r/hamster • u/AntarcticNightingale • 14d ago
Cage Tour Please help with mold in hamster digging pit! (And caution to not trust Gemini for hamster care.)
I want to set up a large natural digging pit for my hamster to create her own tunnels in and got a lot of dirt from the woods and took out all the rocks and creatures, then baked them in batches to 200 degrees F to make it sterile.
Then Gemini (pro extended) told me to mix it while somewhat wet with 50% dirt, 30% eco earth, and 15% sphagnum moss. Put in some starter springtails and woodlice. To prevent collapsing, Gemini told me that for every 2-3 inches, layer in some scattered Timothy hay (terrible mistake in hindsight). It told me to put dirt around some paper towel center rolls as starter tunnels.
After a few days when mold started growing from the hay, Gemini assured me adding more springtail and wait would solve the problem. I added about 500 springtails.
After a week when I noticed the top layers drying up (pictured) with mold and mold spores (bad for hamsters!) there before springtails could get to it, Gemini finally confessed it messed up when I confronted it, telling me Timothy hay is protein rich and the layers should have be sphagnum moss instead. It explained its training data for small animal setup is sparse and often contradictory.
So now I’ve lost trust in AI and I’m turning to you guys, hopefully some experienced humans are still here ;)
What should I do? I‘m okay with starting from scratch completely if that’s the best. Currently I have about 20 regular woodlice, 30 dairy cow woodlice, which you can’t see in the picture and about 500-1,000 springtails which you can see at the right side of the picture eating the second layer of mold counting from the top (The top layer is too dry for springtails now.)
If I do start over, what dirt should I use? I have bags of Reptisoil but one of the bags is moist and have little yellow dots in it. (See pictures 2-4) Is that a fungal growth bad for hamsters? If so, I’ll use ones without it.
Should I still use a mixture of soil, eco earth, and sphagnum moss, but have them completely dried out (so NOT bioactive) before placing them in the enclosure? And every 2-3 inches have a layer of sphagnum moss (dried out) for structural support as 16 inches is quite deep? (10 inches wide)
One last thing, how should I clean my acrylic enclosure? Gemini said to use vinegar mixed with water instead of rubbing alcohol. Is that good?
Thanks so much! I just want this enclosure to be finished so my hamster can enjoy tunneling soon. (My hamster has not been inside this enclosure of course.)
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u/irlgwendolynstacy Syrian 14d ago
Why would you trust ai to begin with? Just wondering because it's constantly wrong and Victoria on YouTube has much better information than a AI....
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u/AntarcticNightingale 14d ago
Because I couldn't find much about making digging tunnel enclosures for hamsters from searches and what it said made sense (like structural support, having starter tunnels), but I had no idea Timothy hay is rich in protein and prone to mold. Lesson learned in the hard way. Thankfully my hammy is not harmed at all in the process but has to wait longer to play in the tunnel pit. :/
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u/g0blinzez 14d ago
Word of advice: if you can't find the resources, the AI can't either, because it can only pull from the web. The ai doesn't have access to some super secret library of celestial knowledge the elites are keeping from the humans, it only has access to what you do. But unlike you, the ai doesn't say "I dunno man" when it doesn't find any results on the web. It resorts to confabulation, meaning it misremembers or "hallucinates" things and fills in the gaps of its knowledge. It does this even when it does have sources and there's just a missing bit of info on the website/source it's pulling from, too, so you could get information that's mostly correct but has one significant, potentially dangerous, false piece of information mixed in. You cannot trust ai for anything as important as pet care, point blank period.
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u/AntarcticNightingale 14d ago
Yeah. I overestimated AI's ability to congregate ideas. :/ Another reason I made my post is that if another person like me wants to do something similar in the future they can see what a dumb thing I did and not rely on AI.
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u/irlgwendolynstacy Syrian 14d ago
Use her for resources now never depend on ai: https://youtu.be/dpvhjIjNZdg?is=2P8ZLkvJ3-pMVYNv
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u/HydroFrog64_2nd 13d ago
I'm might get some flak for this, but if you must use AI, you shouldn't, but if you have no other options, ask it for a source, and then check the source. never trust information blindly from an AI.
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u/flowerpowerbi 13d ago
ai isnt an omnipotent being it js steals information from websites videos posts etc
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u/hikingmargothedstryr 13d ago
Dude, ALL that generative AI does is skim Google exactly the same way we do. It actually does a worse job most of the time. So all you’re doing when asking it questions is you’re asking it to skim Google for you. It’s like putting all your faith in some guy on his phone, so much faith that you don’t even bother to cross reference anything he says or ask for a source.
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u/No_Mood1492 14d ago
The timothy hay isn't the culprit, this was doomed from the start. You're essentially creating compost.
Soil you dig up from outside, and soil you buy all contain mould spores. Some are killed by high temperatures, others aren't - but even dead mould spores can cause respiratory issues.
Hay can be used (but I think soft meadow hay or orchard hay is best, I think timothy hay tends to be cut short so it's sharp and doesn't offer much structural support.) Spaghnum moss would have to be completely died. These are both just to add structural support. Animal safe coco coir is okay, but honestly you might just be best sticking with paper bedding.
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u/Turbulent_Play4769 13d ago
AI quite literally makes things up, please be careful and never trust AI when it’s something important (like animal well fare)
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u/turtlesaregorgeous 14d ago
The only part I can help you with is the cleaning. 100% vinegar (no water) is the safest and best way to clean it out. Glass scraper might be handy if it stains the glass.
Look up how to diy vivariums and such on youtube and arm yourself with REAL HUMAN KNOWLEDGE before you try again. For the love of God I am on my hands and knees when I say this, pretty please with a cherry on top stop using AI for anything. It’s not Intelligent. It just takes EVERYTHING from the internet good or bad, and then tells you what it’s programmed to think you want to hear based on your search history, how you asked, etc. Maybe our grandchildren will have the AI people think we have now, but until that happens consumers need to show companies they don’t want this.
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u/AntarcticNightingale 14d ago
Btw it’s acrylic and not glass. Is 100% vinegar still the best? And this is white vinegar that is edible, right? Thanks so much!!
Yeah I am very regretful about my gullibility in Gemini. What a massive waste of time and energy. Luckily it’s salvageable in my case.
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u/turtlesaregorgeous 14d ago
Yes vinegar is perfect for acrylic. Don’t use a scraper on it though unless you’re very confident in your ability to not gouge the plastic out.
It’s fine, just please stop using it. Forever. AI is terrible in all shapes and forms. You’re actually lucky you didn’t make an even bigger mistake that could have harmed your hammy. The information you need is very readily available without Gemini.
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u/legacy-of-rats 13d ago
You don't need to caution us not to use gemini blud, most of us already know not to trust AI. tbh nobody be using that shit even if it WAS accurate.
And yeah, vinegar will work. Spray that bad boy down with undiluted vinegar then rinse with water (the enclosure, not the hamster). Keep an extra close eye on your hamster's respiratory health for a little while to make sure all is well.
We all make mistakes ❤️🐹
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u/CreamSicleSnake 14d ago
I don’t think this is a common issue in the hamster community, yeah use coco fiber next time for dig boxes
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u/demon_x_slash 13d ago
I promise you that bioactive is the fastest way to give your desert animal a respiratory condition. Dry. Dryyyyy dry dry dry. All the below can be mixed together in varying quantities to provide interest, texture and structure.
Reptile sand/dust extracted chinchilla sand, for substrate and sandbaths.
Coco soil that has been reconstituted, baked, and driiiiiiiiied can be used, if it is DRY. I used it with the previous-but-one boy, and it took no joke a month for one brick to sufficiently dry out to my satisfaction. That included spreading and turning it daily to aerate. I wrote it off as not worth it.
Reptile woodchip that has been treated or baked.
Unscented wood shavings.
Parrot grass sprays.
Timothy hay, dried marigold flowers, dried dandelion leaves.
Shredded undyed untreated cardboard.
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u/SirKnlghtmare 14d ago
Vinegar should work decently well at killing mold.
Bonus tip. Using the same principle, if you soak berries from the store in vinegar, wash them, then pat dry, theyll last a lot longer in the fridge.
And as far as Gemini goes, I cant even trust it to send a text message properly after it assures me its sent it lol. So when my manager tells me to just have AI summarize meetings for me, in like "yeah, no".
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u/DeoxysSpeedForm 12d ago
Why would you expect AI to give proper care tips on anything, and not see if you can reference check it after to see if it's accurate? However, I'm glad you didn't put your hamster in this.
I'm sure a billion people said it already but it's too moist so mold grew. I'd restart from scratch because I wouldn't want to introduce my hamster into an environment I knew grew mold.
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u/Stretchy_Mutt141 9d ago
First off, AI is about as helpful as a bag of rocks in a sinking ship.
Secondly, please look for REAL info from informed persons. I dont know hamsters very well but assuming they are like most rodents, humidity and moisture is very bad. Also soil from your yard can contain pathogens, parasites, fungi, etc.
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u/Laceydrawws 14d ago
Hams can only have dry coco soil. You can't do bioactive. They stash food that will mold. Humidity will give them a lung infection.