I have done a little research on hamsters before I welcomed milk to her new house. The following details are what I researched about.
1) The diet of hamsters is really important. The food they eat can directly affect their health conditions. Their diets primarily contain grains and seeds and a small amount of vegetable fibre can be fed to them com times also. In order to save time, I just chose a mix of hamster sold in the store. Some human food can also be fed to hamsters such as cheese, cereals, selected vegetables, boiled egg.
2) I chose a simple cage for milk to live in. The cage contains a bater bottle, soft wood(to keep it warm and comfortable), a wheel(for milk to exercise), and her food box. These are all the basic necessities that hamsters need. Although the cage is not very big, it is still comfortable for milk to live in.
To do list:
- Clean the soft wood for milk frequently to
- ensure that she lives in a clean and comfortable house
- Do not over feed milk, because most hamsters only need 10-12 g of food per day.
- Put a small cardboard and toys in the cage sometimes because hamsters like to climb and dig things.
- It is dangerous to put milk together with other different breeds of hamsters because they may fight.
Things not to do:
- Never leave the soft wood in the cage wet. Hamster usually appreciate dry conditions. Therefore, the cage must be cleaned immediately when the water in the water bottle accidentally leaked out.
- Do not feed them any kind of human food or they may get sick
4) Observation about Milk's behaviors:
Milk is really active in her activitirities since she is only about three months old. She likes to dig and hide a lot. Therefore, I was first quite annoyed by her actions of digging out all the soft wood after I just cleaned her cage for her. Also, she likes to climb a lot. She always climbs up to the roof of her cage, so I always have to make sure every time that her cage is properly closed or there would be a great chance for her to escape. Despite all the confusion of her behaviors, I still think she is very cute overall
5) In order to make sure that Milk is always at a healthy state, I shall take her to the vet once a while for a check. Moreover, I shall be alerted to changes of Milk that may be signals for her health problems such as decrease of appetite, idleness, huddled in a corner, sneezing, and other symptoms that may tell me that she is sick. Any disease can exacerbate the hamster's health condition very quickly.
6) Hamsters can get diarrhea if their diets are not carefully taken care of. If this kind of problem emerges, I can either choose to take Milk to the vet or I can change the food that she eats to provide her a more healthy diet. Moreover, hamsters are allergic to food and petting, so never use perfume when I want to touch them.
7) The internal parts of the hamsters contain skull, jaw, teeth, limbs, and a tail. The average life of hamsters are mostly up to two years, which depends o the breed. Some experts say that hamsters tend to have really poor eyesight (red-blind) but with really good hearing to compensate for their poor vision. Generally, hamsters have the same internal organs and nervous system like other mammals. They are very flexible, but can still hurt their backbones easily.
Sources:
http://www.animalbing.com/how-to-take-care-of-the-health-of-your-hamster/
http://www.hamsterific.com/homesandhabitats.cfm
http://www.hammysworld.com/index.php?p=food
