Anyone A Rodent Keeper?

[MBOU]

Too much lettuce could lead to wet tail.

Not true Thank god! Wet Tail is a terrifying disease! It can lead to diarrhoea and kidney/liver damage though.

Wet Tail is caused my either E.Coli or L. Intracellurlaris. It's a bacterial disease (hence its contagious) but not from what an animal has eaten, though I guess its like white spot is to fish, can be stress induced.

Again, this might interest you?
http/hamster.etla.org/cgi-bin/topic_show.pl?tid=59

My current syrian is 4 years+ and counting (i reckon he is closer to 5) but i used to own as many as 50 hamsters, not counting the numerous rats and mice and gerbils and an opossum and gambian pouched rats and the reptiles and the rabbits and guinea pigs etc. I even showed Syrian Hamsters for a bit, though that was mainly just to prove a point the NHC (national hamster council) are a bunch of elitist snobs and didnt like people who had opinions so I entered 5 hamsters in one show and knocked them down a bit taking several 1sts, 2nds, 3rds, reserves, best in class, best small breeder and best in show or to that extent. Needless to say they definately didnt like me any more after that! Especially as they were all our own bred hamsters, lots of people buy other peoples hamsters and show them and take the glory... We didnt though lol.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Good information there. Luckily I have never had to deal with wet tail and hadn't done actual reading about it. I was going off info from my mom, but she also spouts off "old wives tails" on almost anything

I haven't had a Syrian in a few years. I have been keeping dwarfs, they are much tidier and I dont need giant cages for them. Syrians are like Bettas to me. They are rarely kept in cages that are appropriate for their size, IMO. I took up my living room with fish tanks. Maybe when we move I'll have the space.

 

[MBOU]

Yeah, my Syrian is one of the plastic tank cages with wire doors on top, thankfully he is a smnall boy and he needs his movement restricted because of his arthritis. Syrians do need a lot of space and attention, they are so demanding!

 

[nuthead]

yes i have a gerbil called raggs

 

[Buffy]

I used to breed and show Guinea Pigs and had about 40, now have given up
and only have 5 oldies left, the breeds I bred were P.E Goldens, Chocolate Foxes,
and Slates, did very well in the shows with these.

 

[Blitz]

nuthead: LOL, cute name! I like it, it's cute.

Buffy: You bred guinea pigs?! The baby ones are so adorable!!

 

[MBOU]

Used to keep some cool things *sigh* miss em loads! (not all are rodents i know!)

-Gambian Pouched Rats
-Zebra Grass Mice
-Multimammates
-Voles (Native species)
-Guenthers Voles (my housemate was one of the first to breed and write up on them, personally i think they are evil creatures with a serious taste for blood!)
-Mice (Native Field Mice)
-Pygmy Mice
-Doormice (glis glis that someone legally trapped and we looked after it temporarily)
-African Pygmy Doormice
-Mouselike Hamsters (my housemate and I were first in UK to breed these although someone else is claiming it was them, they bought theirs off us so its all lies lol but she isnt worth our time fighting)
-Sugar Gliders
-Flying Squirrels
-Acacia Rats (I adore these guys and make awesome introduction to exotic species!)
-Hedgehog (native species temporarily housed until weight gained)
-Short Tailed Opossums
-Steppes Lemmings (for some reason, lemmings hate me, they have seriously feeble jaws so rarely if ever bite... and yet not only could i be guaranteed a bite but they would always manage to draw blood!)

Rodent bites I'd rather be bitten by a snake any day!!

All on top of loads of different colour/coat varieties of syrian hamster, winter white hamster, campbells russian hamster, roborovski hamster, fancy mice (inc hairless and rex), fancy rats (inc hairless and rex), rex rabbits, rex and abysinnian guinea pigs and thats not starting on the parrot and the 50 odd snakes and lizards we had!

Mouselike Hamsters probably being the rarest and to have them breed as well!! But the native species of mice and voles were equally fascinating! I worked on a farm and they were seen as pests, i'd take a bucket with me when feeding and everytime i tipped water out of feed troughs, i'd find voles or mice underneath so would nab a few until we had the right ratio of males and females.

We wanted to try the 'native' (haha) wild rats but they were just too aggressive once caught and they stressed so we didnt keep them, wouldnt have been fair.

To say it felt like a zoo barely even covered it! But we kept some amazing species!

 

[micko]

-Sugar Gliders

I'd love these. Been doing some research but haven't even found anywhere that I could get one from yet.

 

[MBOU]

Seriously not as sociableas people make them out to be they are unbelieveably cute! But not one i'd do again in a hurry! They stink! Need loads of space, generally out early morning/late evening if not just out at night and need constant fresh fruit and insects which stinks and makes their poo smell awful lol.

If i was going to keep them, i'd want colour morphs but they are barely even availeable in the UK, gliders are huge in the US but much less so over here! Dont know about Ireland but assume even less so!

The Opossums were gorgeous too but a bit of a nightmare, they eat so much and lots of cat biscuits and meat which means they stink something awful!

Acacia rats have more complicated diets than your normal rodents (need variety of small seeds but also some cat biscuits/insects, fruit and nectar (can get from supermarkets) r failing that... a little acacia honey! And they are really intelligent and dont get too big and never really bite!

Flying Squirrels I would give anything to own again, they are totally amazing! Gliders rarely glide because they can run and climb easier but the squirrels really go for it! But they do need a large cage and a room to glide in without fear of open windows or predators... and they cost about £200 a pair if you are lucky *sigh*

 

[RossC]

2 Chinese Dwarf Hamster who are nameless LOL + 1 Syrian Hamster named Terry

 

[Rummynose]

Our first hamster was a Teddy-Bear-Hamster called Goofy, and he was the cutest of all the ones we'd owned. He would play Pick-Up-Sticks with the children, and was very sociable.

We had big cages for them, one was a 3 story cage, but after one hamster, named Bear, unluckily fell through the opening onto his hamster house and broke his neck I would not recommend them.

Then there was Luna who lived to a ripe age of 3, Daisy, and Snuggly and Downy! We would either hamster-proof a room and let them run while we watched or let them run in their hamster ball! There was a close call once where someone left a door open and one hamster in the hamster ball fell down two steps onto the landing toward the basement stairs, but we were able to prevent her from taking the corner to those stairs!

I've never owned any dwarf hamsters, but I may try those some time in the future!

 

[FishFanatic04]

The only thing about dwarfs that I wish were different are their social skills. They do have them, but you have to work at it more then with a Syrian. If I go even 2 days without interacting with mine I have to slowly reach in and sit still a minute before she comes to me; but if I play with her everyday, usually more then once, then she just jump right in my hand and I can lift her out.

My past syrians I would just reach in, pick them up and off we played.

 

[FishLover4+1]

i used to have a hamster called Hermione but since we currently have 2 rabbits, 4 goldfish, 4 variatus platys and 1 v. platy fry my dad wont let me get another one.

 

[Blitz]

My parents won't let me get another guinea pig. I'm a goldfish keeper too. They poop too much. I should've started off with something like a betta.