Roborovski Hamsters

If you are someone who is thinking of getting a Roborovski ( or even two, or three) then please follow my recommendations, I've made it easy with a checklist.

Make sure that you get the Roborovski/s AFTER you finish setting up the cage! They hate being in confined spaces, especially if you have not bought a carrying cage to escort them from the pet shop to your house.

The 'Housing' page will provide you with more detail on the query.

Never get a metal wheel or plastic wheel with gaps between the running surface as it is  very easy for the Roborovski's to trap a leg between between them, and as they are much faster runners, it could easily result in serious injury.

Never let the water bottle hang up too high, and never get one where the spout is too hard for the Robo/s to draw water out of. It might be hard to attach a normal bottle to the side of a plastic or glass aquarium, so get one that easily sucks to it with suction pads (refer to the image). These are now much more common in pet stores. The normal water bottles (as you can imagine) are very common in pet stores, and hang on to the wires of a cage easily, buy one designed for mice or gerbils.

Thoroughly wash out the water bottle before use.

Please refer to the 'Feeding' page for a list of edible and inedible foods. Food bowls aren't essential, but they are normally hugely over-priced. A good idea is to get one from a yard-sale or boot-fair.

It doesn't REALLY matter which one you choose, but if you choose sand, please get some bedding material for your Roborovski/s as sand do not provide adequate insulation.

Bedding Material ( Not essential, but look above for reasons why. Get bedding mateial that is either made from strips of kitchen cloth or even better ( and cheaper) is to make the bedding yourself, just tear up lots of fine strips of J-cloth and that'll do them nicely. If ou are goin to buy it from a shop, then avois buying cotton.

This is essential because if you don't buy one of these or forget to take it with you at the time you are going out to buy your Roborovski/s, then all the pet store will give you to transport the Robo to it's new home is a tiny, cold, dark cardboard box, this is ok for Syrians but not at ALL ok for Roborovski's. It is better to buy a smalleplastic fish tank ( Probally the smallest you can get you hands on) to transport it/them home. Make sure you fill it up withwoodshavings, bedding material a tiny bit of food in one corner, one play-thing(maybe a wooden brick with holes in it) and a water bottle.

Because Roborovski's are rodents, their teeth grow all the time, which is why it is essential to have provide them withvsomething that they can gnaw (bite) on. You can now buy LOTS of these different types of objects ( I'd avoid the mineral stones (I've had 4 hamsters, and not one of them gnawed it at all). But it will save you alot of moneyif you would just cut off one  thick branch off a hazel nut or apple or pear tree. Make sure with the owner of the tree that it has not been treated in any way with paint or pesticides, as this could get into the Roborovski's stomach and harm it badly. Tic and Tac didn't actually take any notice of the apple tree branch I cut for them at the beggining, until I smeared it with hamster yogurt drops ( their favourite treat!) and now you can see that they are going at it all the time! If you really think that the block or object at the pet store will work ( or if you don't havera healthy tree around) then I'm sure that the object at the store will work just as well.