Ruth's Hamster Page

13/03/2026

Here's a public service announcement about hamster toilets. If you want yours to use a jar as a loo it has to be big enough. The present hamster (Pamina) is a large Syrian lady hamster and has one of those big jars that used to hold whole pickled gerkins.

16/09/2025

Gwen was with me from April 2024 to Sept 2025, and unfortunately had both pyometra and breast cancer. She was a very whizzy hamster who had an exciting 18 months. She loved travelling on trains to meet people, and did that many times when I went to Chepstow on parent duties. She also liked napping in vases on my desk, and stealing any food that was within her reach. For some reason, she also liked to sit on the edge of the desk and watch the cars lights in the road below my flat.

16/09/2025

Baer arrived in November 2022, and took the one way trip to the vet in April 2024 after, I think, being gassed by the new sofa bought from IKEA. I'm asthmatic and only survived because I sleep in another room and had the vents on the windows open all the time. He'd had a fun 18 months, though, being a great therapy hamster and travelling by train up and down to Cardiff while I was flat buying and moving. He even got his own ticket and spent two nights living it up in a Travel Lodge. He loved the bath as an emergency hamster cage and ran circuits all night.

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.