Keeping a Hamster as a Pet Part 3
Created | Updated Aug 31, 2007
How to keep a hamster part one explained how to choose, name and home your hamster, and How to keep their home clean. How to keep a hamster part two detailed what hamsters can eat and how best to exercise and entertain them. That covers the basics of keeping a hamster, in part three you can learn how to develop a more lasting relationship with your hamster, and how to understand their individual personality and beahaviour.
Quirks and Eccentricities
Did you know that your hamster will talk to you? They do. Hamsters have a variety of communication tools including piffing, squeaking, whistling and various other noises some of which you may be unable to hear, as well as facial expressions and body language. Hamsters will use different methods to say the same things, although you may find that within a group of hamsters living in the same household, there develops a 'standardised' set of noises and actions, which each hamster uses to mean the same thing.
While it is hard to get to know what your hamster is saying, it helps to know the kind of thing they are likely to want to say. In the main, hamsters are likely to want to gain your attention, ask you to do something for them or to tell you that they are unwell/in pain/frightened or distressed. The only way to learn what your individual is communicating to you is watch, be patient and experiment.
Social Behaviour
Nose rubbing is an important tool in hamster social interaction. Don't be afraid if your hamster goes for your face, he or she may well just be trying to nose rub and say hello. Rubbing around your neck, especially under the ears is their way of picking up your scent and marking you with theirs. All this is important in building a close bond with your hamster. They socialise in a variety of ways, they try to look after you, especially females, who can treat you like a baby hamster. Which unfortunately for us can be mistaken for being bitten. Mothers often nip their babies as a means of discpline and adults will use the same method on you, to complain that you are holding them incorrectly, for example. This will not break the skin though. Grooming is also an important social ritual for hamsters and, although they are trying to be friendly by grooming you, hamsters often fail to take account of your lack of fur and cause more pain or damage than they intend. If a hamsters genuinely intends to bite, probably because they have been frightenned or hurt, it will break the skin and cause serious pain. You may even need a couple of stitches! They will only do this if you provoke them, so just make sure you never provoke them. Your hamster is a contradiction on four paws...they are solitary but love company! They will want to share things with you, grooming for one and play for another.
Other Makes of Hamster
So we've got through the basics. Shall we get a bit more technical and complicated? Dwarfs. Innumerable in variety, for example; Campbells, McIntosh, Mogolian Fancy (Roborovski), Mongolian Standard, Mongolian Variagated, Chinese Dwarfs- White, Lavender, Variagated, Fancified, Longtail (1 centimetre), Shortail, Marbled, Winter White: Russian, Standard, Dove, Dove Marbled, Dove Variagated, Longcoat, Shortcoat, Longtail, Shorttail, Rex. That's just a small handful of examples. These little Darlings are complicated individuals. Let's start easy.
Pairs
Some of the really fancy dwarfs, the really dinky ones can rarely be handled. Not ideal for a first pet, these are for the hardened hamster fancier who wants to branch out into the fancy realml. Although you can rarely cuddle them, they still provide all the aforementioned enjoyment and bonding opportunities. The following can be kept in pairs:
- MacIntosh
Campbell
Roborovski
Chinese
Other Mongolian
These can be kept in male or female pairs BUT do not pair brother and sister, they will mate, and you don't want inbreeding or fighting. When pairing let the hamster that loves you choose you. DO NOT choose their living companion. They will tell you who they want. This is a little different with male-female pairs. Get two of the same breed at the same age (ideally four weeks) from the same pet shop but different litters. DO NOT put them together immediately. Have a large tank ie, two foot long, one foot high. Seperate it in half down the middle with a piece of net with dowling top and bottom and down the sides held together with tape. This allows them to be close without fighting. After seven days they should be cuddling up to each other against the netting and trying to groom each other through it. Remove the net. DO NOT leave unattended. Make sure it is a day when you don't have to go anywhere or do anything. Stay with them all day. If there is no fighting breathe out. If they fight , have icy water as standby. Douse them, seperate them, put the net back, try again in two days. Keep up this process until they are happy with each other. Do not be surprised if, every now and then, you have four dwarfs instead of two. To control dwarf numbers, control the living space. They will not overpopulate their enviroment.
Other Dwarfs
Russian Dwarfs are best kept apart, a bit like standards. They will fight. And it will definitely be to the death. Decapitation being the favourite method (decapitation occurs after death). Keep them in large tanks, with bucketloads of wood shavings and follow the aforementioned hamster dietary needs and training.
These little guys, although they go like stink1 can be cuddled and played with, but very, very carefully.
