Great Sand-Bath Alternatives
I’m planning to do a major overhaul of Oscar’s living situation. Oscar, my rescue-Roborovski hamster (who came from Baldwin Park Shelter in LA County) is hard for me to figure out. He’s very shy, he’s getting chubby, and the usual hamster enrichment doesn’t seem to work on him.
For example- I’ll try to give him playpen time when I can get him out of his bin. I place all sorts of treats in the playpen, hidden in nooks, in the coconut fiber, etc. Most of my hamsters go crazy in playpen time looking for all their favorite treats and leave with a face full of goodies. But not Oscar. I’ll drop Oscar into the playpen, watch him do a quick tour of the grounds, and then he’ll just find a spot and sit there. Sometimes he’s in the sandbath, sitting, sometimes just in the middle of the playpen.
Oscar seems to enjoy playing in/digging in wheat grass, so I’ve been trying to incorporate that into his life as much as possible. He also seems pretty adept at burrowing and he makes intricate, connected pathways around his bin (which can be frustrating for me if I want to see him, he can quickly slip into one of his many holes and be gone for as long as it takes for me to go away!).
So, I find myself in this situation, worrying about Oscar’s happiness and his chunky body (a mystery, as a hamster who often doesn’t eat all the food he has out, doesn’t enjoy carbs like popcorn, Cheerios or baby puffs, and primarily snacks on dried chicken treats). I used Victoria Raechel’s 10% off coupon on the Niteangel website as an excuse to buy a Vista size L (with coasters!) for Oscar. I haven’t yet attempted to even open the box, but I’ve been gathering appropriate supplies for this enormous cage.
Don’t worry, I’ll be filming the whole thing of course!
In the meantime, I picked up these digging/sandbath bins from Target’s new “Brightroom” line and I LOVE them! Lightweight, inexpensive, beautiful to look at!
