How to Care for a Roborovski ‘Grandmother’ Hamster

1 Caring for a Roborovski ‘Grandmother’ Hamster

1. The grandmother hamster’s coat is lighter than the grandfather’s and is nearly all one color, basically white, with white whiskers and brows; the grandfather has white whiskers and brows but yellow fur elsewhere.

2. The grandmother hamster is also very small and naturally timid, so it is hard to bond with. But its co-housing rate is relatively high; it accepts living with a hamster of the same type. As breeding has dropped, the grandmother hamster is now rarer.

3. When you first bring a grandmother hamster home, do not touch it easily; place it in a quiet corner away from strong light, and let it live alone for a while before trying to interact. If it really will not interact with people, do not force it; you can keep a grandfather hamster as its companion.

4. The best way to get a very timid grandmother hamster close to you is to feed it by hand. Put a snack it especially loves in your hand at the cage opening; when it smells the food it may climb onto your hand to eat. At first do not disturb it while eating; after it gets used to eating on your hand, try interacting.

5. Roborovski-type hamsters have skin that gets oily easily, so when keeping a grandmother hamster provide a bath and sand so it can clean itself now and then. Use chinchilla bath sand, whose grains are smaller and cleaning power stronger.

Roborovski hamsters are a small, good-looking breed and popular, but if an owner wants lots of interaction, the grandmother or grandfather hamster is not advised, since they are rather aloof.