Two new Roborovski hamsters

Afer a suitable period of mourning for Grumpty, Mojito and Zorro, I've become the owner of two new dwarf hamsters, Roborovskis to be precise. They're still quite small and are unnamed as of yet.

Roborovskis are noted for being much more active than the other breeds of dwarf hamster, and I've already noticed that my new little dudes are clocking up the miles on the wheel. They're also quite adept little climbers. As a result I feel that I have to buy some additional tubes and climbing stuff to keep them occupied. Hence the hamster suspension bridge available for purchase on eBay.

The other thought that's currently brewing in my head is a little project to measure exactly how far the hamsters run over the course of a night. A little bicycle computer should do the job, but at 54cm in diameter, the hamster wheel is at the small end of what bicycle computers are typically designed for. I'm still searching for a suitable non-contact revolution counter.

Meet Zorro - the Winter White Hamster

I've posted before about my dwarf hamsters, but considering how much joy and happiness they give me, they deserve a lot more space.

Today, I'm introducing Zorro, a female winter white dwarf hamster who is approximately 18 months old. She shares her cage with Mojito, a male, and the poor man is henpecked to death by her. She is undoubtedly the dominant hamster in cage, constantly harassing and bothering poor old Mojito, who I imagine just wants a quiet life.


She loves to run and clocks up miles every night in her wheel. I've often walked into the kitchen/living room at 4 or 5 am to find Zorro looking at me from her wheel. Mojito, on the other hand, is definitely a much more easy-going hamster, only running the odd time. I just think that Zorro is a little ball of energy.

I took these photos with my new Nikon D40 and was delighted with some of the results. I want to get photos similar to those you see in pet books, but to be honest, Zorro wasn't the best photography subject as she's just too active. In the end, I had to bribe her with a little crumb of bread just so she would sit still long enough. In the picture below, she's doing her downright best to escape from the impromptu pen I created on our living room floor.

Swimming Hamsters

Meet Mojito and Zorro, my pair of Winter White dwarf hamsters. Mojito (male) and Zorro (female) originally came to me as pups and are now about a year old. Mojito was originally blond and Zorro was pitch black, but over the course of last year's winter, their fur gradually changed to white. The funny thing is that their fur did not return to it's normal colour over the course of this summer.

They're a funny pair. Mojito is constantly trying to get his leg over on Zorro, who as a typical female, is having none of him. On the other hand, she has him well henpecked. A microcosm of a marriage. It is a pity that she's not more receptive as I bought this pair with the intention of breeding, but the comedy value I get from watching Mojito try it on with Zorro more than makes up for the lack of offspring.

Yesterday, Mojito, who is normally a lazy sort of dude unless it comes to trying to shag Zorro, spent a solid hour swimming in the sawdust at the bottom of the cage. I spent a while watching him trying to figure out what he was looking for. I though it might be food, but he ignored the food bowl and the hidden caches he found. He would disappear beneath the sawdust for several minutes at a go and resurface, covered in little bits of sawdust. Daft eejit!