Cinnabon was a 2 year old female Syrian and the first hamster for us. She has quite the story as back when we had her, there were no exotic vets anywhere near our area so sometimes we had to improvise. I have to say, we made many mistakes along the way but we really did try to give her the best life. The first mistake was about 10 minutes after we got her. Something in our minds told us that grabbing her from the box was a good idea. It took a lot of screaming (from both Cinnabon and my younger sister who had been bit) but we eventually got her in. The second mistake was the typical small barred cage. She lived in that cage for a couple months before she was "upgraded" to a 10 gallon tank. She lived in that for another few months until she was upgraded to a 40 gallon tank.
We were younger and didn't have a very high budget for a small hamster and of course, she happened to be a very picky hamster. She always needed something bigger. Around this time, her care started getting better. She was upgraded to a 12" wheel, had 6" of bedding and had a somewhat decent food mix. I also started doing some research around this time. I found out that hamsters needed stuff to crowd the cage, so we went to marketplace and found a big 24x48 inch cage that came with lots of wood toys and wheels for $100. We saved up and paid $50 each and got this cage. It was amazing, or at least it seemed.
She was no longer stressed but started to show some signs of aging at only 1.5 years. Fur loss, weight loss, shakiness, loss of appetite and not as much activity. Thinking back on it, there were so many signs that I overlooked, but I genuinely thought she was just aging. What happened next, I'll never forget.
Christmas morning (she was 2 at this point) I was told that she was dead. My sister and I had come to expect that that was to come so we weren't overly upset. We had Christmas as normal and as we were bringing our presents back to our room we saw Cinnabon. She was alive but not by much. My sister and I were both in shock to see the condition she was in. She couldn't walk, couldn't even make an attempt. My younger sister picked her up and it seemed as if she was swimming in the air. It ruined Christmas for us. Now seeing an animal dead is one thing but knowing that they're alive and suffering is a totally different thing that nobody should have to see. We left that night, we needed to go somewhere else to get our mind off of our poor hamster.
A night later, I was told that while my grandma was cleaning her cage, she saw mites. It all clicked in my mind, it made so much sense and I had completely overlooked it. I knew that the closest vet was way too far away and way too expensive for us so I accepted that we would probably have to leave her to die. I didn't tell my sister this. I asked my grandma what she would do with my poor Cinnabon and she simply said that she wasn't sure.
Another day passed and my grandma said that her cage had been placed outside in -12 degree Celsius weather to kill the mites. Cinnabon was placed on a heated floor with a new travel sized cage with nothing but water, food and bedding. When my grandma went into the bathroom the next morning, she realized that all of the mites had come off of her body to lay on the warm floor. They were everywhere. After a bit of research my grandma found a home remedy that would hopefully work to remove the poor girl's mites. She mixed olive oil and tea tree oil and lightly coated her fur every other day. She cleaned her bedding every day and fed her pumpkin seeds and lentils to get some more fat and protein into her. After about a week and a half she was doing so good and after about a month she was better than ever. All of her fur was back, she had gained lots of weight and was back to acting like a normal hamster.
It turns out that the wood was never cleaned and the reason the seller was selling it for such a low price was because their previous hamster had died from the mites that were still infecting the cage. After that, she lived a great life until at 2 years and 2 months, she got cataracts and was basically completely blind. Although it's sad what she had to endure, it taught us such great lessons and she was well treated and loved for all of her life.
RIP Cinnabon. We love you and miss you so much.
