hamster diet and behaviour

Question
Will you recommend rubbermaid plastic "clear" box as a cage for hamster? I see somebody drill some holes on this kind of box and put hamster in. My impression is that the plastic box is usually larger than the wired cage sold at the pet store. It is a lot cheaper too.

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Followup To
Question -
This is my first hamster. I got a three storey wired cage from petmart. Unfortunately the wheel comes with the cage doesn't turn, so I have to buy another one. Here are some questions I have:

1. How many time should I feed my hamster per day?

2. I don't like to put the food on the food dish because my hamster like to pee in the dish. Is that a way I can "teach" my hamster not to do that? Food + pee aren't good!

3. I put two chewing sticks inside the cage but the hamster doesn't like it. She like to bite the cages! Why?

4. My hamster doesn't like me to touch her at all. I try to pet her gently but she will run away from me. Why?
Answer -
Hi,
thank you for your question.
Your hamster should be fed once per day in the evening. You can scatter the food in the cage, that makes it more interesting for the hamster and you solve the peeing in the dish-problem. Good hamster food should contain very few sunflower seeds and no peanuts at all (too fatty, sunflower seeds make good treats, though).
If you offer her a dish with sand, she might use this as a toilet, try putting some poop and pee-ed on substrate in the dish at first.

Cagebiting is mostly a sign of boredom and often a too small cage. Most cages sold in pet shops are just too small even for dwarf hamsters. A good cage for a Syrian hamster is at least 39x20x20 inches long, high and wide and for a dwarf the minimum is 30x20x20. Old fish tanks make good hamster homes when they are no higher than wide (to ensure proper ventilation) and they are often sold cheap at garage sales, in the ads of the local paper or at pet shops (ask for leaking takns).

The chewing sticks are not healthy anyway because they contain too much sugar. You can make hamster cookies yourself by mixing hamster food, flour and water into a sticky dough and baking it for 10-20 minutes (depending on the size of the cookies). You can add shredded fruits and vegetables to the cookies, too. They will last a long time in the freezer or in a cookie jar.

You need patience to tame your hamster. Put your hand in the cage and let her investigate by herself. When she feels comfortable sitting on your hand, maybe eating a treat, you can begin moving your hand around in the cage. If she is comfortable with that, take her out and form a cave with both hands to make her feel secure.

When you buy a new wheel, I can only recommend getting a Wodent Wheel from http://www.transoniq.com/ They wil last a long time and unlike other wheels are not dangerous for your hamsters health (too small wheels can cause spine adhesion for example)

I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer

Answer
The hamster will gnaw through the container sooner or later and a few holes in the lid won't be enough to ventilate the container. A fish tank really is ideal or a wire cage made for bunnies, cavvbies ect, wrapped in close meshed wire netting (you can get that in DIY stores, it's often used for aviaries).