This is Tate, our Roborovski Hamster. We are currently on the hunt for a friend to be paired with as Dwarf hamsters, just like Gerbils do like to live in pairs.

Roborovski Hamsters orginate from Russia, Mongolia and China. They are semi desert living Hamsters and so are much cleaner and less smelly than the usual Syrian or Campbell Hamsters. They do not need cleaning out as often as the more common hamsters and so are much more like a Gerbil in that sense. They are expected to live upto 2 years, with some living longer - as would be expected.

They are not very common in the UK... or anywhere else really, so far there is only one mutation, and this is the White-faced Robo. The eye patches and cheek white extends further up the face, so where there is brown on the normal Robo, it is completely white. These white-faced Robos are even more rare than the normal agouti colour!

As I am unsure of the sex of Tate... still, however I do think it is most likely to be a SHE, as I've seen pictures of males... and well they are very obvious. At first I thought that perhaps it was just because Tate was too young to have anything big down there yet, but now Tate must be atleast 3 months old and still nothing. So looks like I'll have to start calling him a her instead now!

The following images were taken in February 2004, as we were cleaning out her cage we left her to play in a small animal carrier.

 

 

 

Tate, taking some food from Pete's hand for the first time.

 

You might be wondering how tate has been doing... Well she seems fine, same old really, but she does pop out more during the day now to have a look around or a quick drink and something to eat. She has also taken to sleeping in her toilet roll sometimes which is really cute to be able to see her sleeping.

Also, on the handling front... Well from day to day she'll have different moods when handling. Sometimes she will quite happily sit in my hand and if I cup them she will then go to sleep. I wish I could get photos, but I just really don't want to risk waking her, plus with my hands cupped there's only a tiny hole to see through.

But I'll try to describe what she does :) First, she will just sit on my hands and not really attempt to run away, so I will then cup her so she's in a little cave all snug and warm. She'll clean herself and just generally sit there really still. Gradually I can feel her relaxing more and more into my hand and then her eyes will gradually get more and more closed - but her ears are always twitching! god knows what she's able to hear! Then as she falls asleep and gets more and more into it, she will eventually completely lay out on my hand and then I swear... but I think I can actually feel her mouth twitching in her sleep!!!!!

It has to be the cutest thing ever!

One day.... one day I will manage to get a photo!

March 2004

Here are some photos whilst cleaning out her tank, she wasn't too happy to be held mind... but it was daylight and I can't really blame her for getting upset by two big things trying to hold her after taking her out of her cosy bed and putting her into a strange plastic thing :) plus it's freezing cold downstairs due to it snowing all night and still snowing now!

 

 

Tates first time at being caught asleep in the open...

I've never managed to see Tate sleeping before in her tank, normally she sleeps in her little house or under a mound of bedding, so when she went to sleep in her toilet roll tube on her upper level, I just couldn't miss the oportunity to take some photos. Unfortunately they are not that great as in the outer clear plastic there are little speckles... the companies attempt to make it look space age, well these unfortunately cause the flash to bounce right back and ruins the photo some.

 

 

April

We recently bought a small animal playpen, which as it turns out is fantastic for Tate, as she is way too small to climb over, so we have allowed her to come out and play in the new playpen, where she also goes for a run in the wheel... Well I think she's running.... her legs go way too fast to be able to make anything out :)

Here are some photos of her in the playpen:

 

 

Also, we definately know that Tate is a she after managing to snap this photo:

 

May 2004

Tate has a new home now, it is a Critter Trail 2, the size is the same as the Space Station, but it is a lot higher and has more levels than the Space Station. Hopefully she is happier now as she has more room and more things to, as it has tubes inside and a tall tube that goes up to her nest.

As I was worried how well she'd manage with the tubes, especially the very long one which goes almost the whole length of the cage I have put inside the tubes some wire mesh, which is curved around in the same shape and I think it aids her in climbing up the tube.. Though normally when going down she tends to dangle and then drop!

After getting Tate her new cage, and cleaning it out after a couple of weeks, we put in a new type of bedding... Well I don't really think she agreed with it as the bedding in the top nest didn't stay there long! Everytime she walked around, due to their nature Robos tend to try to dig under the bedding, well she was managing to push all the bedding out of the tube... Resulting in this!

 

And in the photo above you can see Tate, she had decided to sleep in the entrance to the nest rather than actually in it because there was literally no bedding left in there!

Below are some photos that were taken when Tate was taken out to be cleaned

 

September 2004

Wow, been a long time since I last updated... Had a lot of other things to do, I have been taking photos though, I tend to do that whenever I clean Tate's cage out.

Tate and I aren't on very good speaking terms anymore, she keeps on driving me mad at night by chewing, so looking like I'm going to have to put some mesh on her cage where she usually chews so that she can't get her teeth on the bars... The odd thing is, she won't chew anything else! She's STILL got a toilet roll tube in there since we got her!!! She's not chewed it up yet, can you believe that?? She also has wood things to chew, but nooooo the metal bars are much better. I'm not sure if she wants to come out... Thing is though, whenever I go near the cage she hides, perhaps I should let her run in the playpen for a bit - Not used that for a while.

 

 

February 2005

Tate is a year old! I can't believe it's been a year! Aw, sweet little Tate, she's still as gorgeous as ever, if a little quiet and much prefers to come out when it's quiet or very late - Shame, because I always hear how mad Robos are etc if only she hadn't been on her own when we bought her :(

Well, we got her on the 3rd Feb 04... and she was so small, although she's still small now... Back then she was just so much smaller.

 

 

April 2005

Nothing as such to update other than some more photos - I cleaned Tate out as usual and tried to take some photos... Only she was being quite uncooperative and really wasn't in the mood for any kind of handling... Hmmm poor TatiePotato! This is why I usually clean her at night to be sure she is more calm and even tempered, but this time I knew I couldn't do it that evening and so had to do it during the day!

When I was putting her back I went to handle her as I normally do for around 5 minutes, only straight away she dove off my hands, I scooped her back up and again she did a Kamakazee jump from me, this time going on a little adventure, unfortunately this time round I had to literally grab at her because she was about to jump off the bed, so she began crying at me *sobs* My poor little baby :_(, Definitely never again!

Anyway, here are some photos BEFORE her little adventure:

You can see where her ear has completely ripped. Don't worry, I was holding the lid and so it wasn't hurting her.

7th September 2005

Little Tate has sadly passed away...

Just last night I noticed she was looking unwell, earlier on in the dayI had noticed her sleeping out in open.... Which is very unusual for her, but we figured she must be too warm - but it wasn't very hot, but hey it might've been to her!

So, I put on the air cooler for her and direct it towards her cage, it was a few metres away and on swing, so I can't imagine it would cause her any harm... By the evening she was sleeping on her second level by the water bottle, this was when it was pretty obvious she was close. We put the water bottle on a lower level and gave plenty of seeds and nuts, hopefully for some quick energy.

By this morning she was still alive, and sleeping in a nice big nest, so I thought perhaps she would make it through (Monaco too is close, but keeps on recovering, very weird story! Can be found here Monaco and Phoenix) Then this evening, Pete checked on her, as I had been doing throughout the day and he eventually found her half way in her tube, very still. She had passed.

As we got her out and wrapped her in tissue, she was still slightly warm so she hadn't been dead long, and she had her little front paws out infront of her face like she was sleeping. So sweet.

I had only mentioned on a forum a short while ago that Tate had been looking really old now, even though she was only a year and a half old. I suspect it was because she was living alone, rather than with company. She was the last pet I thought would pass any time soon, with Monaco and Phoenix being 3 1/2, Sydney and Kyoto being 2 1/2, I expected Tate to live another 6 months at the very least!

The last photos, taken on 12th August 2005