Find out why we started Hamster Helper and become part of our story
I wanted a pet
I had wanted a pet for ages, but I live in a small house that I’m refurbishing so a dog or a cat wasn’t a good idea. I toyed with the idea of fish but I only have room for a tank in a place where the fish wouldn’t get any attention. So I thought what about a hamster? They don’t take up much space and they’re easy to look after. How wrong I was!
It started with Flamey
I looked online and there was a hamster being offered in my village right around the corner. It was kismet. The advert simply said “4 month old hamster”. I went to pick him up, gave his owner £5 and she gave me a tiny bitey furball who was living in awful conditions.
His cage was too small, he’d been fed lettuce and cucumber and sunflower seeds, and he didn’t have enough bedding to burrow in. And that’s when I began to dive into the rabbit hole that is proper hamster care.
I built Flamey an empire
Caring for Flamey has been a journey. His set up is definitely not perfect, but I wanted to give him the best life I possibly could.
Now the tiny cage he arrived in is an extension to his normal cage.
Besides this he has dig boxes, play pens and play areas. To say I thought I didn’t have space for fish, Flamey has pretty much taken over my office!
Things I wanted didn’t exist as off the shelf products
As I learned more about hamster care and enrichment and spent time scrolling social media, I found there were things I wanted for Flamey that I just couldn’t find anywhere.
I wanted to give him some stones to help wear his nails down so he didn’t have to go to the vet. But it had to be non mineral. It also had to be something I could make him use not just a pile of rocks he could ignore. I spent months researching until I found slates and they worked!
I wanted to grow Flamey some tiny plants. I thought they’d look cute and he’d get into mischief uprooting them and eating them. I did a deep dive into hamster safe plants and even bought a microgreen kit that wasn’t quite right. And then I found the tiny plastic pots and later the terracotta pots and they were perfect. Flamey had so much fun with them now he’s always got one on the go!
Growing a tiny empire for your hamster involves using a lot of different substrates. I wanted to test lots of new smells and textures for Flamey but I didn’t want to have to buy big bundles of everything in case he didn’t like it.
I wanted to buy my substrates in trial packs. I’d have been happy with several substrates in a bundle that I could buy all at once so we had something to work with. That didn’t exist, so I ended up buying lots of single substrates. When I created my shop, it was the bundles that kicked it all off.
So I started Hamster Helper
I wanted hamsters and hamster owners to benefit from all the research I’d put into Flamey’s enrichment. Also having navigated a lot of online mis-information about hamsters, and having seen the conditions that Flamey was kept in before I got him, I wanted to help provide better online information and help more hamsters everywhere.
I realised I could do that with Hamster Helper, by donating 10% of my profit to hamster charities and publishing the research I’d done around Flamey’s care. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make this part of the world a better place and so Hamster Helper was born!
Today Hamster Helper is a thriving business. I’m expanding the product lines all the time, donating money to hamster charities which makes me feel amazing! I’m meeting so many incredible people and hearing the stories of their hamster ownership journeys.
I’m getting to see lots of cute hamsters sitting on their slates and digging in their beech chips. I’m writing blog posts and helping hamster owners navigate complex questions and concepts around hamster care and I am loving every. single. second.
Join the Hamster Helper journey. Lean into being a hammy-holic! Shop the range, read the blog posts, reach out and say hi, ask a question, share pics of your adorable hammies, I’m here for you!