Tell me about having a hamster

Julie Billingsley

Julie Billingsley

The Ghost of Awesome Past
So my little guy is desperate to have a pet. LOL Logan asked for a hamster for his 6th birthday (coming up in a couple of months) and it might be a possibility. I'm just worried that for a little kid, a hamster would be interesting for a week and then a forgotten critter. Any hamster advice?? And by the way we don't have any pets indoor except fish.
 
they are darling and if you do decide to get one, get a fancy black bear hamster.

we have had tons off and on through childhood cause we are all allergic to regular pets...LOL.

black bears are the sweetest. they are bred with the calmest of the hamster family so they are chill, VERY VERY rarely have been know to bite (ours NEVER has and NEVER acted like he would), don't take as much work to socialize etc and they are the CUTEST ones. imo. :)

with that said. the hamster will be forgotten with a 6 year old AND you have to clean their cages out frequently and they chew on their cage so you have to replace it. well unless you get a metal one.

anywho. there ya go. we have one now and he is over 2 years old. he's just the sweetest thing, but the kids rarely play with him. :(

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My son Zakk had a hamster when he was younger after his guinea pigs died. The hamster (Dexter) was super sweet. We bought him a plastic pen that had a hamster wheel and other stuff for him to do in there. It was like a hamster amusement park! LOL

We made Zakk take care of the cage and feeding. Since it was his, we made sure that he changed the bedding every week and kept up on the food and water. He also took him out to play. He was a good hamster daddy! LOL
 
Abby was dying for a pet too. We got her a guinea pig on the recommendation of her pediatrician. She's had it for a month or so and she's still really good with making sure he has food and water and she "helps" Daddy clean out the cage.
 
I would go for a guinea pig instead of a hamster. Hamster sleep during the day and we had 2 that has bitten us :( We have a guinea pig and the boys love it and really treat it well ( besides 3 rabbits and 3 cats LOL)
 
One thing about guinea pigs is that you have to clip their teeth. If they get too long, it can cause them problems. I hated teeth clipping time. LOL
 
We had one it was like a little escape artist, chewed through it's cage, worked out how to open the door on the replacement one. Did like to do gross stuff like pee through the bars onto mother in laws furniture though which I have to admit Lukas found hilarious :p. It never tried to bite Lukas though or Josh (Mark's nephew) when he stayed but did used to like taking a munch out of Mark's mum and dad, it wasn't really anything to do with me since they bought it. I just fed it and cleaned it out when Mark's mum didn't. Hugs Crystal xx
 
My hamsters always died in like a month. :( You should get a dog. The little kind that fits inyour purse so you never have to leave home without him.
 
Well, I'm not thrilled with a guinea pig, I don't know why but they just aren't cute to me. Not that any rodent really is, LOL. You all brought up a big concern about hamsters being an escape artist. I wouldn't like finding one on the loose! I think you confirmed my fears, Lizzy, about the kids just losing interest in a hamster. (that's a cute pic by the way!) Ideally, I would LOVE to get a dog. I have a few breeds in mind, however, my husband isn't interested and it certainly wouldn't be a gift to my kids. The dog would be mine :wub:
 
awww I love hamsters. I have had several hamsters, rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs, and a mouse. I love the bunnies and hamsters the most. I had several breeds of hamsters. The only one I did not like was the russian dwarf hamster. Mine was evil...possessed I swear!! I would put my hand in the cage and that sucker would leap at my hand and try to sink his teeth in me!! I had a little white hamster with fluffy fur that was all spiky around his face who I called Einstein (cause of his crazy hair) He never tried to bite me. He would come running everytime I opened the cage and jump into my hand to be petted and loved. It really is a tolerance thing though. Some people just arent good with rodent type pets. I know alot of people thought my ferrets were nasty. Hamsters are not long living IMO though. The longest I had one was 2 1/2 years. Ive heard of other people having them longer. They are not social creatures. They play all night and sleep all day. They need alot of exercise and need to be held in order to stay friendly. They should be one per cage in my experience although I know some people keep more per cage. Mine always fought. A rabbit is a good animal for a young child so long as they have adult help in caring for them. I got my first rabbit when I was about 7 and didnt have any problems with him.
 
Hamsters are SO cute...friends of ours had one when we lived with them...he bit (when he was scared, etc) but he was super cute, lol. We would put him in a special plastic ball and let him run...then laugh when he ran into things and couldn't run anymore. Good times.

An idea (not sure if it would work, but it's an idea) so that it doesn't get "forgotten" and teaches some responsibility is to maybe set up a chore chart for your son so that he makes sure to do the things like feed/water it and cleaning the cage (with help...since he IS only 6).
 
We don't have hamsters, but we do have gerbils. We are on our 2nd set, and have learned that if you are going to do it, get a glass terrarium with a plastic lid from Walmart and skip the plastic/metal wire cages. Rodents just eat the plastic and get out. We had an escape artist in our first set of gerbils - she got out twice and I am not a rodent lover =( I will say that my daughter who is 9 loves her little gerbils and is very faithful about taking care of them. We got our first set in 2006 when she was almost 7. Hope that helps!

Stephanie
 
joelsgirl said:
My hamsters always died in like a month. :( You should get a dog. The little kind that fits inyour purse so you never have to leave home without him.
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OMG-I spit my DC out all over the screen...FO' REAL.
Kellie...all these serious responses then this...OMG.
 
I worked for a pet store for a long time, and I really tried to deter people from hamsters... they can be mean little suckers.

My favorite animal in the whole world is the rat. They're cleaner, they're smarter, and they'll play and love on you.

Feel free to PM me with any pocket pet questions. Also, please, if you get a hamster, no cedar or pine bedding, only get Carefresh (recycled paper bedding)... you'll have a dead hamster with cedar or pine or any wood... it gives them respiratory probs.
 
Robin Carlton said:
My cat ate my dwarf hamster when I was 10 - never got another one :( I'm still scarred.
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We had almost the same thing here. We heard a big scream and thought it was one of the rabbits. When we got there they looked up like what's the panic about? In just a sec I saw that one of the tunnels was open and ran upstairs and I was just able to grab the cat who had the hamster in his mouth.
From that moment on we keep the hamster in a doorlocked room, 'cause I think when the cat gets its chance.....
 
Voodoo_Bryn said:
Also, please, if you get a hamster, no cedar or pine bedding, only get Carefresh (recycled paper bedding)... you'll have a dead hamster with cedar or pine or any wood... it gives them respiratory probs.
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really?? our fancy black bear is like 26 months old now and we use organic cedar bedding. no added anything and he is fine.
 
I had gerbils growing up and they were ok pets, but we didn't spend a whole lot of time playing with them. We have guinea pigs now for our kids and they love them, but they do need a lot more room than a hamster.
 
lizzyfizzy said:
really?? our fancy black bear is like 26 months old now and we use organic cedar bedding. no added anything and he is fine.
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You've lucked out then, the oil in the cedar gets in the lining of their lungs and when they die, it's usually not of old age...

it's usually an upper resp infection. :(

I worked at a vet after the pet store (I met him at the pet store, actually) and whenever people brought in hamsters... I usually knew immediately what it was for.

I used to be an animal lover until I had kids... now... they're just added work. sigh.
 
I've had so many hamsters in my lifetime, and I really can't wait until my son is old enough to have one for himself (or for me, too!)

Here's a couple of tips- make sure the cage doesn't have too big of gaps between the wires- hamsters are escape artists.

Give them toilet paper/paper towel (empty) rolls to play with- they chew them up and make nests out of them.

Use pine bedding & keep them away from drafty windows!

Make sure you get a wire brush to clean out their water bottle. The bottles get real yucky with algae.

They like to eat cheerios, cheese puffs, corn kernels, alfafa (spelling?), and veggies & apples.

***Get a teddy bear hamster- they short hair/silky hamsters can be rather aggressive and tend to bite often- and draw blood! Teddy bear hamsters are so sweet and snuggly, and I've never had one that bit.***
 
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Paula said:
One thing about guinea pigs is that you have to clip their teeth. If they get too long, it can cause them problems. I hated teeth clipping time. LOL
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I've owned 4 guinea pigs in the past, and I've never had to clip their teeth. We always got them chew sticks, which kept their teeth trimmed. We were always blessed to have to cut their nails, though, which grew really REALLY fast! And were sharp!

The one thing about guinea pigs that you have to watch out for, is their hair-dander. Something in it makes many people itchy. I guess a lot of people can be allergic to them, if they already have allergies to other things or animals.

I would opt for a guniea pig, though. They're so cute! We used to bring ours outside and let them play in the grass. They'd just sit there and eat it! I always kept mine on a harness & leash, so they couldn't run away! I also love all the adorable noises a guinea pig makes. They purr, oink, squeal, and make other noises. I think I read somewhere that they have over 20 different sounds they make. So cute! :)
 
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