the smallest of the hamsters (Roborovski Hamsters)

Member Name: barbie84

Product:	Roborovski Hamsters
Date:	09/04/09 (219 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lovely looking

Disadvantages: not very handlable

Wholst wandering around pets at home a few months ago myhubby and children spotted a roborovski hamster in the aoption center, he was from a littler they were selling on the shop floor but unlike there usual nature of enjoying company he wasnt very friendly with other hamsters so had been parted from his friends, he was a lovely little thing that came streight to the front to see us and we just had to have him.

There are 4 types of hamster kept as pets in the uk, syrian hamsters that are the general large hamster then 3 dwarf breeds, the russian dwarfs, chinese hamsers and roborovski hamsters which is what sandy our hamster is.

Due to dwarf hamsters being so very small and fragile to handle they are much better suited to adults than they are to small children.

Just as with a basic syrian hamster they are nocturnal sleeping all day and waking during the night so idealy you realy dont want them in your bedroom as they will keep you awake all night.

Roborovski hamsters are the smallest of all the hamsters and also the quickest, i was realy surprised at how quickly sandy could run concidering his very small size and even more impressed by the fact he jumps aswell. ours is a sandy colour with a white stomach which is a realy common colour for roborovski hamsters and also why he got the name sandy, not very original i know.

My care leaflet told me to expect him to live for around 2 years but he is only a few months old at the moment.

Dwarf hamsters generaly like company but as i said at the start sandy had been seperated as he doesnt like company of other hamsters but we make up for that with the human attention he gets and he loves it. He is a bit jumpy when handled and doesnt seem to enjoy it too much even after a couple of months of trying to get him used to it so now he just enjoys playing in his cage or ball and having us talk to him, although i dont think he understands a word i say to him.

Caging a dwarf hamster is more difficult than a syrian as they have a tendancy to escape through bars of the cages so idealy you need a cage without any bars or one suited and specially designed for a dwarf.

Although sandy is very small he manages very well to eat norml hamster muesli from pets at home and doesnt get through a lot of it so a bag lasts a long time although he is getting rather fat and is as round as he is long these days.

We already had an ordinary hamster ball at home but when we put him in it he was way too small to move the ball, this might have been ok if there were a couple of them in there but because he is on his own we went looking for a smaller hamter ball and found they do a mini hamster ball designed for dwarf hamsters which he manages to move very easily so gets himself a lot of exercise this way.

We use a ceramic food bowl in his cage as he likes to climb into the bowl with his food and unlike any other hamster i have ever owned he just eats what he wants and leaves the rest in the bowl, he doesnt store it anywhere.

Sandy has a very small water bottle on his cage which i change the water in daily although he hardly gets through any of it and has his whole cage cleaned out once a week but never smells at all with him being so small.

We have brought him a little house to sleep in and gnawing toys to keep his teeth down but his favorite is a toilet rolll tube to sleep in, he takes his bedding in there and makes his own nest.

Although i love sandy a lot and think he is very comical to watch i would not recomend him as a pet for a child as he is way too small and too quick to be handled.

Summary: a beautiful animal