Rosa is a Teddy Bear Hamster (yes there are several different types) and she lives with Alex Chapman and his Mom Cheryl Ann Chapman in an apartment near Alki. "When I first picked her up she was just so adorable," said Alex who is 13. Rosa has been part of the family now for about a year.

She came from Pet's Place in Burien.

Rosa is the first hamster the family has had and her care is sort of a mutual effort between mother and son.
A hamster's diet it turns out is pretty important and there was a learning curve that almost cost Rosa her life. More on that shortly.

They feed her a kind of fruit chew and hamster pellets plus lettuce and carrots.

A multi-chambered Habittrail hamster home in a bedroom is where she spends most of her time and her behavior, according to the Chapman's is pretty typical. She doesn't really do any tricks but does know her name and when they tap on the edge of her home, she comes down to see who's knocking. They originally got the the unit from a friend and later expanded it. This home too is due for replacement with a gleaming stainless steel version pretty soon.

Inside her home are a chew block (necessary since their front teeth never stop growing) and a wheel she can run on. Hamsters like to burrow and hide things out of instinct and Rosa likes empty toilet paper rolls she can chew up and use to pack her nest with.

The name Rosa Alex said is because, "It's like a rose. It just sounds nice."

But more about her diet. Rosa got very sick in her early days because, "We didn't get a lot of information at first about her specific needs," said Chapman,"They did not say anything about the chew blocks so her teeth got too long and she wasn't eating properly. She became malnourished. She was in Alex's room and I would check on her every morning and we feed her now twice a day. At the time we thought we didn't need to feed her every day. So I thought she had plenty of food. We gave her apple slices almost every day and carrots. But what we learned is that I was making her diabetic. You don't give them fruit every day. So she wasn't getting enough nutrition and couldn't drink water. What saved her was the fruit slices because she got enough moisture from them. So I went in one morning and found her laying there on her side with no nesting material and she'd never done that. And she started making all these noises and I picked her up and she was freezing cold. I instantly put her on my chest and warmed her up and called a veterinarian. They thought she was dying so I called out of work and they were shocked I would do this over a $5 pet. But she is our baby.
She was on antibiotics over night and got fluids and she came home two days later. We changed the way we feed her and she's been fine."

Rosa will stand on her hind legs and watch Cheryl Ann and Alex as they walk around. But possibly her favorite thing is a hollow slotted "Roll Ball" that she can walk around inside of, rolling all around the apartment. "She always wants to be right where you are," said Cheryl Ann.

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