Home Sweet Hammy Home

24/12/2025

23/12/2025

Deep appreciation for the staff at VCA Civano Animal Hospital!

They've gone above and beyond with their Giving Tree project this year selecting local rescues who will benefit from donations and creating cute tree decor which have desired wish list items printed on the back. Clients can take one and purchase a gift then bring it back to the hospital for distribution at the end of the year for the listed rescues.

All of them are so cute but I think the guinea pig and hamster shaped ornaments are especially adorable 💝

22/12/2025

Scout has a new life in a new cage and will soon be adopted by a fantastic previous adopter but while he is here in quarantine being monitored, I think it's important to explain why he was admitted.

We all can see the obvious in the picture right? This cage was inappropriate... but usually for surrender requests cage conditions are not revealed right away. In Scout's case the main focal point of his surrender, was his owner attempting to secure him a safe place to go prior to having to fly out of state for a relocation. He had another cage, a 65 quart bin, but his owner brought him in this one, so it's all I have a picture of.

Although many people are moving which is the reason for their surrender request, most of them are not willing to pay a surrender fee.

Scout's owner was!

She surrendered him and sent $50 through Zelle. Furthermore after visiting the rescue and looking around at all the cages and seeing this one that Scout would be living in, she came to the conclusion that she would need to do a lot more research if she ever became a hamster owner again. And at the end of the day, that's all that really matters!

Of course it's great too that she took full responsibility for her pet and willingly paid the surrender fee, which will be used to cover any veterinarian care he would need prior to adoption, and if no vet visit is needed the fee offsets supply costs...

But what I really want to accomplish in my rescue is help people realize what hamsters actually need to have happy lives.

Mission accomplished for this situation ✔️

But... there are many more similar situations are out there 😔

21/12/2025

Happy Sunday everyone, here is a behind the scenes in my rescue post for you all! Ever wonder what happens when a new hamster arrives?

Well... I am happy to share my list of goals for all the cage set ups I create prior to arrival and a little bit about my intake process too!

Each animal receives a dose of topical mite medication before being placed in their new home, and then a follow-up treatment two to three weeks later, before they become available for adoption. This is their quarantine and monitoring time where I pay close attention to their behavior and body language making sure they are thriving, and defining their temperament so I can make a perfect match once they have an interested adopter.

I hold future adopters to a high standard, but first I meet my own high standards! Bin cages are available to purchase for a reasonable price, anything donated goes at no charge. If an adopter wants to use their own cage, I'll work with them to make sure all of my goals are met, and then we plan out a smooth transition.

I am big on giving plenty of access to every inch of the cage. Utilizing platforms are great, but not packing bedding in all the way to the top, and around them can be a hindrance in their navigation, among other things. All of my dwarf hamster cages have a low bedding side where the sand bath is placed. I've never felt comfortable with such a heavy item elevated, even on a platform, knowing how great they are at wiggling into tight spaces, so I had to come up with a design where the sand baths were flat at the bottom of the cage. Then I angle the bedding upwards and arrange items carefully so that navigation of every square inch is easy, but there is still half the cage designated for high bedding which facilitates burrowing, as well as the other natural behaviors listed on my goal list. Proper introduction and surrender details coming soon!

20/12/2025

Short introduction of the newest newbie at Home Sweet Hammy Home with more details to come soon. Just admitted last night and immediately settled into his new cage keeping busy all night, exploring, burrowing and constantly eating. It's been a pleasure to have him here already, and I am pleased he has transitioned without any difficulty.

Little man does have a tenative foster to adopt family already, but will be here for a few weeks in quarantine before transferring over to their home in his new cage, after the new year 💜

13/12/2025

I get worried when someone tells me they were advised to scatter feed their hamster exclusively, there is a phrase circulating around the community which says "Ditch the bowl"

Ummmm... don't do that.

Scatter feeding may work for some hamsters but it's not going to work for them all. Most people are unaware how fragile the health of hamsters who were bred in rodent mills really is. Some of them end up being okay despite what they were fed in the mills and then later while they were on display for sale in the pet stores buuuut... that's not always the case. So that advice is risky.

Hamsters need to be assured that they will always find food in their bowls. If someone wants to scatter feed, that's fine, but food should be offered in the bowl as well. It's also important to be VERY mindful of what we feed our hamsters, store-bought food seriously lacks quality. But this is a whole other topic entirely which would take forever to outline in a short post. (I have a page on my rescue website dedicated to feeding hamsters).

This video clip is of Micah, the newest intake here who has settled in very nicely and enjoys his cage set up immensely. I have not created a profile for him yet on Petfinder or Adopt-a-Pet, his age is estimated to be older by the time he was surrendered and because he came right before the holidays his availability wouldn't be until January which means he may very well end up being a permanent sanctuary resident and that's okay. I knew that when I took him in.

While it may not be ideal for me to care for another one for the rest of his life, I am committed to always doing what is best for each animal I take responsibility for. Uprooting them at his age after they have finally gotten settled just isn't in me.

And if anyone is wondering, I do scatter a little bit of food around for Micah, but as you can see, he's got food in his bowl too. He's timid and would not thrive well if he had to search for his food all the time!

08/12/2025

Happy Monday Everyone! Here is Rupert the silly wanting you to think he is a lazy relaxed "normal" dog who lounges around the yard every day with his ball, innocently doing "normal" dog things.

But don't be deceived.

This is his new behavior when I tell him it's time to go inside. He will dramatically throw himself down and pretend to be a big puppy. He wants to stay outside all day and night playing ball, chasing flying bugs, trying to eat grass and weeds, stalking birds and lizards, jumping at the fence and on our house, basically causing destruction all over... oh and digging holes too, we all know dirt tastes great right? 😂

Disclaimer: Rupert never gets left alone unattended outside, that would be a disaster. He does receive plenty of exercise and a lot of enrichment. And for anyone who doesn't know, he's the dog living in our hamster rescue, recovering from Valley Fever. He's got a history of being adopted and returned and then came seizures and his illness, prior to that he was a stray... so these days he's just enjoying being a dog who doesn't have to wonder where his next meal is coming from, gets his medication on time and a whole bunch of supplements too and receives veterinarian care every 3 months which is by the way extremely expensive, but who's complaining? I'm not. I just don't want everyone to think I purposely brought this purebred GSP into my rescue because I didn't.

Well.. okay I did, only to save him though, but I didn't choose his breed or anticipate the craziness associated with it. Overall, I've just made the best of a bad situation this last year and it's really not that bad anymore... I mean I don't need to sleep it's FINE 😂

05/12/2025

In the days before Thanksgiving I never got a chance to post anything due to the constant pace of animal care, rescue operation and balancing it all with personal life, and then I thought I would at least have a chance to post on Thanksgiving Day, but NOPE. Not sure why I thought that anyways with too much to do!

I never had a chance in the days after Thanksgiving to post either and now here we are a whole week later, but gifts have been arriving and I wanted to express gratitude. Another bag of Carefresh bedding was received after I got this picture too.

The donations arrived individually and without gift receipts, I've already thanked the person who let me know they sent the back row items but to everyone else who sent the rest... I hope you see this and know how grateful I am 💜

PS: that's our Christmas tree on our kitchen table, the only space available in the entire downstairs where the rescue is, and those little gifts are from a lovely supporter who sent them last year around Christmas time. After opening them last year, I taped them back up as best as I could and kept them for this year and will keep them for years to come. They may be empty now, but the memory of what they contained warms my heart year around 💜💜

19/11/2025

At all times every day there is a lot to do in my rescue operation. Animal care itself consists of feeding the animals, combined daily with multiple loads of laundry, several wheels to clean, a lot of hamster sand baths to strain and guinea pig litter trays to empty, scrub and refill. 5 dog food bowls to wash twice a day and put away and 5 dog water bowls to get washed and replaced, then theres guinea pig vegetable bowls, plus pellet dishes to get washed too, cage cleaning is always happening and don't get me started on the floors in all the rooms of the rescue 😬

Sprinkled into all of this is phone calls about adoption, emails about surrender requests, personal life occurs at some point too, holding down a job is necessary, and then driving to pick up animals being surrendered and veterinarian visits take quite a chunk of time...

But the point of this post isn't to say I have soooo much work to do everyday. Instead I want to draw attention that no matter how much CHAOS is going on all around us...

Veggie Time is NEVER skipped!!!

So the surrender request I recently got which states their two guinea pigs are not receiving their vegetables and haven't in over 3 years because the owners are busy... Um...Well hmmmm.

Don't know what to say to that one

17/11/2025

All right everyone, here is some behind the scenes rescue transparency. These 3 hamsters were owner requested surrenders. Sprinter was intaken in February of this year, his owner was so grateful I was accepting him into my rescue, when I asked for a $40 surrender fee, she paid $80 and had several Amazon Wish List items delivered too! He was never adopted so was transitioned into a donated Niteangel Vista cage and is loving life fully; more than likely he'll remain here permanently, Roborovski hamsters are difficult to adopt out, and he is getting older.

Feistyanna was admitted in September and Micah just a few weeks ago, they came from completely separate situations but both of their owners were asked to pay a $40 surrender fee, however, they each paid $50 instead. Micah was already 1 year old at his admission and with the holidays around the corner, his adoption chances are slim for several reasons.

And Feistyanna? Well... she's the youngest to be admitted but also lives up to her name every day, she bites and grabs so....

Okay back to surrender fees. Not all owners are willing to pay them and I don't always require them, each situation is unique and many factors are first considered.

So why request surrender fees and how are they used? Something has to offset increasing costs. Surrender fees are not financial gain for my rescue, just a little help. $40 is half of a vet exam, so for each of these hamsters I have saved their fees in an account in case a future vet visit is needed. Should they not need to visit the vet while here, the fees will then absorb back into my regular rescue supply account and be used to offset purchases of essentials like bedding, sand, enrichment and food.

PS: People may or may not agree with surrender fees. Rescue operators may choose to require them and they may not. We all have our own decisions to make. I've taken in some stray animals recently and of course surrender fees did not come along with them, every intake situation is different, but these three owners demonstrated responsible pet ownership and for that I am thankful!

08/11/2025

Nutmeg, the stray bunny found in a ferral cat colony and trapped in a spay and neuter cage, has made a lot of progress over the past 3 weeks. He was brought over yesterday by his foster family and received his follow-up dose of mite treatment and is looking so much better! Has been gaining weight, still not enough to get neutered but that's okay it will happen, also is almost fully litter box trained!

As he hung out on my kitchen table calmly looking around, it hit me again just how severe of a situation he had been in while out on his own as a stray fending for himself in the city. It's a miracle he's here and doing so well. His foster family is dedicated to Nutmeg's care and that's much appreciated! They'll keep rehabilitating him and at some point we'll hopefully be able to get him neutered and vaccinated and adopted out. It'll take a few months though, so we are working on a wish list for him. Of course at the top of the list are the basics like hay, critical care for his supplemental feeding and bunny pellets, but a few toys and appropriate furnishings would be useful too!

I will add a link when the list is created but for now just putting an update out that Nutmeg is doing great!

07/11/2025

The Guinea Pig Secret Santa Project is asking for more Santas to sign up due to a lot more rescues joining this year. Volunteer efforts behind the scenes of the program are deeply appreciated every year!

The support has been a tremendous help while every rescue battles normal rescue operation, care of the animals, ever-increasing surrender requests while attempting to adopt out AND juggle veterinarian trips, plus so much unlisted chaos of rescue all at the same time but then adding to that holiday demands... it can be overwhelming.

Thank you Lauren and Jane