Ruth's Hamster Page

29/09/2024

I'm going to write a little infodump on hamsters and the food you can buy for them. Actual hamster food is crap, and small furries tend to leave half of it because it's mostly made up of vitamin biscuit and not things a hamster would want to eat. I used to buy Wilco parrot mix which was brilliant, and then Wilco shut, and I ended up buying normal parrot mix which was better than hamster food but still not great. Here is a comparison of Harry Hamster (various people make it as it is a published recipe), the other generally available parrot food which I had to take the coconut out of (it stank and went rancid) and supplement with sunflower seeds, and the new Bamfords Top Flight Premium which is just like Wilco's old stuff. In fact, I think these people might even have supplied Wilco. I ordered a bag directly from them. Gwen, my presemt hamster approves 100%. Also, BTW, I have had two bags of Pets at Home own parrot food that was possibly the Bamfords sort repackaged but running with insects. Not nice and needed throwing out too.

29/09/2024

Jasper Hamster was an adoption from Pets at Home because, apparently he wasn't pretty enough. Something about having ears too big and feet too big. He loved eating the hamster safe flowers (pansies and daisies) I grew in pots outside the flat, and grew to a monster size on Wiko Parrot Mix. The big feet were a good warning of that. He was a brilliant Hamster to have as he thought he was a cat. He wasn't really into the hamster ball and preferred having a run on the bookshelf and then returning to napping next to me on the sofa.

22/05/2023

15/08/2021

Lucien sadly passed away in July 2021 having had a lot of exciting adventures and getting the grand old age of two years, eight months. He arrived in January 2019 as a rescue from Pets at Home in Lowestoft, as he'd been returned. He was a Christmas present, and - quelle surprise - he'd bitten his new owner. The child had called him Lucy, so I just changed that into a male version and gave him a home. He ate lots and grew very long, and was an amazingly laid-back hamster. Proves how proper handling and pet care can tame anything. He survived Covid as I'm sure he had it at the same time I had it. He loved to come to work and interacting with my special needs groups. He was once also almost arrested by the Suffolk police who came to visit us.

14/06/2020

This is Molly who was my second hamster in Lowestoft. She was one not bought from Pets at Home becuse she was so shy. This never really changed although she did get better. She had a thing for jumping into cereal bowls as she really liked Oatly. I can't digest cow's milk for some reason, but she even liked the chocolate version of the oat milk. She also got famous when she was featured in the Guardian newspaper Pet of the Week page - the theme was 'Pets at Work'. Click on the link and then scroll down the page to see the photo of her being a librarian helper.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/guardianwitness-blog/gallery/2013/jul/08/hard-working-pets-readers-pictures #/?picture=412251627&index=11ver

26/02/2020

What do you do with a hamster taken too early from his mum, who has growth problems and is blind? You have to be his mum yourself and feed him things like baby food until he's a bit bigger. Meet Tiresias, who the pet shop owner thought was a girl (he wasn't), who always remained a bit of a short arse, and who was the best small and furry weather forecaster I've had. He was a very well travelled hamster and liked to eat my packed lunch because he felt safe IN the bag it came in, then napped in there too ...

26/02/2020

Next came Horatio ... he wasn't a very long-lived hamster (he had serious chest problems) but he was a champion nest builder while he lasted. If hamsters could have professions this one would be a sculptor or artist and his favourite material was Marks and Spencer loo roll. He could make perfectly round beds around himself and he's asleep in the two at the end. He was also rather good at looking indignant when woken up.

26/02/2020

Lucy was a female who arrived in my life in the mid 2000s and that I was asked to rescue by a pet shop in Willesden. She was smaller than the others in her litter, had some sort of dwarfism and her tail had obviously been broken at some time. I nearly called her Cinderella as her two sisters kept beating her up, and she had a big hole in one ear. Despite her size and leg problem she really made up for it in personality. Her favourite treat was a specific dog biscuit made for Great Danes which she used to drag into her cage all by herself. She could also drink hot chocolate out of a mug without getting anything, including her whiskers, wet.

Her favourite trick was to play hide-and-seek with hamster treats. At that time you could get some that really reeked, no idea what was in them, but she thought they were wonderful. If you put one down for a moment it would make things smelly and then you could then hide it elsewhere - I swear you could have trained her as a sniffer hamster. I came home from work one day to meet Michael, down for the weekend and there early, playing with her. He had all sorts of things piled all over the computer desk, and she was working round systematically collecting the hidden treats.

26/02/2020

These are about the oldest photos I have and are from about 2002 ... this is Henut (so called as I was translating a mummy with the same name at the Horniman Museum at the time) and the picture is not my boyfriend but a neighbour in a multi-occupant house in London who she seemed think was her's. She spent forever in her ball running between flats when we had the doors open in the summer. I would 'lose' her whenever this chap (who was Australian btw) used to shout for her when he came home from work. I then had to go and find her when I was due to go to bed - she'd follow me back to my flat in her ball like a dog. One day Emma (the Aussie chap's girlfriend) arrived being very apologetic and brought photos to prove they'd not been abusing my squeak. Apparently it was all about cheese which she didn't get much of due to my dairy intolerance. Henut also used to doze in her cage and would fall off the Persil box which was her bed ...

26/02/2020

I've been asked to create a place on the web for hamster pictures. Friends want to learn about the many hamsters I have rescued over the years and with which I have shared my living space. I'll try to give you some sort of retrospective when I can track down the places I've put photos - they've been in all sorts of hosting sites over the years.