The hamsters are among the most popular pets and conquered millions of human hearts. Their content does not cause difficulties even at beginners, but some nuances care is still needed.
Pros and cons of content
Hamsters are loved and adored all over the world, which is due to the number of their valuable qualities.
- Animals do not occupy a lot of space in the apartment and are quite satisfied with a small aquarium or a cell.
- Rodents grow perfectly and develop alone and do not require the acquisition of a pair. The second individual can be started either at your own desire or for breeding.
- Hamsters are quite quiet animals and, unlike cats, dogs and birds, almost do not produce noise.
- Animals are absolutely not angled and do not hold offense.
- Hamsters are able to multiply in captivity and unpretentious in food.
- Rodents are well referred to children, which often turns around not too good consequences for themselves.
- The hamster is easy to care for home.
- The cost of rodent is much lower than the cost of puppies, kittens and other pets.
The minuses of hamsters include the need for regular cleaning of the cell, the hibernation of many individuals and the likelihood of aggression towards people. However, the main minus is the life expectancy of rodents.
Most of them live from 2.5 to 4 years, in connection with which their death can cause a deep emotional injury to the child and cause a deep shock.
Basic needs
Before starting a hamster, you need to get acquainted with its main needs and make sure that they will be fully satisfied. The hamster need includes a cozy dwelling, thermal comfort, cleanliness, lack of stress, entertainment, proper nutrition and proper care.Housing
As can be seen from a fairly impressive list of conditions necessary for a hamster, the content of this rodent is a matter of responsible. The first priorities facing the future owner include the choice of cozy and functional housing. This moment is especially important also because Hamsters are prone to frequent stress arising from them by hardening reasons. . Therefore, the animal must be a reliable shelter and its territory, where he would feel in complete safety.
As a housing for hamster, experts recommend choosing either special cells or volumetric aquariums. However, the cell is more preferable in this case, as it allows you to install within a set of useful and necessary devices. In no case should you keep animals in cardboard boxes, plastic containers and glass jars. The last two types of containers are only suitable as a temporary peasant of the animal, for example, when it is transported from the store to the house.
When buying a cell, you should pay attention to its size, which should not be less than 60 cm long and 40 width. The height of the design of a special role does not play, the main thing is that the wheel placed inside and preferably a small house. Optimally, if the rods will be located in a horizontal direction, which will allow hamster to move freely in any plane of the home. As a litter, you can use sawdust, hay and corn filler, However, many hamster owners give preference to South.
The fact is that hamsters love to "nit the nest", and the use of hay for these purposes is most convenient.
In addition, if the owners want to leave the house for a couple of days, the straw will also be a more suitable option, as it will allow liquid to go down and will not release the smell outward. The saws are instantly wounded, create discomfort hamster and begin to smell. For the absence of finished fillers, in the extreme case, you can take toilet paper or old newspapers, but such materials require daily replacement to new, otherwise the unpleasant odor from the cell is provided. They are not at all suitable for the litter of wool and fabric, so their use should be excluded.
After selecting the filler, the configuration of the house is proceeded. In it, it is mandatory to be a drinking bowl, representing a small vessel with a ball-dispenser or an elongated tube through which the hamster will drink.
Two feeders are also needed, one of which will be intended for dry feed (grain), and the second is for fresh vegetables and fruits. And the drinking bowl, and both feeders should have fasteners by which they are hung on the cell walls.
It is not recommended to put the capacitances on the floor: a hamster will quickly turn them and rapt the contents.
Another necessary accessory for the cell is a mineral stone. It performs two functions at once - it allows the rodent to roll the teeth and saturates its body with useful substances. The place of the toilet in the cage is not denoted by: hamsters independently choose a certain angle, and in the future they only go to it. However, when this place becomes too dirty, they go to another, clean angle, and cope their natural need there.
It is necessary to place a cage in a quiet quiet place, away from heating batteries, drafts and direct ultraviolet rays. Also, you should not put it in the zone of children's games and on the aisle, where there will be no rest animal.
To expand the cell space, the use of stairs and tiers, for which young hamsters climb with pleasure and roll up.
Nutrition
Hamster feeding is a rather important event and determines the health and well-being of a pet. Below is a list of products allowed for rodent, many of which will definitely come to him and become a favorite delicacy.
- Dry mix For hamsters, it is the compositions prepared from wheat grain and barley, extruded herbaceous granules, sunflower seeds and dried corn, taken in different combinations. Such feed has a balanced composition and is designed to meet the needs and preferences of rodents. You can add dried pieces of various fruits to the finished mixture, but you need to use them in small quantities.
- Vegetable components In the form of fresh and boiled peas, clover leaves, wiki, alfalfa and mint is also necessary for the full nutrition of hamster. Vegetables are recommended carrots, coarse, zucchini, fresh cucumbers and tomatoes, beans, sweet peppers, cauliflower and a bit of pumpkin. From fruits you can offer bananas, pears, apples and grapes, subject to the removal of fruits and bones.
- Boiled rice, buckwheat, oatmeal and pson You can give 2-3 times in 7 days, the main thing when you prepare are not used salt.
- Dried fruits in the form of banana chips It is possible to give daily, while dried cherry, kuragu and prunes are offered much less often and exclusively in the form of a delicacy. This is due to the high content of sugar in them, which, like salt, is bad enough for hamsters.
- Seeds and nuts You can also give daily. Most hamsters love walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts and pumpkin seeds.
- From dairy products you can give a bit of low-fat curd and occasionally a small piece of solid cheese. As a source of protein, especially for pregnant females, it will suit the welded screwed egg protein, boiled chicken, beef and low-fat pork. The main thing is that the meat is well suited and not tasty, as it is categorically prohibited to offer it in cheese.
- Flour products In the form of galet, drying and unsweetened cookies are allowed to give no more than once a week.
However, the rich diet of the resolved food does not speak at all about the omnivores of the hamsters. There is a sufficiently large list of products that it is impossible to rodents. Below are briefly considered the most harmful of them, the use of which can cause substantial harm to health.
Spices strictly contraindicated hamsters , Along with the acidic and acute food, can cause the burdens of the mouth, stomach and esophagus of the mucous membrane. In this regard, feeding animal with kebabs, dishes with the addition of vinegar and too first-first food is prohibited.
Despite the fact that most fruit is well absorbed by the body of the hamster, the use of some of them is under strict ban. These include All citrus and kiwi, which, high acid acid, can cause irritation of the rodent digestive system.
Fatty dishes and sweets, including honey and sweets, should also not be given pet, especially for Dzhungarian hamsters . This is due to their tendency to diabetes, which almost does not occur in Syrian fellow.
Also, pets can not be given salting, mushrooms, onions, garlic and white cabbage, as well as fruit bones and cones of coniferous trees.
Temperature
In the room where the hamster is contained, there must be at least 20 degrees. Otherwise, the pet will overcool and get sick. However, it is also not worth putting a cage next to heating devices. It is better to determine the dwelling in the depths of the room and protect against the exposure of drafts. If the cell is located on the windowsill, then at the time of ventilation it should also be removed into another place.
Calm
Hamster as no other is exposed to stress and needs a calm atmosphere. It is very strongly affected by sitting into a cage of another adult hamster, regardless of whether the boy is or a girl. Hamsters should be together either from early age, or live in different cells. Another reason for concern is bright light. Hamsters are perfectly oriented in the dark and do not need additional backlight. Dirty litter, as well as the lack of food and drinking can also provoke a strong stress.
In addition, the cell should not be constantly moved from one place to another, and also loudly talk next to the pet, place it near the TV and leave a mobile phone next to the cell - from the sudden call of which the animal can be very frightened. The females, who have just appeared offspring, do not like, when the owner does not check the kids. As a result, the mother begins to be angry and can bite.
Also, you do not need to carry a pet to the street and let the cats, dogs and young children. It is also not recommended to clean up in a homethium's cage in his eyes. It is better to squint the pet into the temporary container and calmly wash the house.
Toys and attractions
Hamsters need entertainment, so the cage is preferably equipped with a treadmaker, a slide and a staircase. You can buy a walking ball in which the pet will be able to roam through the house. If time and imagination allows, you can construct a pleasure park for the animal, constructing obstacles and labyrinths in it. To do this, you can use tube towels and toilet paper tubes, plastic bottles and cardboard.
Water treatments
Spear hamsters do not like and feel the strongest stress. By themselves, they are very clean, constantly wash the face and paws. You can put a clean and dry sand container in the cage, where the rodent will clean its fur coat. But you can wash the pet in water only in the case of the appearance of parasites or if he drank in his feces. It is better to do with a cotton disk dipped in clean water.
When fleas are detected, antiparasitic shampoo is used, neatly foaming and applying it to the cheese of a pet, flushing the then under the thin flowing of water. At the same time it is important to not allow water to get into the eyes and ears. After bathing, the hamster wash the dry towel and placed in a box with a soft cloth. Dry the animal with a hairdryer is categorically prohibited.
The next point of care for the decorative animal is the processing of its cohesives. To do this, you only need to buy manicure tongs and clearly follow the instructions. So, you need only the free edge of the cogging, trying not to hook a capillary. If there is dark pigmentation on the surface of the claws, then the daily light lamp can be used, translucent the claw through.
In addition, during the procedure, it is necessary to keep the hydrogen peroxide and the bandage at the ready and when accidentally damaged the capillaries immediately handle the wreck and plot around it.
Diseases
With proper nutrition and proper care, hamsters are rarely ill, but no one is insured against a number of common diseases. Below are the most common diseases, as well as the reasons for their appearance and treatment recommendations.
- Cystitis It is a consequence of urinary tract infection and manifests itself in frequent urination with blood admixture. As treatment, chloramphenicol injections are made from the calculation of 5 mg per 100 grams of weight twice a day.
- Enteritis Also has an infectious nature and in 20% of cases ends with death. The first signs are a water diarrhea. Antibiotics neomycin and tetracycline are prescribed as treatment.
- Scabies caused by garlic ticks that lay eggs in the upper layer of skin cover. The parasite is powered by skin dandruff and too anniversary. The scabies are earlieged, head and general and is treated with a 3% solution of the drug "SC-9" and sulfur ointment. You can also use a 1% solution of chlorofos in combination with a 1% solution of the means "D-33". Re-processing perform a week later.
- Launch of the rectum Comes from diarrhea or constipation. With timely handling the veterinarian is easily treated without amputation.
- Rickets It occurs due to the absence of vitamin D in the stern and more often happens in young hamsters in winter.
As the treatment of pets move into a light place and 2 drops of "trivit" are drilled in a bright place and daily for two weeks.
Newborn Care Rules
Caring for just born hamsters is to create the most favorable conditions for kids and their mothers. So, In no case cannot touch the newborn kids, and this applies not only to pets of dwarf rocks, but also to everyone without exception to rodents. Otherwise, the mother, taking into account someone else's smell, in the best case will stop feeding hamsters, and at worst - crept and eat them. The most correct option will leave the family alone for several days and only constantly monitor the presence of feed and water for the mother.
5-7 days after birth, the mother with children transplanted into the box and clean the cells, replacing the litter and thoroughly washing the objects there. In the future, it is recommended to be carried out every two days. As soon as the kids feed the coat, begin to enter the lore. To do this, a couple of cabbage leaves are put into the cell, and by reaching monthly age - finely chopped boiled chicken. After a month and a half after birth, the female is sent to the male, and the kids are dismissed in different cells or send to the new place of residence to another family.
About how to care for a hamster, see the next video.