Species: Roborovski

Gender: Female

Estimated Age: 2 months

Likes: Running on her wheel, exploring, pine nuts, her sand bath

Dislikes: Sudden noises and movements, being grabbed

Fosterer’s Instagram: @mellyyland

Shrimp was rescued from a hoarding situation with her momma and 3 brothers at 4 weeks old. The runt of the litter, shrimp is even tinier than her tiny brothers. Despite her small size, shrimp has the biggest (and friendliest) personality among her siblings and is the most tolerant of humans.

Like a typical robo, shrimp loovvesssss her sand bath. Her current sand bath is 1/3-1/2 of her cage and she spends most of her evenings sleeping in the sand or running on the wheel in her sand bath. In the day she sleeps in her homemade burrow, thus it is recommended that she is given 10-15cm of bedding for her burrowing pleasure!

Being super fast and incredibly teeny tiny, shrimp is and difficult to catch. However, she does occasionally climb onto human hands because of her inquisitive nature. Although she doesn’t like being grabbed, she doesn’t mind human presence and is comfortable when her fosterer watches her/talks to her.

Shrimp is an adorable teeny baby girl who would brighten anyone’s day!

Things to note when adopting Roborovskis:

1. Adopters should make sure to get a glass tank/acrylic cage that does not have bars as Roborovski hamsters are smaller and can squeeze through the gaps.

2. 1/3 of the cage should be covered with sand as Roborovski hamsters tend to become excessively ‘greasy’ when an appropriately sized sand area is not given.

3. A wheel that is minimally 21cm should still be provided even if they are smaller in size as compared to dwarf hamsters.

4. They are fast and may not be suitable for children. Some may also nip/bite.

5. Taming is not guaranteed, but possible with lots of patience, time and love!

Requirements

Cage: min 90x50cm or bigger, unbarred

Wheel: 21cm or larger (larger wheels should be lightweight as shrimp is tiny)

Bedding: Fatpouches’ Premium Paper Nest or other approved bedding

Food: Fatpouches Seed Mix or other approved seed mixes

Sand: Witte Molen Chinchilla Sand or other approved sand

Enrichment: At least 10cm deep bedding