My side project, HamWiki. Using Media Wiki to create the ultimate hamster resource.

Currently we have 9 hamsters, this is a history of all the hamsters we have had.

Roborovski Hamsters

In 2004, Mike and I decided that we should get some sort of pets. I fancied gerbils, having had several Syrian hamsters when I was a child, so we bought ourselves a cage and waited until christmas was over (so they didn't have to travel) and on the 2nd of Jan '05 went to Pets at Home to get our new gerbils. When we got there, Mike saw they had Roborovski hamsters. I'd introduced him to some at a pet shop in Aberystwyth several months earlier, and he was amazed by their tiny size. So in the end we ended up with a pair of "boys", Euripedes and Iripadose. Due to overcrowding, there'd been a fair bit of fighting and Uri had had his left ear chewed off.

Uri	Ira

Uri died early, at only 8 months old leaving Ira alone. Ira spent the next day hunched in the corner regusing to come out, so we thought the best thing to do was buy him a new friend. At this point, I decided that Ira needed sexing properly, and discovered he was a she. So we went and bought Gel

Gel and Ira sitting in the tubes

In November, I saw a message on a forum from a breeder who had been forced to close down due to ill-health. He had a single roborovski hamster, so we decided to take him on. He appeared to be somewhere between 12 and 18 months old, and had a bit of a hunchback and was not a fully developed male, so we introduced him to the girls to live.

Zac

One morning a friend of mine spotted another roborovski listed on ebay, and so we ended up with Big Silly. Her original owner had bought a group of them, and ended up with several cages due to fighting. When she got home from dropping Big Silly off with us, she discovered they'd been mis-sexed and she had a litter of babies!

Big Silly

Sadly a few days after getting Big Silly, Ira passed away aged around 20 months.

Yet another hamster emergency caught my attention, a friend from a hamster forum was being forced to re-home all her hamsters as her landlord suddenly decided that they were causing irreperable damage to the property. After much nagging, Mike agreed we could collect a hamster to help. I fancied a chinese female, but when we got there Mike was won over by Psyche, the most enormous robo we'd ever seen. At full strech he was almost 10cm long, a normal robo is about 6cm. He was alone due to his habit of bullying other hamsters, and since we had only females we thought it best to keep him alone.

Psyche

Again, a couple of days after getting Psyche we lost another hamster, Zac had a stroke and passed away a couple of hours later. Big Silly was then introduced to Gel to keep her company.

Gel and Big Silly

In October, a friend asked if we'd adopt her hamster "Bumble". She'd had him for about a year, and just wasn't confident enough to handle him, so we agreed.

Bumble

Sadly Bumble wasn't with us for long, he died in his sleep early January '07. Later that month I read in the paper that the local RSPCA needed to raise £500 000, and noticed they had a website. I had a browse, and discovered they list all their animals that are up for adoption, and "Biggles" a "male chinese hamster" caught my eye, mainly because he was a roborovski. After loosing Bumble, we had cage room to adopt another hamster, so decided to go ahead and came home with "Biggles" who upon closer examination was actually a girl.

Zosima (Little Silly)

A fortnight after adopting Little Silly, Gel passed away, aged around 18 months. Little Silly was then introduced to Big Silly.

In April '07, a friend had her first litter of roborovskis from a breeding colony she'd purchased up almost a year before, and in May we went for a visit and came home with two tiny babies, Redrum (so called as he was tagged with red on his bottom as he was an escape artist) and Little 'un (the second smallest in the litter). As they were so young (their mother had a second litter, so they had to be seperated) we put them with Psyche so they could cuddle up to him for warmth, and he made an excellent uncle.

The Litter	Little 'un, Psyche, Redrum

A few weeks late, we realised Little 'un was a girl, and moved her in with the Sillies. Redrum stayed with Psyche until Psyche passed away aged around 26 months.

Amy, who we got Big Silly from asked if we'd take one of her babies, Pearl as she just didn't have room after Pearl fought with her cagemate. So along came another! She moved in with the other girls. Little Silly died in September, now the girls live as a trio.

Perl, Little Silly, Little 'un, Big Silly	Perl, Big Silly, Little 'un

 

Winter White Hamsters

We got our first three Winter Whites on the 31st of July 2005. They were born on the 17th of June, due to a vet mis-sexing their parents. We got two "normal" coloured and one Sapphire, and named them Archibald, Reginald and Theobald. Winter Whites normally live between 18 and 24 months, Theo and Archie have since passed away, but Reggie (middle) is still alive and kicking at 28 months.

Archie	Reggie	Theo

After getting the boys, I discovered that there were Hamster Shows, and took Archie and Theo along to a couple. They didn't do very well (unsurprising since they were the offspring of pet shop hamsters, and the breeders at hamster shows have mostly been breeding for years!), so I decided to get a breeding pair of hamsters and get into the showing more seriously. Hank and Peggy (named after the couple in King of the Hill) are a sapphire and a sapphire pearl.

Hank and Peggy	Hank	Peggy

 

Campbells Russian Dwarfs

And the lastest two additions, Vande and Graaff (Van, De and Graaff were possible names for the WW trio, but "Duh" didn't seem like a kind name!).

Vande and Graaff eating	Vande running