Run, Hamish, RUN!

This is Hamish's play wheel, which is much smaller than the wheel in his cage, and too small for him to comfortably use all of the time. It's an 8 inch wheel - 2-3 inches bigger than the ones that come with most "hamster" cages. Those ones are so small that the hamster's back arches backwards when they run, which leads to painful back problems and they stop using the wheel altogether. The lack of exercise then leads to weight problems and health issues. You can see that Hamish's neck is arching upwards in this shot - the natural running position is nose to the ground so that they can sniff their way about. And he's a fairly small Syrian at only 160g whereas some are over 200g. If you have a Syrian, please make sure you get them a nice big wheel. :o)

That concludes today's educational hamster Blip.