Sandy

[sandy standing on tube]

Shortly after we all moved in together we were doing a car boot sale, and the person opposite our stand had a hamster cage on there's. Sabrina having had a hamster before was suddenly motivated to get one again, especially as Quinn had not been allowed to keep pets whilst they were living with her mother and father.

[the first cage]
[the second cage]

Some time and a trip to various pet stores later and Sandy, as he was soon christened was brought. He is a very tenacious character and the first night made short work of escaping his new home. There was a hole under the kitchen units at one corner which looked pretty enticing for a hamster, so we investigated. I had already managed to remove most of the wood when I happened to open a cupboard. There he was, very comfortably nestled between bottles of wine with a stash of the food n stuff he had found under the units. It turned out there was a gap in a corner of the cupboard floor through witch he had climbed. Much relieved, we headed down the local pet store and brought a much more substantial “Rat” cage which so far has held him..

[Sandy wondering off]

However, we thought that as hamsters are desert creatures Sandy may like some sand, so I took an old salad draw from a fridge and drilled a hole in it and made a net lid for it, then brought a Habitrail value pack and connected it up. Sandy was up the tunnel quicksmart and loved it.

[Sandy in tunnel]
[First Sand Box]

Sabrina and my self left Quinn watching Sandy in his sand. Unfortunately only 5 minutes passed before we heard Quinn laughing, we investigated and found to our horror that Quinn had somehow found some sun cream and some cough medicine (we have to be sure there is nothing liquid near Quinn as part of his Cri du Chat’s sindroms effect his behaviour and he loves poring stuff) and pored it all over the hamster through the lid.

Quickly I got Sandy and washed it off him under a tap which he didn’t like. I then dismantled everything, cleaned it all and removed the sand that was saw soaked in the sun cream and medicine and moved the whole cage assembly into our bed room so Quinn could not get to it as easily.

I was very surprised to see Sandy go straight up the tunnel to the sand with out any hesitation despite his resent experience up there. During the night he also moved his bed up there.

We found however that Sandy liked digging and moving the sand about so much that a lot of it had come out, the salad draw not being very deep. A proper terrarium soon followed to give him more space.

[Teranium set up in bed room]

Shortly after this I was looking round the net and found a place selling Habitrail off at a good discount so brought a few more tunnels and lofts etc for him. This happened at couple of places and a fair bit was acquired. We also found the local pet shop had some hanging around that wasn’t selling so we also got a load from there at a very good price.

[Sandy in loft]

Now the cage covers part of two walls and has a few levels. Sandy seems very happy and is great to watch scurrying thorough the tunnels, some times backwards at great speed.

[Full cage set up]

Update

It is with great sadness that Sandy had to be put to sleep on the 19th August. He had developed brown hard patches, possibly tumours on his skin, and despite the best efforts of ourselves and the vet these spread until they effected him too much and we didn’t wish him to suffer any more.



[Initials monogram  A R T]

This page updated ..26/08/06