
controversial topic but I do not think hamster balls are safe and I have a
couple reasons why so the first reasons that hamster balls in my opinion are not
safe is because they can cause a lot of injuries so a hamster can't see inside
of a hamster ball I'm let alone they actually can't see that well in the
first place but they easily can collide into walls they can fall down stairs
they can also get their nails and toes caught in the slits of the ball because
those are the ventilation holes but they can get their fingers and toes stuck in
there and they can break them and hurt them the next thing is it's stressful
for your hamster your hamster has two options when put into a ball to sit
there or to run if your hamster is scared inside the ball they don't have
the option to go and hide under a hideout or to go eat food they don't
have the option to go drink they're forced to basically run in a very small
tight enclosure that they can't get out of another thing that is I know a lot of
people think or have told me that their hamster enjoys it because they put the
hamster ball up to the cage and the hamster jumps in well I can put basically
anything up to my hamster and that they're going to want to jump in because
they're curious whether it be a mug a travel cage a tube it doesn't really
matter what I put up to their cage they generally are going to climb in it
willingly but that doesn't mean that they enjoy it or like it in Germany
hamster balls are actually listed as a unsuitable animals animal supplies with
a high risk of injury they also are very criticized by vets and the animal
protection societies this is important to note because Germany actually has the
highest care standards when it comes to hamsters so they know what they're
talking about so that is why I think hamster balls are not safe and that is
why I choose not to use them and I'd rather use a hamster safe play pen and
play with my hamster like that the next question is my syrian hamster
doesn't like running on the wheel and I don't know what to do about it
if your hamster is choosing not to run on the wheel and you have a proper sized
wheel and is easy to spin and they can turn it on
their own then the only option would be to give them an a very very large cage
instead because hamster do need all that to get rid of all of their energy and
the wheel is one of the main places to get rid of it so if they're not using a
wheel you probably are going to want to make sure you have a very large cage
instead hi hello the last question that I have for today is reasons hamsters die
suddenly or at an early age so hamsters genetics actually play a very very big
role in their life and nowadays hamsters are bred very very poorly when they're
bred their health really isn't considered unless you are getting from
an ethical breeder you may end up with a hamster that has internal defects that
you may never notice because they are internal so they can have things like
enlarged organs internal tumors and similar things like that
basically just internal defects if you are curious as to why your hamster may
have died one of the best ways to figure that out is to go see a vet and
they can get an autopsy done and that can maybe give you some answers so yeah
guys that is it for this video if you guys enjoyed and you liked seeing these
types of videos where I answer your hamster care questions tell me down
below and maybe I'll do another part so yeah guys thank you for watching bye