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Post by bigfatmommarat on Feb 15, 2004 11:25:01 GMT -4
By keeping wooden cubes in the corners we can held dissuade them from digging in those corners. I like the idea, but what stops them from moving the cubes?
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Post by Die Fledermaus on Feb 15, 2004 23:00:09 GMT -4
Rarely have I see cubes moved. The rest on very little bedding with a slight lean towards the corner; i.e, there is slightly more bedding under the cub corner away for the glass corner.
Even if they do get moved (unlikely) I can in a ten gallon tank take a wooden triangle-shaped thing and wedge it between two cubes, thus pressing them towards the glass. I can also put a wooden hide box pressed against a cube. The gerbs can;t seem to get their noses in between the cube and glass and rarely do the cubes move (at least not much). Works for me, almost always.
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Post by jessicareed on Oct 24, 2004 22:11:06 GMT -4
I had Este`e, my dwarf hamster, in a CritterTrailTwo, but moved her into a ten gallon tank because she was chewing on the bars. That can cause brain damage and loss and chips in teeth, you know. I always give her aspen bedding and toilet paper for nesting and also timothy hay. The alfalfa hay makes her urine really strong. I always use aspen bedding because the pine and cedar is bad for them because of the phenols and stuff in it and CareFresh is kind of expensive. CritterCare doesn't work as well as CareFresh. Ever notice that? I sure did. It's worse that wood chips and shavings! I also give her the plainest commercial diet availible because dwarf hamsters get diabetes very easily. I use Kaytee Forti-Diet Hamster Formula for her and all of my gerbs so that they won't get fat. When I had them on the Gerbil Formula, they got kind of chunky. Anyway, I changed her into a tank. It is much easier to clean and is bigger. You can fit a lot more stuff in it. I have a wire MESH wheel (not a wire/spoked wheel...the wire mesh ones ARE safe for adult hamsters), CritterTrail Puzzle Playground, little plastic house, plastic igloo, CritterTrail food bowl, and a LixIt water bottle in it.
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Post by Die Fledermaus on Oct 25, 2004 1:22:45 GMT -4
Jessica,
Interesting. I have a CT2, but I always worried about that long vertical tube and how well a dwarf could climb it. So a Syrian is in it.
The others dwarfs I have are in Habitrail Space Stations with add ons, and it seems to work. Very little chewing.
Tell me more about dwarfs getting diabetes from their diet. I want to avoid that, of course!
Thanks.
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Post by sapphireratties on Mar 9, 2005 3:24:09 GMT -4
My black syrian hamster is housed in a 90qt sterilite bin, with holes drilled high in the sides and in the lid for ventaliation. There is tons of space for her to run around in, plus it is totally customizeable. If you want to drill holes for something, you can later seal it with aqurium sealent, and smooth it out.
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Post by Die Fledermaus on Mar 9, 2005 6:54:11 GMT -4
Speaking of drilling holes, last week I was doing some major house cleaning. . . and found a SKILL hand drill I forgot I even had! Warning about Sterilites: on very rare occasions they have gnawed THROUGH the thick sides of the bin, and temporarily escaped! Syrians, that it.
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Post by sapphireratties on Mar 10, 2005 13:56:12 GMT -4
oh i know it, I temporarily had rats in a sterilite, only supposed to be in there a few days, the day after I put them in there, I come upstairs to find a hole the size of the biggest ones head in the side of the bin. . Her bin gets checked for chewage every night.
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Post by Die Fledermaus on Mar 10, 2005 21:43:29 GMT -4
It is very rare for Syrians to gnaw through Sterilite, but with rats daily checking would be a must! The one who escaped I did not even know was gone. . . until she came running up to me when I was cleaning another habitat! It was surprising.
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