getting a hammie soon

Question
Hello, I have decided to get another hamster... its been years since I'd had one so I need some help with a few things.....

How old should he be when I get him and how long will it take to tame him? how long should I wait after I get him to hold him?

I have a standard hamster cage.. the same as the ones that come in those starter kits, will this work for a syrian hamster? what else besides a cage and food do I need?

I think I'll feed hartz brand food will this be ok? please get back to me as soon as possible, thanks.

Answer
Hi,
thank you for you question.
Those starter kit cages are way too small - there are almost no good hamster cages sold in pet shops. They are incredibly active and need lots of room to run and dig. For a Syrian hamster the absolute minimum cage size is 3 ft long, 2 ft wide and 1.5 ft high with some second storeys. Take a look at bird cages, they are often a good choice. It's just important that the bars are no more than 0,3 inches apart, especially if you get a young hamster.

Here you can see a few excellent hamster cages (some of those are homemade)
http://www.diebrain.de/pix/hi/shriek/voli.jpg
http://www.diebrain.de/pix/hi/Alexandrabroich.jpg
http://www.diebrain.de/pix/hi/MorphiGehegeNeu001.jpg
http://www.arcor.de/palb/alben/80/94180/400_6133626162336432.jpg
http://www.arcor.de/palb/alben/80/94180/400_6239633266316431.jpg
A combination of an old fish tank filled with substrate and a cage on top allows the hamster to dig, run and climb and is often cheap to get, take a look at garage sales and ads in local papers for old cages and tank that are no longer fit for keeping fish in them.

Besides cage and food you will need hamster toys, but those are easily made: tubes from toilet paper, crumpled paper, dry leaves, a few branches, cork bark, cardboard boxes, baskets ect. - anything to chew and hide in is fine. Plastic should be avoided since it can be chewed and might hurt the hamster. If you want to offer a wheel, I recommend the Wodent Wheel made by http://www.transoniq.com/
It's big enough even for a big Syrian and it's safe, with a closed surface, the plastic it's made from doesn't splinter when chewed. Wheel with open sufaces and spokes can result in broken bones and hurt backs.

Don't get a hamster ball! Hamsters rely on their sense of smell, hearing and touch to find their way around and all those senses are numbed inside a ball - there's nothing to touch and smell but the ball and it's very loud in there. Apart from that, hamster legs can get caught in the ventilation slots. Letting the hamster run around in a hamster safe room or a play pen is a much better alternative and if you seat yourself in the playpen you can let the hamster climb around on you, taming him in the process.

A water bottle is a good idea. Some hamsters don't drink much but water should still be offered. A toilet for hamsters might make cleaning easier. Hamster usually choose one corner as toilet and if you place the toilet there, you only need to clean that out and you don't need to change the whole substrate as often.
For substrate, use wood shavings of non-resinous wood. Hamsters may react allergic to resinous wood as well as to scented substrates (for example citrus flavoured).

I do recommend mixing you own food. Most commercial foods are full of junk and sugar. Get a six grain-mixture from a health food store, some bird seeds and a good commercial food. I'm not familiar with Hartz food, but it looks okay to me. Ecotricion is another good brand. Gather almost all the sunflower seeds (too fatty) and all peanuts (may contain fungal spores) from the commercial food as well as all sugary components. Then mix all three foods in equal shares. You will end up with a huge amount of hamster food, but it can be refrigerated very well.

For treates, you can use the sunflower seeds you gathered from the food, raisins, flowers like daisies and dandelion, occasionally a nut and you can bake hamster cookies. Mix whole-wheat flour with oatmeal and water and add for example birds seeds, mashed bananas, grated carrot/zucchini/apple, organic honey, unflavoured rice crackers... The dough should be sticky. Use a spoon to place dollops of it on a baking sheet and then bake the cookies for 10-20 minutes, depending on what you added to them. You can refrigerate those, too. If you want to buy treats in the pet shops, choose those that do not contain sugar. There are small corncobs that can be popped in the microwave that my hamsters always went crazy for :)

Check you local animal shelter for hamsters, there are lots of them looking for a home. And older hamsters can be tamed, too. Or you look for "hamster babies"-ads in the paper, then you can get a very young hamster. They should stay with their mother until they are at least 25 days old, but not older than 28 days (they are able to breed then). I don't recommend buying from pet shops since they often keep males and females together and have no clue about hamster care, especially not about telling the sex of a hamster. You might end up with a pregnant hamster.

After you brought your hamster home, leave him alone for the first night. Watching him and talking to him is okay, though. Start by placing you hand in the cage the next evening to get him used to the smell. Offering him treates on your hand is a good idea. When he is comfortable sitting on your hand, you can move it around in the cage and place your other hand gently on top of him, forming a cave to make him more comfortable. Then you can take him out. When he is used to getting pick up, you can let him run around in his play pen. If you offer some old clothes from you (should be made from cotton, an old t-shirt for example) as hiding place or hammock, he will get used to your smell even faster.

I hope you will have lots of fun with your new hamster and that I was of some help to you :)
Jennifer