This year, we are sharing the story of each of our 2024 charity calendar stars each month so you can learn more about the hamster behind each photo. February’s hamster is the very photogenic Mocha. Mocha, is a stunning longhaired Syrian hamster who was part of our well-known ‘Barista’ rescue.
Last September, Mocha was rescued alongside his 9 siblings – our largest Syrian intake to date! His previous owners had received two Syrian hamsters as presents for their children from a relative. Sadly they received very poor advice from the pet shop and both Syrians were housed together. To make matters worse they were also mis-sexed which led to the birth of a litter of hamsters. Due to further co-habitation these hamsters unfortunately bred again resulting in over 50 hamsters being born, including 4 eyeless white hamsters. The owners were way out of their depth but continued to try their best to separate the hamsters and find loving homes for them.
Despite reaching out to the pet shop the parent hamsters originally came from, they received no help whatsoever. Eventually another pet shop agreed to take some of the hamsters. 12 hamsters remained and luckily the owners found out about Hamster Info Ireland and reached out to us to see if we could help to find them homes.
The HII team could see this was an emergency situation, so we dropped everything and went out to collect them. Luckily the hamsters had been split by sex by this time, but it was still very risky as both enclosures housed 6 Syrian hamsters. The owners were very grateful for our help and knew we would find the hamsters loving new homes. Mocha immediately caught our attention with his very cute face and long coat. We knew it would not be long before he bagged himself a forever home.
Thankfully, we soon received an adoption application from Laura. Having such a fantastic enclosure setup she breezed through the adoption process and before long Mocha was heading to his forever home.
Laura tells us that Mocha has settled in great since his adoption and is now known as Einstein. He’s never short on things to do in his fantastic enclosure over 6,000cm2 with a large 33cm wheel (which he often uses as a potty!!). He loves exploring and digging, with corn cob granules being a particular favourite! We’re so pleased that Einstein is doing so well and we wish him and Laura the very best!
Mocha is one of the 12 hamsters featured in our fundraiser calendar for 2024. If you’d like to support our rescue work you can purchase a calendar or make a donation at the link here.
Next month, learn about Jasmine, Hamster Info Ireland’s first chinese rescue hamster.
