Rodents & Rabbits
Find and offer rodents and rabbits in Panama.
Most of what changes hands here is the setup rather than the animal: a hamster cage with its wheel and tunnels, a tall cage of shelves and hammocks for a pair of rats, a pen for guinea pigs, or the folding run a house rabbit uses in the evenings. Cages, runs and the hay that goes in them are bought and sold new and pre-owned. When a hamster, a pair of guinea pigs, a rabbit or two pet rats need a new home, they are offered without a price and leave with their cage, their bedding and the food they already know.
Hamster cages by depth, rat cages by height:
guinea pig and rabbit pens by floor space, so one cage rarely suits two kinds of animal. A Syrian hamster lives alone and spends the night digging and running. It needs a wide base, bedding deep enough to burrow into and a solid wheel big enough that its back stays straight. A large glass tank with a mesh lid does the job well, the same kind people keep reptiles and amphibians in. Dwarf hamsters want the same depth with bars much closer together, because they slip through gaps a Syrian could not. Rats turn that round. They live in pairs or small groups and they climb, so the tall wire cage with shelves and hammocks that is wrong for a hamster is right for them, while a glass tank holds too much stale air. Mice climb too, but squeeze through bars an adult rat could not, so their cages need much finer mesh. Guinea pigs live in company, on the floor, and have no use for a wheel, a running ball or extra storeys. A rabbit needs more floor again: a hutch is for sleeping, and a house rabbit wants a run or exercise pen where it can stretch out and hop, with every cable in reach covered. One loose in an unfenced garden is under a hedge in minutes, which is how plenty of notices in animals lost and found begin.
Galvanised farm cages and a rabbit’s back feet:
the cheapest big rabbit cage in Panama is often a galvanised wire one made for farm use and sold alongside feed and fencing, with a mesh floor so the droppings fall through. A pet that lives on that mesh day after day develops sore hocks, raw patches on the heels of the back feet that are slow to heal. Cover the floor with a board, a mat or thick bedding. Wire-based guinea pig cages and bare wire rat shelves carry the same risk.
Timothy hay comes in a bag from abroad:
and it is the supply that runs out first. Hay is most of what a rabbit or a guinea pig eats. Timothy is a cool-climate grass, so the pet hay on the shelf here is imported, and a bag left open in a damp storeroom goes mouldy and has to be thrown out. Keep it sealed and off the floor, and use a hay rack so it is eaten instead of trodden into the bedding.
A wheel that wobbles and bars chewed bright:
those are the marks the last animal leaves on a used cage. A plastic base gnawed through at the corners means a determined chewer, and a crack in it lets urine through onto whatever the cage stands on. Spin the wheel: it should turn quietly and stay true, and open rungs or a gap where a foot can catch rule it out. Press on the door and roof clips, which is where hamsters get out, and fill the drinker to see whether the ball valve drips. Wash it all in hot soapy water and bin the old bedding, hay and wooden chews before a new animal moves in.
Guinea pigs and rats leave in pairs:
if two have lived together, they move together, because a guinea pig or a rat kept alone fares badly. Pass on their ages, sexes and diet, and ask where they will live and what other animals share the house. Rabbits and guinea pigs suffer in heat, so hand them over in the cool of the morning rather than at midday.
Photos that sell a hamster cage or a rabbit pen:
shoot the base, the doors and the wheel from the side, then give the footprint and height, the bar spacing on anything meant for a hamster or mice, and whether the floor is solid or wire. Say what goes with it: wheel, hides, hay rack, drinker. Someone in Penonomé with a dwarf hamster needs to know the bars will hold it before driving over to collect.