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I love the name Skittles. Your grand daughter will like it I'm sure. If she decides she wants to call her something else you can keep Skittles as a middle name! One of our hamsters ended up with three names - my stepson wanted to call him the same name as the first hamster Charlie but we also liked another name so he had Charlie as his middle name. Even though it was never used! Our second Syrian was called Newt - which was short for Newtus Hamsterus (they were doing the Romans at school!) but ended up being called Newtie Pootie. The naming will kind of evolve depending on what your grand daughter comes out with! But Skittles really suits her.
 
Thanks everyone. She seems to be happy and safe (for now) in the current set up but I will always be looking for ways to improve/upgrade her home, and I know I will find something that fits her and my needs perfectly in the near future. I have a camera on her and watch her A LOT (to the dismay of my husband and friends) and so far she has only ventured onto the highest shelf once so I don't think she's a fan of that. I will probably end up using the board idea to close it off, but I do hate that I will lose the ability to hang things from the top shelf. However, where there's a will there's a way!

The paperwork I received with her stated "two months" but I have to wonder about that because she is quite large. I can only hope that I will have her for at least 2-3 years because she seems very sweet and receptive already.
Some Syrians can be quite large! They can vary in size a lot. Average weight is between 125g and 185g. A large Syrian could be 200g plus. I've had one that was huge and 230g. Our first hamsters grew so large in the first 3 or 4 weeks I actually asked the pet shop if they were sure he was a hamster! :ROFLMAO: . We used to say his Dad must have been a guinea pig.

So if she is large now - she is likely to grow some more. Female Syrians in particular can be quite large. It's why entrance holes to houses, tubes etc need to be 6 or 7cm wide.
 
Regarding naming our hamsters, as I always say to people at the animal shelter when they are struggling to decide what to name a cat, "Doesn't really matter what you name it because it's not going to come when you call it anyway!" :)
 
Ha ha. Surprisingly, hamsters do get to know their names - sometimes they ignore it! I talk to them like dogs in a way and they do respond to tone of voice in the same way I think. Depending on the hamster. You can actually get a real bond with a hamster and they have their own type of non verbal communication sometimes. Although it can be verbal as well! They can also be very contrary and do the opposite of what you want. And quite cleverly sneaky - they are great escape artists. I currently have a Syrian that is quite a quirky sweet personality and he responds if you call his name and his ears prick up. He will also come running over if he's out and about and you call him - sometimes - depends what mood he's in. He came from a rescue and was a child's pet "that didn't work out". Not sure what that meant exactly, but he didn't like hands and would bite, so he may have had some rough handling. Not sure how old your grand daughter is, but they need constant supervision with a hamster as they want to hold them but need to learn how to hold them and to not try and hold on if the hamster tries to walk away. Bathtub taming can be fun though - with some toys in the dry bathtub and gradually getting the hamster used to being stroked. To help get them hand tame. Once they get used to touch withing "pinging" they build trust and you can hold them or have them sit for a stroke in the crook of your arm. But some of them will never want to sit still for long.

Apologies - I forgot you might have had a hamster before!
 
Ha ha. Surprisingly, hamsters do get to know their names - sometimes they ignore it! I talk to them like dogs in a way and they do respond to tone of voice in the same way I think. Depending on the hamster. You can actually get a real bond with a hamster and they have their own type of non verbal communication sometimes. Although it can be verbal as well! They can also be very contrary and do the opposite of what you want. And quite cleverly sneaky - they are great escape artists. I currently have a Syrian that is quite a quirky sweet personality and he responds if you call his name and his ears prick up. He will also come running over if he's out and about and you call him - sometimes - depends what mood he's in. He came from a rescue and was a child's pet "that didn't work out". Not sure what that meant exactly, but he didn't like hands and would bite, so he may have had some rough handling. Not sure how old your grand daughter is, but they need constant supervision with a hamster as they want to hold them but need to learn how to hold them and to not try and hold on if the hamster tries to walk away. Bathtub taming can be fun though - with some toys in the dry bathtub and gradually getting the hamster used to being stroked. To help get them hand tame. Once they get used to touch withing "pinging" they build trust and you can hold them or have them sit for a stroke in the crook of your arm. But some of them will never want to sit still for long.

Apologies - I forgot you might have had a hamster before!
No NO.... NO apologies!!!! I have had one before but I was a teenager so I am sure I did NOTHING right! I love the advice about taming them and handling them! I do remember taking my hamster out with me sometimes by placing her in a big shirt pocket but I don't remember how I got her out of her cage to do that, I can pretty much assume I just grabbed her.

I love the bathtub idea, and that's the only place I would let my granddaughter interact with her. She's only 2.5 years old and will probably be afraid to even touch the hamster but she will love looking at it, watching it eat, watching it run in the wheel, etc. I had saved four orphaned bunnies a few months ago and she loved watching them, but since their release she asks for them constantly and misses them .... thus..... Skittles moved in. :) I'm teaching her how to be kind and gentle to ALL animals, and she interacts beautifully with my 3 large dogs, my fish, and my chameleons. Soon we will go down to the brook to look for frogs, toads, newts, and tiny fish. This girl is going to be as much of an animal addict as I am if I have my way! :)
 
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