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Hamster Care Sheet
General
Syrian hamsters are familiar to most people and make delightful family pets. They tend to sleep during daylight and become more active during the evening. This generally suits most family schedules.
There are several species of hamsters, with the most common being the familiar Syrian and the dwarf species including Russian, Chinese and Roborowski. Most hamsters, including Syrian hamsters, are solitary and should be kept alone if all you want is a pet. However, several of the dwarf hamsters are social and prefer to live in pairs or small groups. Even then, you should restrict your group to a single sex – otherwise you will soon have a larger colony that quickly outgrows its cage, which might lead to fighting between the hamsters and injuries. You should have an extra cage available in case you need to separate them.
Hamsters as Pets
Most hamsters are easy to handle once they learn to trust you. Always remember that their eyesight is poor, so they use their sense of smell to recognize friendly approaches and identify threats. When you first acquire a hamster, allow your new pet a few days to settle into its new home before you try to handle it. Caution: always wash your hands before handling your hamster as it can easily pick up an infection from dirty hands. Allow your hamster an opportunity to sniff your hand before you pick it up. If you offer food from your hand this should help to build confidence.
It is quite important to give your hamster regular opportunities to exercise itself in a safe area outside of its cage. There are various accessories that you can buy to help with this exercise, including the familiar hamster exercise wheel (see, for example, the Savic and Pennine wheels in our online catalogue) that you can buy to fit inside the cage (many cages come with a hamster wheel in the pack of accessories). Some of the external accessories that you can buy look almost like ‘toys’, so they can be fun for you as well as exercising for your hamster. These include the hamster runaround wheel (hamster ‘ball’) – see our online catalogue for the Pennine and Wildberry versions and others. Remember to wait for your hamster to wake up on its own, have a snack, and go to the toilet (you can buy a hamster toilet too!) before you take it out of its cage. If you try to wake a sleeping hamster it will often become irritable and bite you, even if it is normally perfectly friendly.
Hamster Cages
A cage for a Syrian hamster should be around 24 x 16 x 12 inches (600 x 400 x 300 mm), with a solid bottom (not wire mesh) with either a wire or perspex top. You can provide adequate space by connecting two or more smaller cages or units using one of the several types of tubing or tunnels on the market. Be careful to make sure that you buy the correct type for your cage as the different brands are not all compatible with each other. Well-known brands include Rotastak (e.g. Pink Palace with a perspex lid), Ferplast (e.g. Mini Duna with a wire lid), Savic (e.g. Rody Metro with a perspex lid), Pennine (e.g. Hamster Hall with a wire lid), and Wildberry (e.g. Laura with a wire lid).
You can add a sleeping house and fill it with nesting material like shredded paper or fibre. Choose toys for your hamster such as a solid wheel (preferably not the open rung wire type), ladders and ramps. Hamsters enjoy burrowing in a deep layer of safe bedding such as clean (and sterile) sawdust or paper and wool-fibre based bedding (from Safe Bed, Armitage or PetLove) or Aspen shavings. Never use sawdust from coniferous timbers such as aromatic cedar and pine beddings. Also, never be tempted to try to save money by using your own sawdust – it could be lethal.
Dwarf hamsters are safer in a plastic cage or an aquarium-type container or a specially designed cage such as a glass tank intended for gerbils, as they may squeeze through the wire bars of a standard cage. A wire cage intended for mice might be suitable but these are often quite small and not really large enough for more than one dwarf hamster.
Feeding your Hamster
Hamster food, consisting of pellets and a variety of seeds and nuts, is available to buy loose in whatever quantity you want or pre-packed in proprietary branded packs (Harry Hamster, for example, in our catalogue). Any of these specialist brands of hamster food will provide your hamster with a healthy diet. Food should be available at all times but always be careful not to over-feed your hamster or it will become quite large and fat unless it also exercises a lot.
A range of feeding dishes is available in a variety of materials (plastic, ceramic, stainless steel or melamine), according to your preference and price range.
Give your hamster a handful of fresh vegetables and fruit each evening. Hamsters are omnivorous and although most people regard them as vegetarian, they can also eat foods such as mealworms, yogurt, cottage cheese, tofu and lean cooked meat.
Fresh water should always be available in a sipper bottle. Water bottles come from a number of manufacturers, including the popular Classic range.
Cleaning your Hamster’s Cage
Soiled areas should be spot-cleaned daily. It can be helpful to provide your hamster with a plastic hamster potty and toilet litter. Wash the cage bottom, food dish and water bottle weekly. Always rinse and dry the cage and accessories well before you add fresh bedding. It is preferable to use a disinfectant cage spray, such as Johnsons Cage and Hutch Spray which also kills mites. Re-using some of the old nesting material will help your hamster feel comfortable and at home.
Breeding
Syrian hamsters should be separated according to their sex by about 3 weeks of age both to avoid health risks and unwanted babies.
Dwarf hamsters can produce babies every 3 weeks if males and females are not kept apart.
Health
Hamsters are generally healthy creatures but they can injure themselves if they fall heavily, particularly outside of their own cage environment. However, you should be alert and look out for signs of illness or injury such as: lack of droppings or soft droppings; excessive drinking or urinating; dirty, wet or patchy fur; sneezing, wheezing or runny nose; limping, cuts or bumps, bleeding from any opening.
Wet-tail, which name is derived from its symptoms, can be caused through stress and is usually a lethal condition unless you consult your Vet very quickly.
Mites can be eliminated and prevented by using an insecticidal spray or powder such as manufactured by Johnsons (see our online catalogue).
You can help your hamster maintain a generally healthy condition by giving it a regular vitamin supplement such as Johnsons Hamster and Gerbil Vitamin Drops (see our online catalogue).
© 2008, Pets Mate Limited
Disclaimer: We have tried to provide the best advice possible in this Care Sheet based on our own experience of keeping and selling pet hamsters. However, Pets Mate Limited cannot be held responsible for any problems you may experience with your hamster from any cause whatsoever.
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