Happy Birthday Loki, our special Lil Hamster

Introduction to Fudge, the Syrian Hamster

Fudge is a Male Syrian/Golden Hamster. He is 1 year old on the 18th February and weighs 186 grams. Fudge is a Placid little soul but was not always this way. Here is his story so far.

His initial taming involved our 12 year old daughter being bitten twice. Our daughter persevered however and now Fudge is one of our most placid hamsters.

Initially we had him in a Savic Hamster Heaven and he just constantly hid in the penthouse (below) part of the cage. When Emma tried to clean him out on two different occasions, she had to try to get him to vacate the penthouse. In doing so she inadvertently blocked his exit both times,  and he bit her both times for it. She soon learned that she had to be extra careful, and not, block his pathway. We eventually decided that the pent house had to go as he spent around two weeks just hiding in it. Unfortunately Fudge is also a little stinky hamster, he would urinate in the tubes on the way up to the penthouse and he has a very strong scent. This was another reason that the penthouse was taken off of the Savic Hamster Heaven.

He became slightly more sociable when we removed the penthouse but we noticed he didn't use his wheel very much. He was growing fast and we thought he had outgrown his 8 inch wheel and decided to get him a 12 inch wheel. In order to do this we felt that the Savic Hamster heaven was no longer fit for purpose as a 12 inch wheel would not comfortably fit.

It was then we decided to build Fudge a much bigger habitat. We found fudge become much more placid and friendly since he was moved into his luxury habitat with his 12 inch wheel. Although we never see him using it as he is a late riser we know he does as I put a line on it in pen and the line moves about twice a week. Fudge is a little lazy soul who prefers to plod around exploring his habitat for any food that may be lying around for him.

Fudge is not a fussy eater and loves any and all food given to him.   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.  We can handle him and he does get all excited when he is out of his habitat as he seems to love to explore new surroundings.

This is our introduction to Fudge, please feel free to drop by for other introductions.

Hamster bedding that should be banned

Over the last month I have read countless tales of happy hamsters, mischievous hamsters, adorable hamsters and escapee hamsters.  By far the most disturbing and heart-breaking stories are the ones involving natural cotton bedding. 

Over the last month I have encountered no less than SIX, yes six hamster deaths caused by either suffocation or entanglement.  The owners were all new to hamster life and I feel so heartbroken for every one of them as every one of them states that it is safe bedding.  I find it hard to comprehend that so many complaints have been made about cotton bedding and yet the companies are still able to make and sell it. 

Hamsters can easily become entangled in this bedding, one story I read told of waking in the morning to sadly find their hamster passed on and his leg was so entangled in this cotton his blood circulation had stopped in the leg. another sad tale advised against this bedding as her hamster had packed his pouches with it and because it was so fine the hamster couldn’t remove it and panicked.  Unfortunately, the fibres then got stuck in its throat and the owner tried frantically to remove it but it was so fine she couldn’t get enough out to save her hamster from suffocating.  I am currently holding back a mixture of tears for these poor hamsters and their owners and anger at the fact this bedding is still sold as safe bedding. 

Please, do not buy this bedding, or any cotton bedding, if you are unsure about the wood-based bedding, the cheapest and easiest bedding is unscented toilet roll, they love tearing it up and arranging it to suit themselves.  If you don’t like that idea, Carefresh is a great bedding to use too.

Cage sizes for Guinea Pigs in the UK

In October 2017, we decided to get our daughter Guinea Pigs for her birthday.  We did this as we thought the longer life span and easy maintenance would suit her well.  We could not, however, have been more outdated in our information.  Firstly, it is now discovered that Guinea pigs need to live in, at least, pairs, preferably herds (fortunately, we did find this out before buying them).  Secondly the space required for a pair of Guinea pigs by UK standards is 7.5 square feet (minimum), but 10.5 square feet is preferred.  We however did not know this, so, we bought a cage very similar to the one in the picture below and a play pen that measured 1 square metre/9 square feet.

The Cage form the pet store 

If we had known this at the time we would not have even bothered buying the cage and let the guinea pigs live in the Pen. The cage measured about 1/2 square metre, the equivalent to 6 square feet, which is too small for two fully grown Guinea pigs.  Granted that when we bought our two female guinea pigs (Oreo & Tink) they were tiny - and very cute - but within about 5 weeks they had nearly doubled in size and we realised, quickly, that we had a problem. 

9 square feet playpen for 2 Guinea pigs 

We decided to set up their play pen at this point and let them live in this.  They seemed much happier and were slightly more sociable with us too, but again within another 5 or so weeks, they had again doubled in size, at this point I set about expanding their pen by taking the top of their previous cage and cable tying it to the pen sideways (also cable tying the back so as Oreo and Tink were not walking across the wire frame.  Below is that expanded pen which now gives them 12 square feet to wander around in.  Again, they became even more sociable and now we open the front and give them supervised floor time which is even better for them.

Now 12 sq feet but I felt it could still be bigger

I worked on a design which would give them 18 square feet, this was one of my hardest builds as one part of the enclosure was so big to try and work with on my own but I did it through stages.  Each stage made the enclosure slightly bigger than the last.

Stage one had the hay trough attached to a pen they could run around in

This was the finished build 

We then decided to add a 3rd sow to the herd so there were amendments made for temporary enclosures.  This could not stay like this as it took over our whole sitting room but it was a temporary measure.

The old stage one run was added beside the two girls so as they could get to know Belle, our new adopted sow.

As time went on I tried the acclaimed c & c cage and it was ok.  We changed it about several times but again, it just seemed to swallow our sitting room .... until we found another baby sow to add to our herd.

Finally in January of this year I decided enough was enough and we changed the sitting room around to suit both us and the Guinea Pigs.  They now have over 24 square feet to run around in and it doesnt take up the living room any more. 

Finally everyone is happy ! 

When considering getting guinea pigs I highly recommend building the cage yourself first (I wish I had done this), or using the play pen (only, if you do not have predatory animals) for your guinea pigs to live in.  It did initially cost me over £200 to buy the guinea pigs and all of the accessories but I could have saved £75 if I had realised just how quickly our two piggies, would out grow their cage. If you can, I would recommend having the hutch inside and giving them a run to some sort of hay trough.  We removed one of the doors so as the 4 girls can come and go as they please and I have never seen them more active.  Although they are currently missing out on 4 square foot of space as none of them go up to the top level in the hutch, this still leaves them with 20 square feet. 

In total over the years I would guess I have spent around £300 on different enclosures trying to find the one that suited everyone, Like I said, I wish I had not spent the first £75 on a shop cage, but to be fair, I need the C & C for their current run and I have used the hay trough again form the first DIY build so it has been worth it (apart from the pet shop cage).  Take my advise,use other enclosure methods, the C & C cages are great but in my experience, a hutch with a run is brilliant for bigger herds.

I hope this has helped you if you are looking to upgrade your Guinea pig enclosure or even if you are looking at buying guinea pigs.  Their enclosure is the hardest part to get right for indoor pigs which is why I have shared my many different options over the last few years.