30 Dec How Our Pet Hamster, Desirée, Spent Her First Christmas

It was about a month ago that we introduced you to our new, loveable pet hamster, Desirée. She joined our family as gift to Luci for her birthday, and has been charming us ever since. We have learned a lot since our first introduction, about hamsters, and how to help Desirée live her best life. Over the Christmas holidays, our little hamster was especially spoiled with big and creative gifts, delicious food and lots of play time.

Desi Goes Glamping

Desi likes the finer things in life. While we would have loved to take her on vacation for the holidays, we had work obligations, so we brought the vacation to her. We found this hamster-sized Tiny Camper Craft kit that seemed like the perfect activity following all of our paper sloyd projects. After all of our paper measuring, folding, and cutting, we kind of feel like we’re becoming experts at this. This Tiny Camper project was made from good quality materials and fun to make.

Luci created the perfect little escape for Desi. It included a camper, surf board, a table and chair set with an umbrella, a bed and dresser inside with lots of accessories, a hammock, and even a little beach bag full of goodies.

Desi had plenty of time to explore and hang out. She even began playing and cleaning herself in the sand, which was a big step for her.

Desirée’s Christmas Tree

Desirée had her own Christmas tree, although she had a little help decorating it. Honestly, she mostly sat around and ate egg yolks while Luci did the work.

Desirée’s Gifts

Little Miss Desirée made out like a bandit on Christmas. Besides her stocking full of deliciousness, she received many gifts from Luci (which you can see in the video below). Luci made them herself to enrich Desirée’s environment. Desirée’s biggest gift was a brand new, massive hamster habitat. We had originally gotten a smaller habitat, which seemed fine initially. But Luci was continuing to read up on how to care for hamsters and she learned that even little Dwarf Hamsters needed more space to run. The recommended size of habitat for a hamster is at least 450 square inches, and the one we had was maybe one third the size. So we upgraded to a Savic Hamster Heaven Metro Cage which is a little over 620 square inches, multiple different levels, with tunnels, and paths, and hide-aways. Luci added another wheel and some of her hand-made toys to made it a hamster heaven!

Fair warning: this habitat was not easy to install. I think both Luci and I had some intense frustration before it was completed. However – we got it done, washed, organized and spread with hamster litter. Desirée now has lots of room to roam. She is still busy exploring and getting comfortable in her new home. If you like, you can watch the video below (be sure to watch to the end) where we introduce Desi to her new home.

Happy Holidays!

Desirée loves her new home, and we feel better, knowing that she is getting the best we can offer her. Happy Holidays to you and your families. Wishing you peace and joy throughout the season and coming year.