How To Care For A Roborovski Hamster

Hi. My name's Marie. I'm the deputy manager of the Small Animal Department of Wood Green Animal Shelters in Cambridge here and I'm going to advise you how to care for hamsters.

I'm going to tell you how to care for Roborovski hamsters. Roborovski hamsters are one of the smallest species of hamsters. They're very fast, they're very energetic and they need a lot of room to move around.

Because they're so small and lightweight, they can't manage cages where they're able to climb around a lot so you want to go for a cage that's as big and as long as possible so they've got a lot of ground to cover. They are very active and housing these small breeds of hamsters in small cages can often end up with behaviour issues. So, try and consider it when you're choosing a suitable accommodation for them.

Roborovskis are very fast and they're not ideal for handling. They're more suited for you to be able to watch and enjoy watching them getting up to mischief in their accommodation. When choosing accommodation for Roborovskis, you're best looking at a suitable storage container or a large glass fish tank around 3 feet in length.

As I mentioned, they're really energetic so as much space they can have is ideal. This tank has been purposefully made for Roborovskis. It is a storage tank and it's been made with a mesh on the front and a really secure lid.

This way, the hamsters can't escape. As I mentioned, this breed are very small so you need to be able to have something where they can't escape from there at all. When considering enrichment for your Roborovski hamsters, go for lots of tunnels and tubes.

That will mimic what they would have in the wild. They'd be rummaging around under different grasses, rocks and go through tunnels and things underground as well. So, mimic this on the base of the cage, lots of little hiding areas, lots of bedding, things for them to rummage around in but don't go too overboard on height because they really don't manage height very well.

Bedding for your Roborovski hamsters, the best type is shredded paper as you can see on the base of this cage. Short shredded paper is secure and it's safe against any parasite and skin issues. The other option is Carefresh which is chopped egg carton and again that's safe against any allergies and parasites.

Never use wood shavings or sawdust for any of the breeds of hamsters. It'll often contain parasites and really bad for allergies and even breathing issues, asthma, in humans as well, so please avoid this. When you need to feed your hamster, you need to feed them once a day.

You want to choose a mix that's varied in all sorts of different seeds and pulses and nuts. Never feed your hamster by a bowl. Scatter feed as what they would be doing in the wild, they would be rummaging for their food and foraging and spending hours searching for food and taking it back to their hide.

So, get a small amount everyday and just scatter it around in the accommodation. You can also try them on small good quality amounts of cat biscuits, you can try them on small amounts of either dry or fresh mealworms, they can also have different types of fresh food as well, but please offer small amounts once or twice a week and monitor that it isn't upsetting their stomachs. They can have dandelion leaves, mint, they can have chopped top carrot, and small amounts of apple as well and that's all absolutely fine.

Hide it in their houses and in their tunnels and make them work for it as they would be doing when they are in the wild. There are many different products in the shops or food for your hamsters. You can have different types of dried sticks.

Try to go for natural one and ones that aren't filled with colorants and salts and sugars. Great products are also fruit tree twigs. These are brilliant for your hamster's teeth.

These can be apple wood or willow and you can pop these in their accommodation for them to chew on and work through. You could also