New online store

 I have been learning a lot about selling online over the summer holidays.  Here at Macleans Animals we currently have 3 Russian hamsters, 4 Guinea pigs, all female,  a Russian  tortoise and big teddy bear of a dog.  If you follow Macleans Animals anywhere, you know that we adopt or rescue all our pets. We bring them home and give them huge enclosures and lots of love, we give them the best forever homes we can.

As you can imagine it is busy and hectic in our home. Not busy enough it would seem, I also need to clear space on a regular basis as all the pets need space for their own enclosures. I have an Ebay shop to clear space and also an Etsy store.

If you would like some cute and useful household products I have a special offer on just now.

Want 10% off when you buy 2 items? Enter LOVEPETS during checkout. https://etsy.me/3PE1DjP

 My Etsy shop has all things cute and all the pictures used are of my own pets when I have been lucky enough to catch a clear photo. If you would like to support me in continuing to rescue and adopt these little balls of fur….and shell feel free to have a look.

My EBay shop has various different items and is quite eclectic but you could catch a bargain there and it would help us gain more space.  You will find my Ebay store under “Carolmck”

If however you are not looking to shop right now, please feel free to explore and gain some valuable info on rodent care, cheap enclosure ideas and some step by step guides on how to build them.

Many Thanks for visiting !

Best Wishes, Bilbo, Tink, Oreo, Belle, Beren, Marley, Athena, Elrond & Tyrion.

Dwarf Hamster Cage requirements

When it comes to owning a smaller species of hamster, such as the Winter White Russian Dwarf, Campbell's Russian Dwarf, or Roborovski Dwarf Hamsters there are many various smaller (much smaller) cages made available in the UK, some of which are recommended, by pet stores, as great homes for your hamsters' entire life!  In the photo below is an example of one of these smaller cages versus my own DIY home for my Winter White Russian Dwarf Hamster, Gizmo.

You can see the huge difference in size here (new cage 90cm x 50cm)

Gizmo was extremely quick to let me know that he was most unhappy in his cage.  It took him around about 10 days before he started gnawing on the bars insistently to be let out.  He could have been out in his ball for 20 mins and running about the sofa for 20 mins and the second you put him back in the cage he would be climbing the bars and chewing at them constantly.  At this point, Lil Bear (My fiancés Syrian Hamster) was doing the same.  We did a lot of research on Hamster Central and watching various pet tubers, in particular, Erin's Animals, and found that all hamsters actually travel around 5 to 7 miles in a night. 

When you look at the small cage in the picture above (if I recall correctly this was 47 cm x 37 cm), this is not suited to any animal that travels up to 7 miles a night! The wheel which comes with the cage is also a 3.5 inch wheel. this is absolutely no good for a Winter white hamster, Gizmo has since had his wheel upgraded to a 6.5 inch wheel which is much better for his spine alignment. There is actually, no specific  recommended size given in the UK for a Dwarf Hamster, only a Syrian (80 cm x 50 cm).  I also find it difficult to comprehend that suppliers don't understand that Syrians are larger and need more suitably sized toys, and continue to make 100's of toys that are only really suited for dwarf Hamsters. They also don't understand that Dwarf hamsters are highly energetic and need bigger, more suitable cages and wheels. In Germany the recommended size for any hamster is 100cm x 50cm. 

Unfortunately, the Hamster Heaven Model (80cm x 50cm) is not suitable for all dwarf hamsters as the gaps between the bars are too wide, the top bars are also not welded to the side bars leaving an escape route for Roborovski dwarf hamsters.  Our spare Hamster heavens which we had for our Syrian hamsters were in the loft.  I considered using them but at that time I was still wary of our Russian (Winter white), Gizmo, escaping. So, it was at this point I took it upon myself to design and build Gizmos large Cage in the above picture.  He has his silent wheel, a spinning saucer, a little set of shelves he likes to run up and down and lots of hidey holes he can run in and out of.  Gizmo is much happier now, and loves to run around, he is a climber, so he loves to run up the ladders and although the substrate is fairly deep, he hardly ever digs in it, although he does still use his wheel. Financially this did not cost as much as it did to re-house Lil Bear, in his Detolf habitiat, but there was still some cost involved. It cost £14 for the wire mesh, the  Plexiglass was £18.00 and the aquarium sealant was £5.00.  We had the wood from an old bookcase, and screws etc for the rest of the cage already. 

Hamster Heaven (80cm x 50cm)

From my personal experience (3 Syrians, 4 Russian dwarf and a Roborovski) 80cm x 50cm size is good for Roborovski and Dwarf hamsters, although bigger is always better.  I have My dwarfs in habitats 90cm x 50cm for my Dwarf, Gizmo and 110cm x 40cm for my Roborovski, Tyr.  I would also like to add that giving a tiny Roborovski hamster 110 x 40cm habitat is useless if it is empty. A hamster brain still needs to be stimulated and the hamster needs to "own" his territory and everything in it. Again, you need to consider their biology. When you put a hamster into a massive cage with all of these lovely toys and goodies, the hamster will spend hours scenting everything to make it theirs... for a tiny Roborovski that is A LOT of work, so also please keep in mind that if you give your Hamster the perfect size cage with all the toys you do not clean it all out once a week, once every Four weeks is the general agreement and you clean out only the worst of the bedding and substrate to save your hamster some work and stress. If you clean out everything this can put stress on the scent gland and cause blockages to occur, this in turn can cause infection. So just to make it short and sweet, yes cage size is important, but a balance has to be found too.

Gizmo asking for his Christmas presents.  Look at that wee face!

Now you may be thinking of getting a housing unit in which you can add various modules and long tube tunnels to it.  These types of cages are not the most hygienic of cages, cleaning can take hours as each tube and module has to be disconnected and washed thoroughly.  Any Hamster that chews a lot is likely to be able to escape via the tunnel systems, and if you have a pair of Dwarf hamsters this can cause major territorial issues between the pair and even injuries caused by fighting. It also does not allow for a hamster to run in full speed form one end to the other, the hamster needs to slow down and navigate.  These types of cages only try (very weakly) to convey a hamsters burrowing habits but does not allow for the fact that they run at high speed for up to 7 miles a night, in the open.

Previously I adopted two further Russian Dwarfs, Odin and Loki, who came to us in smaller, rosewood, cages.  These cages were really small  homes, and we noticed that the top hidey area could be opened if the hamster pushed on it, and one of the little bridges up to the hidey was not secure and fell off, so we did decided to put them into the hamster heavens (without the tubing or penthouse) we had in the loft and they both love them.

This post is to help anyone who wants to buy a Dwarf hamster, understand that they need the largest cage possible, and that it is much much better if you can build one yourself as Dwarf hamsters are extremely limited in the availability of suitable cages.

Cleaning and Setting up your guinea pig pen

Keeping Guinea pigs is a full time commitment and is not an easy task.  It is however, a very worthwhile task when they hug into you on the sofa or floor.  They are the cutest of pets, just as cuddly a puppy but with none of the cold winter walks to worry about.  One of the key factors in keeping and caring for guinea pigs is the cage cleaning.  I have recorded the following video demonstrating how we keep Tink & Oreo's pen nice and clean for them.  I did however record this a month ago so the girls are now 8 month old.

If you would like to know anything more about cleaning or setting up their pen please comment in the video or comment here and I am happy to answer any questions.  On the other hand, if you have suggestions please feel free to add these in the comment sections here or on you tube too.

Many thanks for watching

Oreo & Tink

Introduction to Oreo

Oreo, General in the herd

Oreo is our biggest Sow weighing 1318 grams or 2 Lb and 14 Ounces. Oreo is quite long compared to Tink and Belle and has always been the largest of the girls. Oreo, I think, will always be a large sow, but as long as she doesn't suddenly pile on a lot of weight, we are happy to monitor her and make sure everyone gets their share of food, and exercise. She is 1 year, 5 month old and is so tame in comparison to Belle and Tink. Oreo has always been the most placid of the girls and once you have picked her up, she is happy to sit for a good 30 minutes, sometimes longer and just lie there. She doesn't run around trying to rule the other girls and is happy for Tink to take that role. Oreo is our therapy pet, if anyone has had a bad day, Oreo can bring calm back to your day and centre you again.

Piggie floor time

We bought Oreo along with Tink however due to coat type and colouring and although we still call them sisters, we don't think they actually are sisters. We adopted Belle later, and Oreo, along with Tink instantly took her under their wings. Belle has been with them for nearly 5 months now, and to be honest, I think Oreo likes that belle is there to distract Tink when Tink is Rumble stomping all over everyone. Oreo Strikes us, as just wanting quiet and calm, whereas Belle, who is only just turning 9 month old, is still feisty and playful. Belle challenges Tink at every opportunity which diverts Tink away form Oreo completely. We tend to take Oreo out for peace when Tink goes into heat as Tink is very intense and we think, tiring for Oreo.

Oreo once had a serious accident which involved damage to her eye. We had to give her eye drops and antibiotics (all into her eye) for around two weeks several times a day. Oreo soon got fed up with this, as the eye drops stung, but it was this or potentially loose her eye. She put up with so much after the accident and she fought just as we did to help her keep her eye. Oreo is not one for running around or pop-corning much (we think this may be down to her size and also her placid nature) but she does seem to prefer calm to chaos, much like many of us human beings really.

Tiger "Onward to Battle my good steed" Oreo "If we must"

Trip to the vet with Oreo. Keep a vet fund.

Two years ago we noticed Oreo had a dull patch in her left eye.  I remember seeing a programme where a guinea pig had a grass seed stuck in her eyelid, and thought this must be what was wrong.  I made a vet appointment and Oreo was fully checked.  The vet put some fluorescent dye in her eye and advised me that this was not a grass seed.  Oreo has a hole in her cornea and it went quite deep.  The vet took quite sometime trying to flush the dye back out.  He advised that hay was an unlikely suspect as it would only scratch the eye surface at most. 

Oreo enjoying the Sun

I was at a loss as to what could have happened, When Oreo is in heat she does run around trying to mount Tink (who is a kicker), but this did not seem to fit, as to make a hole Tink's claws would have to have gotten stuck (I really am not sure on this one).  It was however the only thing I could think of that would cause such damage. The vet took me through everything we could do to try and help Oreo but was not hopeful that we could save Oreo's eye.  After receiving antibiotic eye drops and a serum that could potentially heal damage to the eyes, the vet still advised that because the hole went so deep into the eye, we may not have been able to save her eye.  I was heartbroken, Oreo was not even a year old, she was not an old guinea pig but, I was hopeful that this medication would work and heal her eye.  That vet trip cost just under £100 and I learned that I needed to have a vet fund for my guinea pigs, and Hamsters.  This may not have been the end of the tale as the operation to remove the infected eye may have run into the £100's but I love my animals, so if this is what it would take to get Oreo back to full health, this is what I was willing to do.

This has wicker in it to keep it sturdy, As the girls chewed it the wicker snapped

When I got home and put the guinea pigs back into there pen, I noticed one thing that could have done that much damage to Oreo's eye. It was a sea grass hideaway; held together by thin wicker sticks.  It seemed like a great house and chew toy for them when we got it.  My fiance reminded me that a week previously we heard Oreo give out a 'wheek' that was very strange, we took her and Tink out of the cage and checked them over at the time, but they both seemed okay.  Now, in retrospect  we thought that maybe Oreo got poked in her eye by a piece of sea-grass, or the wicker holding it together.  I understand this an extremely rate occurrence, but please beware of these, or items made from these, as we now realise that this is the most likely explanation for the amount of damage to Oreo's eye.

Taking your pet to the vet is always stressful when its not just for their check up. that visit was extra stressful for Oreo and the family.  I decided to write up this post to try and save other guinea pig owners from the same anxiety and worry by advising that these items are maybe better suited in a play pen when the guinea pigs are being supervised, rather than in the permanent pen where 24/7 supervision is not possible.  This episode was not all doom and gloom however as we did get medication to clear the infection up and try and heal the cornea and also, on the way out I spotted a little Roborovski up for adoption (I will tell his tale later).  Upon Oreo's follow up appointment two weeks later she was given the all clear which was a huge relief to us all.  She is now classed as 2nd in command (General Oreo) and we now have a herd of 4 sows living, so far, happily together.

All 4 Girls enjoying there new home 

Gizmo exploring his clean and shiny cage

Gizmo is my Winter White Dwarf Hamster, he is around 4 months old and is very friendly.  He is surprisingly tame for a dwarf hamster and has been this way since day 3 of bringing him home.  The one thing he does get grumpy at however, is when his things get moved around his cage.  I try to keep everything where it is, but, it is a live and learn process, for instance having the sand bath at the very front of the cage was not my brightest idea ever. The sand was too close to his sleeping area, it wasn't very private for him, and, the Perspex got really dusty.  Upon cleaning his cage this time, I moved his sand bath to the back, in the opposite corner from his sleeping space.  He got grumpy.  Now even when Gizmo is grumpy he doesn't tend to bite, he just refuses to step on to my hand and be picked up, he is huffy more than grumpy.  Anyway, this morning he woke up and started to explore a little so I grabbed a quick video of him rummaging around his new, clean surroundings.

Introduction to Gizmo

Gizmo does like Pine nuts 

Gizmo is our 1 year old old Russian Dwarf hybrid with a dominant Winter White gene.  He weighs 51g and he is our tamest and friendliest hamster who actually seeks out human attention, practically daily.  Gizmo is very unusual because he was bought from a pet store and was completely tame by day 3 of being with us.

On day two he would come out when I called his name or if I said Nom Noms (food/treats), he still does.  He was one of our first hamsters, as I had only ever had one hamster about 15 years ago. When the pet shop sold me his cage and told me it was a life long cage, I believed them, but that was my mistake.  Within about a month I had built him a bigger and better habitat which he is still in and he knows every part of it. As you can see in the left hand picture below, there is a huge difference in size from the store bought cage to his new home.

Looking cute at Christmas 

All of our dwarf hamsters have an absolute minimum of 2,800 cm squared (most are bigger than this.  Our Syrian hamsters have much much bigger habitats of around 7000 - 7500 cm squared.  Gizmo used to love getting around in his little ball but as he is so tame we tend to let him free roam on the sofa with supervision.  He is one of my hamsters and is very strongly bonded to me.  If my partner or my daughter put their hands out for him to climb on he rarely goes to them however if he is with one of them and I put my hand out to him, he will run onto it straight away.

Gizmo likes to burrow into his substrate and
pops his head out to be nosy 

Gizmo isn't a great fan of nuts in any form (unless it is peanut butter, which is a limited treat), but he does love meal-worms.  we buy them dried and in the summer I soak them in warm water.  He also loves pumpkin and sunflower seeds and Greek yogurt (again limited treat).  I occasionally make little porridge oat balls for the hamsters.  I mix the oats with water, peanuts, meal-worms and seeds, roll them into little balls and bake them for 10 minutes.  These are high in protein but not in fat so are quite healthy if given 1 or 2 a week. Like I said, he is unusual as store bought pets are rarely tamed as quickly as he was.  He is the most affectionate of all our 6 hamsters (to me anyway) and has never bitten anyone, cackled at anyone or threatened anyone.  So this is my introduction to Gizmo, my tamest fur baby.

Gizmo running around

Syrian Hamster Cage options

Syrian Hamsters don't cost a lot to maintain however if you are going to give them the best life you can, the outlay can be a little higher than expected.  This is because of the cage required for them to live in. On average a Syrian Hamster can run between 7 and 9 miles in any given night,  many people don't realise this and buy small cages for their Syrians.  they don't realise that the hamster needs a lot more space than you get in a £30 - £40 cage, the sizes of which range from tiny, to, too small. 
There are one of three ways you can go about supplying a large, good home for your new Syrian Hamster.

One option available is that you can buy the UK recommended cage size (50cm x80cm/4.3 square feet)  for around £75.  This cage is a Savic, Hamster Heaven Model.  We have two of these cages, one for Fudge, who loves his and one for Lil Bear, who unfortunately hated his.  Fudge is very happy in his Hamster Heaven cage and never chews the bars, Lil Bear on the other hand constantly (and violently) stress chewed the bars on the cage.

Lil Bear spent hours running excess energy off on his wheel too, so for Lil Bear, we opted for the second option. The IKEA Detolf option with the Kallax unit to stand it on.  This option is more expensive and cost a total of £55 for the Kallax unit (although the price varies by colour) and a Detolf at £50.  Now you may not need to buy the Kallax unit to sit the Detolf on, in which case it works out cheaper than the Hamster Heaven.  We had already paid £75 for the Hamster Heaven, it is however worth it knowing Lil Bear is much happier now.  Since buying the Detolf we have discovered that he is in fact a digger and he has hidey holes all over the Detolf.  He barely uses his wheel now but at least he has the option if he wants to.

Berars Detolf

Bear

Same Detolf, Different set up 

There is also a third option (for those of you with DIY skills), and that is, to design and build your own cage.  I have built my own cage for my Dwarf hamster and I am not even that skilled at DIY, but it was an achievement, and I loved building it for him. This will be discussed under the category, DIY cages & toys.

There is no guarantee that your Syrian hamster will like his, or her, Hamster Heaven as much as Fudge does.  We suspect however that if we put Fudge into a Detolf cage (which we do plan to do later this year) he will love it just as much as Lil Bear.  This is because Fudge spends his time on the wheel at night, so he is not lazy, and does still have excess energy to run off, he just doesn't get upset about it or chew the bars, he is just a very Zen Hamster.  Being able to explore a larger space (163 x43cm/ 7.4 square feet) would be good for him, and we may just find out that he is a digger too, or maybe not, but to give him the choice is priceless.

My advise to anyone wanting to get a Syrian hamster is to get the biggest cage possible and make the larger financial outlays in the beginning (even before you get your hamster) as we have made these mistakes already and now we have several cages stashed in our loft doing nothing now.  We do however have very happy hamsters now.

Building a Guinea Pig Pen

Pen 1 & 2 together

Last Summer I undertook the challenge of making a proper indoor guinea pig pen for our two girls (Peanut Butter) Oreo & (Princess) Tink (Tinkerbell, the Diva).  Below is a step by step guide on how this was done.  I did it in two parts as it was quite a big job.  

Unfortunately I am unhappy at the size of pen 2 so I will be expanding on this soon.  I will however post pen 2 up as the whole design was made to suit easy expansion so there will be a pen 2 expansion guide later as well.

The cost of this cage was absolutely zero as it was all re-used wood form an old wardrobe, aquarium sealer was left over from a previous project and screws were there already too.

What tools did I need to make this cage?

Drill, sander, Aquarium silicon to seal the pen, Screwdriver, hammer, screws, PVA Glue to help strengthen the joints, dowels to help strengthen the base and back joint. and the following:

The above was Pen 1, made specifically to fill with hay and keep the hay inside the pen as much as possible.  

Step 1:  Cut the base (measurements are 50 cm depth x 100 cm Length. 

Step 2; Cut out the back (46cm x 100cm

Step 3: cut out the two side panels and label A and B 44.5cm x 48.5 cm each (this accounts for the thickness of the base and back of the pen.  

Step 4 take side panel B (the closest to where pen B is going to be) and cut a large arch so as the guinea pigs can get back and forth form pen 2

Step 5: cut a front panel out (depending on wood thickness – this is 15mm each) 97cm long x 20 cm high

Step 6: Cut a panel for the roof of the cage approx. 15 cm x 98.5cm

Step 7: Line up the side panels with the front and top panels and mark a diagonal line to match and line up with each one.  keep it as flush as possible.  (I did calculate the measure for mine, but I don’t have the precise calculations and measurements to hand anymore and this is a good way of measuring it as well. 

Here are some photos of the process as it moves along:

Pen 1

Pen 2

Once it was all screwed together, I used aquarium sealer around the inside edges to stop water leakage.  I then put cup hooks into the top front of each side panel and hung a wire mesh panel on it to help the piggy’s feel more secure as they were not keen on the openness of the pen. 

Viola! Pen 1 complete.  If, however, you make this with a non-veneered wood you will have to find a nontoxic way of sealing the wood surface.  this was all made form an old wardrobe, so it was veneered MDF.  Easy to cut and work with and completely waterproof on the surface.   I also added ‘feet’ to the pen to raise it off the floor allowing air to circulate under the pen. 

Pen 1 with temporary attachment

I hope this helps and is clear enough, if however, you have any questions please feel free to use the comments below to ask.  Pen 2 will be uploaded shortly.  The best thing about this method of building was that I could keep the original pen attached to this pen until I had time to build the second pen. 

Fudge's New Habitat

So we all decided that Fudge seemed a bit bored in his Hamster Heaven (HH).  He had taken to constantly seeping and hardly getting up through the night to play.  Myself and my fiancé were getting a bit worried about him so we thought it would be a good idea to build him a bigger habitat to live in and oh boy is it bigger ! Fudge has gone from his HH which gives him 4.3  square feet  to his DIY habitat which gives him 6.2 square feet of roaming floor space.  He had a good investigate of this space and seems to have found himself a beautiful dark little corner to sleep in, the HH was to bright and he always ended up sleeping in the light as he didn't seem to like any other house we put in there for him.

I have put this guide up to show that it doesn't have to cost a fortune to make your own cage as this only cost me £25 for extra wood for the mesh cover and supports, the mesh and hinges and handles.  I also bought face masks as I was sawing MDF veneered wood and safety goggles as I was using a Jigsaw.

Fudges new habitat started off as a plain old TV unit

Firstly I took the top off of the unit so as I could add hinged lids and a mesh lid later, and also let me remove the two dividers inside the unit.

I took one the dividers and cut an arch into it using the Jigsaw and re-attached about a cm further away from its original place as I needed to fit 3 detolf shelves in the large gap.

I then cut and attached some old table legs to help hold the glass in place from the exterior of the cage

I then added the 3 detolf shelves in the front and some support wood on the inside (top and bottom) to hold it. I used aquarium sealer to seal the shelves together and to the sides of the wood.

I cut two pieces of wood from an old wardrobe and added the handles (about £2.00 each) this is the first cost in the building of this cage as I had old wood and screws spare from old furniture and previous cage builds.

I then attached a hinge to each lid (should have been 2 but I mis-judged the weight of each lid. these where about £3.50 for 2 hinges. (There is a mesh covered hole in the top, please ignore as this was not part of the design - It was the last piece of wood suitable for a lid ha ha).

I added a support beam to the outside of the habitat to help support the weight of lid number 2 and made a wire mesh lid for the end lid

I then added a mesh window in the hideaway section to let air get in. the mesh and the wood used to make the mesh totalled to around £15 altogether

I would recommend adding the shelf before putting the glass in but I did it the hard way Ha ha. Add wood shavings/aspen, and hay, and of course, toys.

I hope this helps anyone wanting to build their own habitat for their Hamsters but am more than happy to answer any questions. 

An Introduction to Tink, Queen of the Herd

Tink, Our Queen of the Herd

 Meet our Sow, Tink.  She is the Alpha in our herd of three female Guinea Pigs.  Her personality is one of a queen in charge of her flock.  Until October she held (mostly) alpha status against Oreo, her sister.  Every 14 days or so, we would hear her rumble stomping around the pen challenging, well nothing really, as Oreo would be lying in her hidey just trying to chill whilst Tink pranced around the cage looking like the hulk.  Oreo, for the most part accepted this (unless she was in heat) in which case Oreo would run up to Tink, try and mate with her and then run away.  Tink really was the aggressor when it came to dominance between the two, never letting Oreo forget that she was the boss.

When it came to us humans however, Tink could not stand us, she was happy to have floor time if we opened the gate and let them walk out of their own free will but piggie cuddles where out of the question.  She wheeked and squirked, moaned and complained when we tried to give her hugs.  At times I am sure I heard her say "Put me down you stupid human, I am in charge and have better things to be doing than sitting on your lap... put me down!"

We all still love her as she has that adorable little squirrel face or if you catch her standing sideways she looks totally like a little mini sheep. She is also very caring towards her herd, although we never noticed at first as there were only two of them.  When Oreo was on medication for her eye injury we actually caught Tink trying to clean her eye which was very sweet. Although we had to try and stop her from licking the eye drops out of Oreos' eye, it did still show a different side to Tinks' personality.

We did notice however, that upon adding a third piggy girl her personality has changed somewhat. We did keep the new addition in a separate habitat for a while. The two set ups were close together but Tink and the new addition seemed to be getting very stressed.  Belle, the new addition, would constantly stand in the corner on her hay wheeking and trying to see the girls.  Tink would constantly stand on the other side wheeking back and trying to see Belle.   When Tink and Oreo got out for floor time, Tink would run over and try and chew through the bars. It was almost like watching her trying to jailbreak Belle out of her pen. Belle copied Tink and started chewing the bars from inside the cage and it was just heartbreaking to see. After one week of quarantine, instead of the two which is recommended, we decided to move them all in together. (There will be a separate post about how we did this as we did not just put her in with the others immediately).

Once Belle had joined the herd, Tink changed dramatically, she took on a very maternal role, cleaning the new baby (13 weeks old) and following her around for the first few days.  Once, when Oreo played too rough with Belle, and Belle wheeked, Tink came rushing over and blocked Oreos path to Belle sniffing at her to make sure she was OK.  Tink also does not challenge Oreo much any more. She still rumble struts when she is in heat but it is not nearly as bad as it was before.  The other night, Belle let out a loud wheek for no apparent reason, and both, Tink and Oreo came running out of the hay pen to check on her.  I checked her too and she was not hurt.

The Girls living in harmony

As for us humans, Tink has let me pet her in the pen several times now without running away or giving us 'that look of disgust' and I also got to hold her for around 10 minutes before she started squirking indignantly at me.  This is a miracle, truly it is.

We are still learning lots about our little herd and their different roles and personalities.  We have had Tink and Oreo since 26th October 2017, they were one years old, around the 12th September this year  and up until we added Belle to the herd we thought we did know them.   This change has been amazing to watch in both of them. They all seem a little more calm and settled.
I will be discussing all our pets personalities over the next month as they are all so different.  In the meantime I will leave you with Tink, Oreo and Belle saying goodbye for now.

Introduction to Loki

Loki is a male Russian Dwarf Hamster with a Campbell dominant gene. He is around 9 month old and weighs 41g. His weight fluctuates from 45g to 40g over monthly weigh ins so we don't worry too much about this. Loki came to us as a rescue with his ex cage mate, Odin, from someone who couldn't spend as much time with them as they had originally intended. Originally, the two boys had been housed together, as many experienced hamster owners know, this rarely ends happily. 

Loki had been attacked by Odin and ended up needing antibiotic cream for his stomach. The owner had separated them and Odin had flourished, Loki had not however, he had become highly anxious and bit frequently. It was when the two were separated that the owner realised how time consuming it was to give quality time to each of the two hamsters. We took them both and got them both Savic Hamster heavens as the pet shop had sold the previous owner cages that were too small for them. Loki became very territorial at first, biting anyone that put their hand in the cage, hissing at them and basically looking terrified. We spent a lot of time getting to know him and trying to gain his trust.

 We really do have a soft spot for Loki as he is our own little special needs boy. When we first got him we noticed that he was forever falling off his little ledge in the Hamster Heaven and he had major problems climbing up a plastic ramp in the cage. We had three Russian dwarfs in the same set up at the time and he just could not seem to have the strength in his back legs to push him up the ramp like the other two (Gizmo & Odin). We noticed also that when he stood on his back legs he fell backwards and if he was standing up to grab the bars of the cage he missed and tumbled through the gap onto the cage floor. We were using a Savic Hamster Heaven so the fall was not from a great height but still enough to concern us.

We have since come to the conclusion that his back legs are slightly underdeveloped or that he received nerve damage from his fight with his brother. He is also extremely short sighted, even more so than a hamster normally is. Loki does not see your hand coming from either side so it frightens him severely if your hand suddenly appears from nowhere and he still isn't good at climbing up ramps so we have used wooden platforms and ladders for him to climb around on and this works well for him.

Loki also hordes everything, when we clean him out we can fill a cereal bowl with the food he has stored in several different places around his cage, we think this is due to his cage sharing days with Odin. He still occasionally hisses if he is doesn't expect you to be in his cage but we always talk to him as we enter his domain now to let him know we are there, on the occasion he has been sleeping and not heard us he will hiss or nip at our hands. So far he has not drawn blood and the nips are more of a warning than a danger. We love our special little boy though, he constantly makes us chuckle with his hyper antics and his cute little face makes us smile every day. I have made a short compilation of videos to show Loki's first birthday with us.

Information to consider before getting guinea pigs

Guinea pigs are rodents (gnawing animals) and they are also known as Cavia porcellus, or Cavies for short.  I prefer piggies as it is short, cute and to the point for our girls. Guinea pigs are social animals and must live in pairs as a minimum but are better if kept in herds of 3 or more. They can live between 5 and 9 years with some even living to the grand old age of 11 years old in the right conditions.

Good pets for children?

Guinea pigs are not the best pets for children due to the workload and the full time commitment it takes to keep them clean and healthy. It is a misconception that guinea pigs are great pets for children as they are very skittish creatures who tend to scream (WHEEK) and runaway when you try to pick them up. This can deter children from continuing to create a bond with them and even scare some younger children.

A guinea pigs digestive system

Hay, dry food mix and vegetables are a daily part of a guinea pigs diet and without Hay the guinea pig will fall ill within 24 hours. The number one rule of keeping guinea pigs is that it has unlimited access to hay at all times and a cup of vegetables each per day. (You will note that in the following section I made an actual hay pen in which I cleaned and filled this with hay daily). A herd of three guinea pigs can, and do, poop more than a shovel full every day if healthy. Guinea pigs cannot digest food fully the first time around so they eat their own faeces and continue to digest the food this way. The faeces we clean up are poops which hold no more nutritional value to the guinea pigs. Guinea pigs urinate a lot throughout the day too which is why they need a well ventilated living enclosure and cleaned out daily. Too much calcium in their diet can cause problems with this. If you happen to be cleaning out your Guinea pig habitat and find crusted patches of white chalky substance, then you need to cut down the calcium in their diet. This chalky substance can build up inside the bladder and is known as sludge, it can cause severe bladder problems if the calcium levels are not lowered and kept under control. Obviously clean water must be available at all times too, you must always have at least two water bottles as there can be problems when the girls go into heat which will be discussed later.
Foods high in calcium that should be given in smaller but regular doses are as follows:

• Spinach
• Parsley
• Kale

Foods that can be fed daily are as follows

• Romaine lettuce
• Little gem Lettuce
• Green/ yellow peppers
• small amount of spinach/Kale/parsley
• Coriander

Other foods you can feed once weekly

• Carrot (high in sugar)
• Red pepper (High in sugar)
• broccoli (too much can cause bloat)
• cauliflower (too much can cause bloat)
• popcorn (no flavourings just plain popped corn) as a treat

These are just very basic guidelines as there are many foods you can feed your guinea pigs to keep their diet interesting but there are also foods you cannot feed them at all (nothing in the onion family can be given to any rodent).

Oreo and Tink in there second enclosure

The enclosure I built for them 

Living conditions

There are guidelines on the internet for living space required for various numbers of Guinea pigs. When we had two guinea pigs we originally followed the 10 square foot rule the above enclosure was 12 square foot as there were three Guinea Pigs. I noticed however that all three girls spent all there time in the hay pen (where the water bottles are) so I gave up and bought a c&c enclosure raised off of the floor. This actually gives them around 9 square feet but they run around like mad pop-corning and zooming around. They have also become slightly tamer allowing us to pick them up with much less fuss than [previously. I of course plan to extend the size of the c & c enclosure as I feel it is the height of the enclosure rather than the size that has caused this positive change but for now they are active and happy. they are starting to become more confident with floor time and hopefully at some point I would like to add a little ramp that they can walk up and down themselves so as they can have freedom to come and go when we are in to supervise them.

2 x 4 c & c enclosure for our girls.

They love it more than the old enclosure

Issues with Sows

Tink, Queen of the herd 

Sows can go into heat once every 14 days and it can get loud and frustrating for both the guinea pigs and the humans. There are a few things you may notice when a Sow is in heat. She will tend to walk slowly and all puffed up (almost like a bull dog swaying side to side) and growl at the other girls as she does this, this is called rumble strutting. In our house the Alpha sow does this regularly, she is re-affirming her status with Oreo and Belle. before Belle came along she was much worse, blocking Oreo form the water bottle and the food pellet bowl too. Oreo however is much funnier when she is in season, (I am almost sure it is revenge for Tinks grumpiness), Oreo runs up to Tink (never Belle) and mounts her before running away. Tink looks very indignant at this. Oreo does not block bottles or food but does tend to block Belle into her house at times so we have to stay aware of the girls mood and whether they are in season or not. Belle, the youngest girl, tries to challenge Tink when she is in season and this causes both Tink and Oreo to barricade her into her house and keep her away form Tink during her season. I some ways Belle helped to calm Tink down when in season but in others she makes it harder for herself when she is in season. so there you have it, no one girl has the same personality, and none go into heat and act the same, it is chaos. It can get quite rowdy and the girls will often head but each-other out of the way so really not great pets for young children to deal with without adult supervision.

Cost of Keeping Guinea pigs

This section is the real eye opener as keeping guinea pigs is actually really much more expensive than people expect it to be. I will do this in list format as it is really the easiest way to put the cost or regular needs together I will then add on the irregular costs. These are UK costs only.

• Hay x 4 bags 5.49 per bag = 21.96 per month
• Food Pellets x 1 bag = 4.99 per month
• Vegetables x 30/31 bags per month (average of - 1.29 each) = 39.99
• Fitch bedding (if using) £22 per month (or can use fleece and wash)
• NB: DO NOT USE WOOD SHAVINGS AS PINE IN THIS IS DANGEROUS TO ALL RODENT RESPIRATORY SYSTEMS
• Total cost monthly = 66.94/88.94

Other costs involve

• vet bills for injuries/illness (minimum cost for us so far is just under £100)
• claws clipped every 3 months x 3 = £45
• annual check ups x 3 = £135

Total yearly cost for our girls to date =£1118.28

Oreo, after her eye had been healed

Belle, Oreo and Tink 

Conclusion

Now I am not trying to deter anyone form getting guinea pigs as pets, but I am trying to raise awareness of their complexities and the financial costs and also the life time commitment you need to give these little creatures. Guinea pigs can live up to 8/9 years old and they are prey animals that live with high levels of anxiety. They cannot cope very well with being passed from owner to owner as this wears them down and causes high levels of stress, illness, and early death. I understand there are situations where it could become very difficult to keep pets where there lives would not be enriched anymore due to health or financial changes, however the reason I see everywhere for the re-homing of most rodents is that it was bought for the child and the child has lost interest now. Ultimately, the responsibility of all children and animals in the household lie with the adults in the house. I really want people to know what they are committing to when buying guinea pigs. I will be the first to admit I had no idea it took so much work and money to give them a good life. I will also admit that it is extremely rewarding when they let you give them hugs, I call them my 'Therapets' (not all of them give hugs though). If you can commit to all of the above, the issues between sows (Boars too, although I have no personal experience with boars), the living space required, the cost needed, the time spent cleaning there enclosures every day for up to 8/9 years. All of this for the price of a hug (when your guinea pig will let you) then go for it. If however, you have any doubts at all, please look at something that takes a little less time, has a little less complexity and less financial commitments.

Introduction to Belle

Belle at around 12 Weeks old

This last few weeks have bee total chaos in the MacLean Household but in a good way, a productive way. First of all I have bee diligently building a new habitat for Tyr, our Roborovski. This takes up the whole kitchen, so there have been a couple of take out nights for tea whilst I have been sawing and sanding, drilling and sanding some more. As well as this I had to make an additional, temporary home for a new female Guinea Pig.  Belle is our newest member and was adopted from Pets at home.  We try to adopt or rescue our pets now instead of buying them form new stock. Building 2 cages in the same space is a bit hectic but this is what I came up with.

Belles temporary cage that we put next to Oreo and Tink 

As there are 3 Guinea Pigs now, we can officially call them a herd. We kept the new addition, Belle,  in quarantine for around a week (some owners advised two).   The reason we introduced her into the pen early was that she was chewing the bars on her own pen constantly trying to get to them. Also when they had floor time, Tink, the alpha was constantly trying to jail break her by chewing the bars on the outside of her pen too. They were constantly wheeking at each other too which caused more bar chewing.  We felt that it was better for all of them if we added her to the herd earlier rather than stress them all out and make them ill.

Belle, not so small now 

All of the Guinea Pigs were getting stressed as they all wanted to be together and when we allowed them floor time together Tink instantly took on a mothering role, cleaning and licking her.  When she panicked and ran to a corner, Oreo immediately covered her to stop us picking her up. It was really clear we would not have a problem adding Belle to the original pen and hutch. We are new to Herds and Guinea pig politics but they were pretty clear about wanting Belle in with them, and Belle was pretty clear about wanting to be with them.  So they are all now in the original hutch and pen that I build for Tink and Oreo. 

Queen Tink - Herd Alpha 

Tink has taken on the role of Alpha with dignity and grace and as long as Oreo still gets her hugs she is happy to share her home with Belle.

 Belle is really quite tame compared to Tink and Oreo at her age and all is well within our little happy, wheeky, herd of Guinea Pigs.

So it has been an eventful week but with many happy little popcorn's and wheeks, and of-course, I did get my hamster habitat built too, which will be updated here soon.

All three about 7 month later in the garden