Hamster blindness... from old age

After 10+ years of keeping hamsters, I realised that 2 of my hamsters had actually turn blind upon old age. Especially my hamster, Dou Gay, he had cataract as I can see his eyeballs had white spots covering the pupils.

As hamsters age, we, as owners, need to help the hamsters adjust the environment.

I had friends who ask me to put my hamsters to sleep but I am strong believer that hamster should live to their end of lifespan. It is very unnatural  to put them to sleep just because they are blind unless they have further injuries that are causing their pain.

Things to do to help your blind hamsters
1) Remove of obstacles

• Housing/Cage
• If your hamster is currently living in 2 storey (floor) cage, it is time to remove the 2nd storey and convert it to a single deck cage. This can prevent your hamster from falling off the 2nd storey. (one of my hamster did fall off from the 2nd storey before he paralyses and die shortly afterwards, hard lesson for me)

• Avoid new staff/toy and keep same cage layout
• I know owners alike love to give new toys to hamsters. However, if your hamster is blind, I strongly recommend that the cage layout to be simple, without obstacles, and most importantly hamster access friendly. You don't want to injury your hamster in anyway possible.

• Water bottle
• I strongly recommend that the water bottle to be lowered to  hamster's head level so he can feel and know where is the water bottle without much difficulties.

• Food supply
• Place the food dish in an open area without any obstacles so that you view your hamster without difficulties and know if it has any problem going into the food dish. If your hamster has problem even climbing into the food dish, do consider changing to a shallow food dish.

2) Sound over movement

• Create a common noise
• By creating a common noise habitually, your hamster will be able to relate that noise to you. However, avoid super loud noise as your hamster might be in shock than in comfort. I always use a squeaking whistle before placing my hand or food dish in the cage.

• Touching your hamster slowly and gently
• Yes, you still can pick up your blind hamster but make sure your hamster know that it is you. Avoid back grabbing as that is how predators in the wild hunt for hamsters. Let your hamster come to your hand before scoping it out from the cage. I prefer scoping method than tummy hold for my older hamsters as they will feel safer with a base that they can touch their feet on. 

Hope these tips helps. I had draft this article many month back but never get to type finish it until today. Cheers!

I nearly want to scream at this guy~!

Actually, this was on my mind and debating whether I should type this out...
During today lunch hour, I was in a lift with a 40s dad and his colleague chatting... the guy said his family had a rat, cat and newly acquired dog but he don't like animals and want to throw them away and claim that the expenses of owning animals are expensive...

I really feel like screaming at that guy!!! 

FOR GOD SAKE, If you don't like them in the 1st place, why have them????  

AND NOW U WANT TO THROW THEM OUT OF THE HOUSE??? 

ANIMALS ARE FOR LIFETIME 

COMMITMENT... 

They are neither toys nor play tools. 

They are companions and they can feel what 

you do towards them.

My Promise

My children - To be forever missed by ur mommy....
Please wait for me at the Rainbow bridge. 
I shall join you all when my chores are through but I don't know how long they will take...

Silently night

May Baba live forever in peace as he crossed over the Rainbow Bridge to rejoin the rest of my hamsters.

My last living hamster that stayed with me since 26th Nov 2010.

Until death brings us apart, I cared for him as much as my heart can afford to.

Thank you for being here for 2 years 28days with me.

Pet abandoned! T,T

Seriously, it really saddens me to write this article.

My cousin nudge me over MSN on Monday night asking me to adopt a hammie in.

Based on her information, someone just abandon a hammie in a small cage measuring around 15cm long by 7cm wide by 10cm tall. The hammie looks dirty and thristy as there was no water source found in the tiny cage. Nor there was any form of bedding in the cage.

After much discussion with my cousin, she decided to adopt the hammie in althrough she had no prior experience in keeping hamsters. I truly salute her determination in her actions and wanted to support her as well. So I decided to give away one of my cage with some beddings and food to Kuro (my cousin's hammie).

 Kuro is a very young (under 3mths old), male Russian Winter White after a short inspection on Tuesday. Very alert enough to know that it is being abandoned but generally very friendly towards strangers.

What I suspected was that Kuro was purhcased from pet store by someone but the family object against pet raising and hence abandon Kuro along with the mini cage at the flat's lobby beside the rubbish collection area.

A lot of non-pet owners thinks that pet abandoning is easy.

But it is not true especially for the pets involved.

 Pets DO feel and DO understand that THEY ARE ABANDONED.

 My 1st hamster was also an abandoned hamster but I tried asking my neighbours and no one come forward and admit that they had missing hamster. Ah Girl was very fierce to me when I tried to touch her the 1st time round. I end up getting bitten while trying to feed her.

She was an old hamster, around the age of 1+ years old, with a bit of fur dropping off, hence her appearance wasn't the prettiest. I nursed her back to health and we spent a happy 1/2 year together before she passed away of old age.

It is never easy to gain the trust of abandon ones as they had be betrayed by someone who are supposed look after them for lifetime until death bring them apart.

So before you, as the reader of this blog, decided to get a new hamster,
please note that PETS ARE LIFETIME COMMITMENT.


Cherish your pets just as you would like to cherish your loved ones.

Our pets truly deserved every single love from you as much as any other living human beings.

 ~PEACE TO THE WORLD~

Passing away of Nan Sao

T,T This morning Nan Sao was still walking around her cage as usual but she left us for rainbow bridge while I was away for work.

May she live happily ever after with the rest of my family up at the rainbow bridge.

Darling, my little wild princess - you shall be always missed.

Types of bedings available for hamster

Time to settle for a serious article!
Sorry folks for my slacking and thank you for your patience on waiting for my article. Guess I need to come out with new articles over the weekend! Okay, to jump start the engine, I decide to do a "mini" topic on hamster bedding before moving on to more serious topics. I have decided to totally avoid the brands of bedding for non-commericalising purposes and just focus on the advantage and disadvantages only. Here goes:

What is a bedding?
A hamster bedding is a layer of material that you lay on your hamster's cage. Most common function of a hamster bedding is actually to absorb urine and freshen up the cage as most hamster owners only clean their hamsters and cages 1-2 times per week. Most of times, hamster owners buy hamster bedding commercially although DIY beddings are available.

• Normal Types of Bedding available on the market
• Wood Shavings/Chips
The most common bedding available on the pet stores are Wood Shaving/Chips. Wood shavings are generally softer than chips but there's quite a few drawbacks despite the affordability. Sometimes rough wood shavings/chips might give your hamster a splitter on its limbs and wood shaving/chips, by itself, doesn't absorb urine that well and give off awfully smell after 3-4days of changing cages especially with hamsters that tends to urine very often.

However, please by all means avoid the following wood bedding by all cost: Cedar/Pine. Despite the fact that both cedar and pine give off nice fragrance. They are known to give your hamsters health problem as well. This is a well known fact within the community of rat/hamster owners. In case, you need more information, I also added a link here that touches on the toxicity of these 2 wood bedding.

• Straw and/or Hay
Another affordable bedding will be straw/hay bedding. Both straw/hay bedding can be used for hamster bedding but there's a difference between both of them. Hay are generally grasses that are cut while it is still alive and straw is a byproduct. Hay can be used as a feeding material on its own as it still maintain the nutritious value while straw cannot be used as a feeding material. As hay can be served as a fresh food/bedding by itself, interaction with urine from hamsters will make it stink very fast.
• Corn Cob Bedding or similar
One of the most affordable bedding but with tons of disadvantages. Corn cob doesn't not do absorb urine and smell that well but is relatively one of the cheapest bedding available in the pet store. Generally corn cob bedding needs to be change more frequently as compare the the rest as corn cob bedding will turn mouldy pretty fast upon contact with moisture.
• Cat Litter or pelleted bedding
This is actually one of my favourite bedding due to the fact that pellated bedding can absord urine pretty well. There are quite a few pellets beddings out on the market with round or flat bedding being the 2 most common designs. However, pelleted bedding is well-known for its cost. 1 small bag of pelleted bedding is almost equivalent to a medium/large bag of wood shaving bedding depending on bands.
• Paper Pulp Bedding
Another favourite hamster bedding of mine! This paper pulp bedding is generally much softer/lighter than pelleted bedding and can control urine equally well. Paper pulp comes in large variety of colours andand turn yellowish in colour when in contact with urine. Personally I only like white bedding as I'm not sure if the colourful bedding available at the pet store are dye safe for hamster. However, its cost is equally matching to that of pelleted bedding or even higher, depending on the brands available.
• Wire Mash
Some of the cages have wire mash that comes with it. This really save quite a substantial amount of money for the bedding and hamster's urine and droppings are drop below leaving the hamster cleaner than normal bedding. However, one major drawback of wire mash is that your hamster have to stand/walk/sleep on the wire mash over a prolong period of time.
• DIY Bedding
•  Newspapers/Magazines
For hamster owners on shoes string budget, this is the cheapest DIY material available. However, most hamster website/owners/forums won't recommend this alternative due to the ink printing on the papers and hamsters might eat/chew on the newspapers.
Personally used it without much of an issue with my hamsters when I first started out rearing hamsters but there are 2 main drawbacks from my experience. 
Firstly, newspaper and magazines do not have good urine absorbtion properties, and turns pretty fast into pulp like materials upon contact with water.
Secondly, my hamsters love to dig tons of holes in my newspapers bedding and it is really hard to find them at times. There was once I had a pretty sick hamster and it went into digging mode and I have to unearth the entire bedding just to find him.
• Shredded papers
For folks who owns papershredder - you will love this method. All you do is stand in front of paper shredder and shred any amount of white/brown papers without ink for your hamster bedding! But this process is pretty daunting especially if your shredder is lite function by nature. Another point to note will be that papers don't absorb urine that well and frequent changing of bedding is recommended.
• Nesting Material
• Cotton
Hamster owners usually will give their hamsters additional material to bulit their nest and one of the most common material will be cotton. Most of commerical cotton from Pet Store are natural cotton.

However for hamster owners who are on shoes- string budget, I recommend another alternative of buying 100% facial unbleach cotton pads from non-pet store. So far i dont have any issues from hamsters using facial cotton pads as I make sure they are 100% natural and have minimium processing.

• Papers Material
Other types of DIY materials for nesting materials includes tissue papers, facial tissue, toilet papers and even paper towels can be used as nesting material for hamsters.

I love give my hamster, Baba, 1 piece of facial tissue after another after changing the cage bedding and nesting material. Baba seems to have so much fun pulling all the tissues into his home while remaking his nest.
• Bathing Sands
• Bathing sands are which a type of sands that help hamsters to get rid of its dirt/oil by rolling over the sand. Aside that, smarter hamsters can actually pee only in bathing sands while keeping the rest of the cage clean.
• Generally, bathing sands have 2 types of fineness - Coarse sand and Fine sand. Coarse sand are usually used for littering purpose white fine sand is used for hamster rolling purpose. 
• There are some type of coarse sand that will turn into lump upon contact with urine and these type of sands are the type that work best with hamsters that tends to urine a lot.
• Aside of the fineness of the sand, there are also tons of sand that are scented with various flavors like apple and rose! Personally, I perfer non-scented sand as I use cucumber flavour deorderizer for my hamster cage. ^^

In conclusion, I generally summarise almost all the beddings that are usually used in hamster cages. Generally, most hamster owners will weigh between comfort for hamster and cost while decide which bedding to get. Hope this super long article helps in understanding the different type of bedding available and help you in making a decision on type of bedding to use for your hamsters.