Snowball the Roborovski Dwarf Hamster

Last Friday my parents surprised my brother and me with a Roborovski (Robo) dwarf hamster. It was very exciting and scary at the same time. It was scary because we didn’t know how to take care of him. Thanks to YouTube we quickly found a lot of information on hamsters. We then decided to get him some better food and build him a bigger cage using a huge plastic bin.

We named him Snowball because he sometimes looks like a little ball and he’s mostly white. Below is a picture of him in his original cage which we replaced with a much bigger one the next day.

Below you can see a picture of the new bin cage that my dad was working on the next day. The bin is approximately 792 square inches (~5,110 cm²) so our hamster now has a lot more room to run around.

Some interesting facts about Roborovski hamsters

• Adult Roborovski hamsters are 2-3 inches long.
• The average lifespan of a Roborovski hamster is 2-3 years.
• They are very fast which can make handling them difficult.
• Roborovski hamsters are omnivores. They eat mostly grains, vegetables, plants, and some insects and fruit.
• Dwarf hamsters are nocturnal so you won’t be seeing them during the day.
• Hamsters are incapable of vomiting, so make sure that everything in their cage is non-toxic and provide them with good food.
• All hamsters including the Robo hamsters are banned in Hawaii and Australia
• Roborovski hamsters love to burrow, so make sure to add several inches of bedding to your hamster cage.

Sources:
https://kids.kiddle.co/Roborovski_dwarf_hamster
https://www.thesprucepets.com/roborovski-hamsters-1238944