Surviving Hamsters Community (for NEW and Old Hamsters alike)

This is a very tough topic to cover itself but I will try to cover as much details as possible. Although I do encourage hamsters to be kept to pairs (other than Syrian), I do not encourage breeding of hamsters unless one understand the responsibilities of breeding and able to take care of all the hamsters.

Important : If your existing hamster/s is/are very territorial by nature, it will best that your new hamster should kept separate to prevent injuries/fights among themselves. Other than territorial hamsters, I also do not recommend different species of hamster to be placed in the same cage at all times.

On the general rules of thumb, Syrian should be kept alone. Communities hamster like Russians hamsters and Roborovski hamsters can be kept within their own communities (however, subjected to the temperament of each individual hamster). It will be best to introduce hamsters to each other when they are young as young pups can are earlier to adapt having additional companionship.

Another important point to take note is emotion well being of both existing and new hamsters. New hamster should be left ideally alone if there's sufficient cages available as this will allows them to adjust slowly to the environment. As for the existing hamster/s, it is best to reinsurance that they are still part of the family by showing them care and love (and letting them know that they are still being cared for although there are new additional to the family).

Step 1 (Before hamster-hamster interaction)
Before letting any of your hamsters interaction, it will be useful to bath (either by sand bath/powder bath/water bath of the same scent) all the hamsters to remove all hamster smells among themselves. Other than bathing all the hamsters, the cage (advisable to be a open style cage) that is going to be used for interaction should be washed and replace with new bedding as well.

Step 2 (Initial Interaction)
Place the hamster (preferring to be the younger or the timider of the hamsters) in the interaction cage for a while before introducing another hamster. Observe how both the hamsters interact. If fighting or bleeding occurs, separate them instantly with a fishnet or a rice bowl(Alternative : Wear Gloves). You may consider re-introduce your hamsters at a later time.

Possible reason of fights : Hamsters smell strangers/dangers within their territories.

Step 3 (Permanent Interaction)
When both hamsters are comfortable with each other for more than 15mins, then it is time to settle the pairs in!

Next try letting the pair living with each other for the next few days and continue to observe their behavior. If loud squeaking occurs without fighting/bleeding, don't worry. This is their way of communicating with each other when they are having fun with each other.

However, if loud squeaking occurs along with fighting and bleeding, PLEASE separately them without further delays.
(i) Same Gender  Interaction
Seriously, until date, i had not successfully introducing same gender interaction for hamsters older than 6 months. Therefore, my best advise is to get the same batch of siblings hamsters together at the same time or alternatively introduce the hamsters to each other early in their lives.

(ii) Different Gender  Interaction
Generally male-female interaction should be less problematic than same gender hamster.
However, this section brings about breeding of hamsters along with the moral issues involved. Please understand that while keeping a pair of hamster is fun, breeding isn't. There are various issues of breeding such as understanding the pregnant hamster and temperament, taking care of the mother hamster and the newborns and who will be taking care of the pups when they grow up.

Hamsters (animals) as gifts and presents????

On last Saturday, a friend whom I had not met for 3 years give me a pair of winter white hamsters as a birthday present when we met up for dinner.

Seriously, I was furious as well as annoyed by the stupidity of my friend in one way or another although I appreciate his thoughts on knowing that I love hamsters.

Hamsters are living animals that I seriously believe that we should not gave them as random gifts or presents. Have my friend consider what would had happened if I had rejected the pairs of hamsters? How will the hamsters fare? What will their fate be if I did not accept the hamsters?

My parents does not hate animals but do not approve house pets although I been keeping them in my room. As the result, I had to reduce the numbers of hamster that I had been keeping to 2 until that thoughtless friend of mine give me a pair of Winters for my birthday. He was mentioning that I used to keep 13 so 4 should not be a problem...

Have my friend really think of the consequences of that should I had rejected the 2 hamsters? What will my friend do? Return to the pet store and apologise? Keep the 2 hamsters and remind him how his recklessness had resulted in keeping 2 hamsters that he have neither experience or facilities for them for at least 2 years or more?

I seriously believe that animals are serious commitment until death brings us apart. If one really wish to give someone special an animal as a gift or present, I seriously advise the one to bring someone special down to a pet shelter (save a life, adopt one) or pet store and choose together.

Let the new /existing owner knows that he/she will be having new additional to the family and the additional commitment involved. Do not rush into a pet store and buy animals as gift or presents for the reason that they are simply adorable looking.

Every Single Animal is 

A Lifetime Commitment

BBC documentary - 'Wild China' featuring Roborovski Hamsters

Check this cool video out!!!
A wild life documentary of roborovski hamsters in desert China.
Ironic thing is the entire video isn't shot in the wild - Just a studio set up of roborovski hamsters in a sandy area but pretty nice video nevertheless!

Btw, I found a pretty cool website http://roborovskihamsters.webs.com/ that is packed with tons of Roborovski hamsters where this video origins. Thus, I added the link on the right panel under more "More Squeaking Links"

Kids and Hamsters - Should I let any kids play with my hamsters???

This is a very tough questions to answer for most of the parents and hamsters owners alike. This blog entry generally covers preschool kids that have never interacting with hamsters or other types of pets before.

Important : If your hamster is very aggressive and non human friendly, it will best that children do not touch your hamster. This will prevent your hamster from being agitated nor the kids to be bitten.

Other than aggressive hamsters, I also do not recommend roboskivii hamster as playmates as they are not suitable for people who have no or minimium hamster experience.

On the usual tone, my house only allow kids to play with tame and human friendly hamsters.

Another important point to take note is always supervise kid-hamster interaction at all times so that neither parties will be hurt in the process.

Step 1 (Before hamster interaction)
Before letting any kids play with your hamster, it will be useful to inform them in advance the temperament of your hamster. Educate the kids that they are dealing with a living animal so they have to handle your hamster with gentle care at all times.

Step 2 (Intial Interaction)
As you lift the hamster in your hands, ask the kid to slowly and gently touch your hamster by the head until both hamster and kid is comfortable with each other.

Step 3 (Feeding Interaction)
Next try asking the kid to hold the sunflower seed with his/her fingers and let the hamster eat the seed. Alternatively, you can ask the kid to cupped the hands with sunflowers and let the hamster explore the kid's hand.

Step 4 (Before passing hamster over)
When you want to let the kid hold the hamster 1st time round, the best method will be asking the child to sit on a sofa or soft bench or carpeted floor before passing your hamster over. This is prevent nasty fall/drop of your hamster.

Step 5 (Holding interaction)
Ask the kid to cup his/her hands gently around your hamster so that your hamsters will not be at a discomfort and always educate them that they are dealing with living animal and treat your hamster with respect.
Show some basic trick like "Walk the hamster" or "Standing Hamster".
Avoid teaching nape holding or tummy holding tactics to the child as this will require some holding practise and the child's hand might be too small to properly hold your hamster.

Step 6 (Letting the kid to play with your hamster)
Try setting up an viewable area for your hamster to run and play with the child if both parties seems to be at ease with each other.

The child by now should be able to handle your hamster. :)

Upcoming article : Kids' responsbility toward hamsters as owners.

IMPORTANT : Introducing new hamster to the house...especially for New hamster owner

You have bought little hammie home from pet shelter/pet shop/pet breeder, it is time to let your hamster get familiar with its environment.

Before you go on with this blog post, there are 4 pointers to take note of :
1) Do you have pets other than hamsters in the house?
If you do, refer to my upcoming article on "Hamsters interacting with other Pets"

2) Do you have kids in your house? How old are they?
Will they be old enough to interact with your new hammie?
If you do, refer to my article on "Kids and Hamsters - Should I let my kids play with hamsters???"

3) Do you have other hamsters in your house? Are they of the same species?
Are they of the same gender?
If you do, refer to my article on "Surviving Hamsters Community"

4) Do you intend to breed hamsters?
If you do, refer to my upcoming article on "Hamsters & Birth"

As an experienced hamster owner since 2000, my best advise for any excited owners is :
CALM DOWN!!!

The little one is highly likely to be very afraid of its new surrounding area. So the following steps are to calm and welcome your new hammie to its new home.

Step 1 (Location of hamster cage)
Before deciding where to place your hamster cage upon reaching home, there are a few factors that you should consider : Lighting, heat and noise level of the house. Newly homed hamsters are very timid in nature and any sudden exposure to above factors will scare them, thus making them harder to be human friendly. Best advise to new hamster owners is to leave your hamster to explore and get familiarized its new cage in a quiet and dim lighted for first few days.

Step 2 (Approaching your hamster)
Before you approach your hamster, it will be in your hamster's best interest to call it out softly. Depending on circumstances, you may either call your hamster by its name or use a common sound that your hamster might recognize you and your hands with. AVOID banging or knocking your hamster cage at all time as such behavior will only make your hamster be more afraid of you!!!

Step 3 (Bonding with your hamster)
One common mistake that most new hamster owners do is to grab their hammie the moment they reach home. Won't you be terrified if you are walking on the streets and a stranger suddenly grabs you by your waist? Same theory applies to all newly homed hamsters as well.
The following approach that I recommends is a longer route to create bonding between you and your hamster. Althrough this approach might be time consuming, it allows your hamster to have complete trust in you in the near future.

Step 3.1 (1st week)
Before any interaction with your hamster, try putting your hands near your hamster wherever you can. Slowly over the course of a week, shorten the distance between your hand and your hamster. This will let your hamster knows that you are a friend.

Step 3.2 (2nd week)
Try feeding your hamster with treats with your fingers first by dangling it in the air, let your hamster approach you and accustom your fingers. Alternatively, you can fill your palms with some food and let it approach you. One advice to zest hamster owner: Never ever chase after your hamster to feed it!

Step 3.3 (3nd week)
Try gentle stroking your hamsters while it is eating or sleeping. If your hamster shows any signs of unease (i.e. running away, squeaking or baring teeth), just put your hand away and do it some other time.
One good advice to new hamster owner : Always approach your hamster head on and never from the back.
Only predators from the wild catch hamsters from the back.

Step 3.4 (4th week)
By now, if your hamster show no signs of resist, congratation to you! Your hamsters trust you and allows you to touch and play with it.

Have a nice hamster bonding time! 

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Do you know...

• Hamster are crepuscular by nature meaning that they are primary active around twilight (ie. dawn or dusk).

• Hamsters have fur-lined pouches on both sides of their cheeks that extend all the way to their shoulders, which they stuff full of food to be stored, brought back to their nest.

• Hamster tails are very short except for the Chinese dwarf hamster whose tail is the same length as the body.
  
• Hamsters are excellent listener and particularly sensitive to high-pitched noises.

• Hamsters communicate among themselves in the ultrasonic range that is beyond normal human hearing range.

Do you know...

• Hamster birth litter can be as many as 18 pups !!!

• Hamster pups are born blind and only starts to open their eyes around 10th day

• Each hamster pup recognize their mother's scent and will always feed on the same milking tits.

• Hamster pups are usually wean around 14-21days and during weaning period, pups will drink milk and eat solid food at the same time.

• Mother of the litter will eat her pups if she is under stress or under threat or under nutrition