Hamsters
Hamsters are cute, fluffy desert dwellers that live in burrows underground.
Housing: A 10 gallon tank (or similar sized cage) is a good size for a hamster. Bedding should be something like care fresh and at least 3” deep. Hamsters are VERY solitary animals, and are extremely territorial.
Handling: Hamsters don’t like to be handled a lot, and unless they are socialized and “hand-tamed” at an early age, they are likely to bite. If they are disturbed from sleep during the day, they will wake very slowly, and be pretty crabby (aren't we all!?). They also need to be handled every single day, to maintain their socialization.
Feeding: Stick with a commercial hamster diet. They cannot have watery fruits or veggies. A tiny amount of carrot or broccoli will suffice. They will need some wood to keep teeth filed down.
Exercise: Hamsters are very active and need to have a lot of exercise. Good things to use are wheels, hamster balls, and climbing toys.
Health: They will live for 3-4 years. Hamsters are sensitive to drafts and cold. Cage paralysis can occur from a lack of vitamin D and exercise. “Wet tail” is a diarrhea like disease that is caused by too many watery fruits and vegetables.
Do you know something I don't?? Please let me know!!
______________________________________________________________________
The information below was given to me in an email from Given A Chance Hamster Rescue:
______________________________________________________________________
There are 5 basic breeds of hamster that are found in most American pet stores; Syrian, Chinese dwarf, Russian dwarf (Campbells), Winter White and Roborovski (the last two are also dwarfs), all come from different places in the world and obviously the dwarf hamsters have different needs to the Syrian hamsters.
Syrian hamster need much bigger cages than a 10 gallon aquarium, usually a 15 or 20 gallon would be better. Some people argue the aquariums to not let in as much ventilation, I have never found this to be a problem if the hamsters are cleaned out every week and the cage is not left in direct sunlight. Obviously for some pets like rats they make horrible cage choices and there are other options for hamsters as well, but size wise a 20 gallon is much more preferable to a 10 gallon.. I usually require my Syrian hamsters to be adopted out to cages that at least have the floor space of 24" x 12". Many hamster cages sold in pet stores are way too small, they see a hamster as a small pet and try to put them in tiny little cages, which are usually brightly colored and relatively cheap. These cages are more appealing to us humans than suit the needs of a hamster. Syrian hamsters are large and are awake when most people are alseep so they need as big a cage as you can afford. I do not agree with housing Syrian hamsters in the Crittertrail, Habitrail or SAM cages, the tubes in these cages can be too small for some Syrian hamsters, these cages are also hard to clean and the tubing can come apart meaning the hamster could escape. With dwarf hamsters in general a 10 gallon aquarium is alright. Some of these guys can live together, however I have discovered that Robovovski and Chinese dwarf hamsters will often argue or even fight later on. For these guys to live together they need to be siblings (obviously same sex) and have a bigger cage, although even then they could still fight. Campbells and Winter White dwarf hamsters are cousins and as such are similar, these guys are the most social hamster breeds. Although recently we had a litter of Winter White dwarf hamsters in the rescue, only two of them are still living together, so even they argue. Winter Whites are the hardest of the five breeds to find. Dwarf hamsters usually do well in the Crittertrail cages. The bedding does not need to be 3" deep either, I usually have an inch of bedding, although I also run a rescue and only use Carefresh bedding so it would be expensive to give each cage 3" of bedding.
While hamsters may bite more than rats, mice, gerbils etc, they do enjoy being handled, they are just not as social as rats are in that respect. They like getting out of their cage and running on your hands. We have had many hamsters that come into the rescue they were not handled much and go on to be great little pets, that do not bite. Although with any small pet it is better if they are handled at a young age. They do not need to be handled every day, it all depends on the hamsters personality, many of the hamsters we get from shelters are never handled while in that shelter, we have a female hamster called Buffy in the rescue at the moment who was born in a shelter and spent 6 months of her life in that same shelter before we picked her up. She was timid but never once went to bite, I could get her out of her house right now and she would be fine with that. However there are some breeds of hamster that have a reputation for being nippy, those are the Campbells dwarf hamsters. I would say 80 - 90% of these guys that come into the rescue will be nippy and the other 10 - 20% I would not pick them straight out of their cage, I would use a tunnel and then place them in my hand. Other hamsters like the Roborovski and the Chinese dwarf hamsters are smaller and much faster, so are hard to pick up, although the Chinese in particular are usually very sweet and rarely bite at all. I usually do not recommend dwarf hamsters for children under 12 years old.
Commerical hamster food is great, it contains all their required vitamins usually, as long as it is a good brand. Some of the cheaper brands contain a lot of seeds, to fill up the bags with and few hamsters will touch these seeds. I agree they do not need a lot of fruit or veggies as it can lead to diarrhea. They should not need mineral blocks or vitamin drops in their water either (which can sometimes put a hamster off drinking the water). Some hamsters like the dwarf Campbells and the Winter Whites like a little hay to eat, these guys will also use a sand bath if you give one to them, just like a Chinchilla and gerbils do. As long as a hamster is eating properly and his teeth are align, his teeth will wear down themselves.
As stated above hamster are very active at night and as such need to be kept occupied, an exercise wheel is great for this, I use the 8.5" large comfort wheels for my Syrian hamsters and the slightly smaller version for the dwarf guys. The size of the wheel is important because many small hamster cages will provide tiny 5 or 6" wheels, this makes the hamster arch its back a lot, meaning they can not exercise fully. The comfort wheels are solid plastic and safe for them to run on, they are also easy to clean. The metal bar wheel are dangerous because the hamster could get there legs caught in the spokes. I can hear a bunch of wheels going around as I type. Exercise balls are alright to use, but they need to be big enough for the hamster, some hamsters love them and will run around for a while (at most twenty minutes, then the hamster should be taken out), other do not like them at all. A hamster should always be supervised in them though because the door could open and they could get out, the hamster then could either get lost or run into a cat or dog in the house. Some hamsters will pee in them, Chinese hamsters will usually not use them at all. We have an enclosed area for our guys to play in, with climbing toys and tunnels in it and they get to go in one hamster at a time.
Hamsters sadly usually only live between 2 and 3 years, it used to be more but poor breeding practices and higher cases of diseases have reduced this. Too many veggies will cause diarhea however wet tail is often caused by stress and usually shows its self in young hamsters, especially those in pet stores. Diarhea from vegiies etc will stop if you take the veggies away, wet tail is hard to cure. This is because these hamsters are usually bred in puppy mill type situations, then shipped to pet stores at a very young age to arrive at the pet store around the 4 week mark (when the pet stores are able to sell them), they are then placed with numerous other hamsters, which can lead to fighting etc. Usually wet tail will not occur straight away but when the people buy the hamster and take them home, because that is a further stress. Many pet stores will loose a big proportion of the hamster stock to wet tail, because if one gets it, they all usually do. Another factor of wet tail is poor living conditions, if their cages are not cleaned out every week etc. Wet tail is a killer, few hamsters survive it, as soon as you notice it the hamster shoudl be taken to a vet, nothing sold in pet stores will help. The hamster usually dies from dehydration.