INTRO/ABOUT ME/LINKS
Hiya!! I'm Grant! You're local cage aggressive guy who's a massive hamster nerd. If you're on my page because you saw a post that you felt was a wild left turn from the info normally shared about hamsters, please check out this for a quick rundown of how I do things here. You're totally welcome to disagree, but if you send asks and want to have a healthy dialogue, I'll always answer. I am always trying to learn more, expand my perspective, and that's all I ask from you in return. This is also a hamster nostalgia blog on occasion, so you may see vintage and connectable cages posted, these are for fun. I collect vintage cages.
ABOUT ME:
I'm in my mid 20s (I'll forget to update it if I put an actual age, but as of the day this is posted I'm 23)
I started keeping hamsters in late 2020, when a neglected syrian was thrust into my care while I was working at a pet store. Since then I have kept well over 100 hamsters, between the rescue operation I ran in 2022 - due to mental health of seeing constantly unwell, poorly bred animals I had to stop rescuing on a larger scale, now-a-days I only take in dwarfs, and only in certain circumstances.
I began breeding hamsters right around the time I stopped rescuing, as I felt contributing better animals to the world was going to be more affective, and something that wouldn't nearly kill me on a daily basis from stress. In the last 3 years I've worked small scale with robos, winter whites, and syrians, but my true passion is the Campbells Dwarf Hamster (Phodopus campbelli).
The claims of mass hybridization, and of only a remarkably tiny 'ethical' breeding pool were a massive issue I saw going into this, even as someone who started out on the side of that club. After i was only able to get real help from breeders not in that club when dealing with a larger intake of pregnant dwarf hamsters during my time in rescue, I ended up being willing to speak to the side deemed evil and cruel, and found a community based in trust and the belief that a person is responsible for their own actions. As a very neurodivergent young adult, this made a lot more sense than a community based on constant surveillance and walking on tiptoes so as to not be shamed. My experience with speaking with animal keepers, rescuers, and breeders of a large number of other species (rodent, reptile, bird, and large mammals like dogs) have reassured me over the years that I made the right choice in who to trust.
Outside of caring for my current critters, I spend hours every week reading studies related to hamsters. I also love deepdiving resources spanning the last several decades (there is SO much fascinating info you find in outdated breeder manuals, even if a lot of the info is outdated), as well as communicating with breeders from around the world to keep my perspective from narrowing to just my own experience. I also admin a large facebook group dedicated to dwarf species, and moderate several others with larger or smaller hamster based focuses.
There is almost nothing in my life at this point that isn't related to these guys (thanks autism), but I do enjoy reading fanfic for a couple fandoms, listening to my favorite podcasts and books, and watching people play games like vintage story and the binding of isaac. I'm also currently close to getting meat rabbits, as I both love eating rabbit and want to craft things from pelts. Sometimes I also doodle hamsters and other things!
I love to talk anything hamsters, the more complicated the better, but am always happy a pet owner find a cage setup that their hamster adores. I've also mentored several people in breeding dwarf hamsters, and would always be happy to do so for new people interested in the hobby in the future!
My beliefs in hamster care:
saucer wheels arent inherently bad
there is no study that provides accurate data on how a hamster should be housed (of ANY species)
there is no one right way to keep a hamster
your hamsters opinion on their enclosure means more than what random people say online
unfortified and homemade diets are more often unsafe than an 'okay' quality mass produced one, if you are not actually testing (or at least roughly calculating) for micronutrient profile
phodopus campbelli and phodopus roborovskii are naturally colony animals and shouldn't be split from cagemates unless necessary (gender, health, poor bond, and individual temperament should affect if a phodopus dwarf is sound for a colony, not a person who's never owned a colony calling you a monster for doing what's natural for a species
I always accept asks, and will at least attempt to answer any i'm sent, so whether you have a question, concern, or notice me actually getting something scientifically incorrect (or if you just wanna say something silly or show me your hamster!)














