Should I get a hamster?

Ficus_religiosa

I'm in the process of talking my girlfriend into letting me have a hamster (I let her have a dog, after all). We've had two hamsters before and they're just the ideal pet I think..
Anyone else had a hamster?

Our first hamster was called Hamtaro. He was a black with a white band... I think he lived for about three years..
Sometimes when we had dinner, we placed him in the bowl of salad where he would search for the tastiest left overs. He also loved when we fed him some egg white from the boiled eggs at breakfast.. Once my girlfriend forgot to close the cage, so he escaped and lived for two days in a basket with yarn - we placed some food on the floor in the living room and the room in which his cage was and waited for him to take some. When we knew he was in the living room, it was easy to just wait for him to come out to forage.. She just picked him up and carried him back to the cage, as he was very tame and never tried to run and hide..

The second hamster was called Bella. She lived in a small, pink cage at first. But we soon realized it was far too small and she was able to escape it. She also hid in the living room She was not completely tame at the time, but did not try to run away when I saw her.. She was then moved to Hamtaro's old cage. Today I would say it's also too small for a Syrian hamster.. Every morning, when I got up, she walked up the bridge to the top of the cage and waited to have treats from me..

DaftChris

Eh, I'm not a fan of Hamsters myself, but they do make good pets.

Personally, I'm looking forward to getting a bunny. I'll name it Professor Brown (brownie points for those who get the reference).

RebeccaS

I'm not into them, I don't think they make great pets, especially in comparison to cats and dogs. They sleep all day and go all mad at night? Would drive me crazy

I had a hamster when I was a kid. She was cute and everything, but you just can't love them the same way. They don't like to cuddle or anything.

They are low maintenance though, so they're a good pet if you don't have a lot of time and you have enough wd40 on hand to stop the wheel squeaking

But as you have a dog, won't he try to eat the hamster? Get a puppy and your gfs dog and your dog can be friends!

MaryAnne

I think it totally depends on the dog already in the house....
hamsters are small, fast and very very 'interesting' to dogs with a strong prey/chase instinct. Dogs like terriers and pointers and labs, etc. It's always a challenge and there's always a risk involved when mixing dogs or cats with prey animals under the same roof.

My daughter's 10 lb rat terrier (a generally sweet dog) killed one of my first (small) parrots when the bird opened her cage door and climbed out to walk around on the outside of the cage...
We didn't know she knew how to unlatch the cage door, and it all happened in the blink of an eye with two adults in the house. It was all over before anyone noticed the cage open.
I've known of several hamsters and guinea pigs meeting their end in similar ways from my time as a vet tech, too. Think carefully, seriously consider the dog in the house first.

internale

I agree about making sure the dog doesn't have a strong prey drive and will not go after the hamster. I would also say that adoption is the kindest way to go. Most people are surprised to learn this, but you can adopt small animals like hamsters, ferrets, guinea pigs and rabbits from shelters, just like you can adopt dogs and cats. Many, MANY people buy small animals without giving it enough thought, and then surrender them. Rescue a homeless pet, rather than buying one from a pet store. Petfinder.com is a good resource. They have a search option called "Small & Furry."

Jeffrey

How should I know? Just kiddin' Maybe you can generate some electricity with the wheel?

Beej

yes.

Ficus_religiosa

RebeccaS said:

I'm not into them, I don't think they make great pets, especially in comparison to cats and dogs. They sleep all day and go all mad at night? Would drive me crazy

I had a hamster when I was a kid. She was cute and everything, but you just can't love them the same way. They don't like to cuddle or anything.

They are low maintenance though, so they're a good pet if you don't have a lot of time and you have enough wd40 on hand to stop the wheel squeaking

But as you have a dog, won't he try to eat the hamster? Get a puppy and your gfs dog and your dog can be friends!

They totally like to cuddle! When we got the first hamster I was like "naah, hamsters are blank and they bite"... In fact they are the sweetest if you socialize and stimulate them properly - they cuddle, don't run around like crazy and don't go bananas on the wheel..

Our dog won't eat it once it realizes the hamster is not a toy - she's a 3 pound Chihuahua so prey drive is pretty minimal and she gets along with guinea pigs just fine. She treats them as dogs initially - licking, bowing and jumping around them. When they don't respond, she starts really sniffing them real good and eventually leaves them :P

They will never be left alone together, though. The hamster will live in a big cage with plastic-walls and a wire top in our rest room - which is forbidden land to our dog, as she eats the toilet paper. So it's totally dog-proof

Ficus_religiosa

Jeffrey said:

How should I know? Just kiddin' Maybe you can generate some electricity with the wheel?

I actually think about naming the hamster Jeffrey!
1) I can call it "Jeff" for short
2) It will have a theme song: IllDisposed - Jeff
3) Nobody would think it's called Jeffrey, which makes it funny (I also considered "Henning" - a popular boys' name in my country some 50 years ago)

karasti

I've had all sorts of pets in my life. Honestly, the absolute lowest maintenance is our Russian Tortoise, Rasputin. He eats vegetables. That's all he requires, other than twice yearly changing out his substrate. We've had other reptiles, which are easy once you have the setup done. We have a dog, a boxer, who even though she is over 3 is still like having a puppy. We had cats the whole time I grew up, but my son is allergic, so no cats. And many, many rodents. We currently have 2 ferrets, and they are hands down the best pets I have ever owned. I absolutely love their curiosity and intelligence. But they are much more high maintenance than a hamster. Though they don't use a wheel and adapt to whatever schedule you have. We don't allow them out around the dog, she jumps all over and would squash them trying to play with them. She isn't predatory in the least (she tries to play with the deer who come into the yard, lol) but overly playful.

I am starting to get away from pets, though. As ours have died (at one point we had I think 7 pets, now we have 2 ferrets, the dog and the tortoise, who will probably outlive us) we haven't been replacing them. I just personally don't get a good feeling out of supporting the pet trade. Dogs and cats are different, depending where you get them from of course because of their long domesticated history. But animals like reptiles are still largely taken from the wild and then sold and bred until they die. So, we won't be getting any more reptiles, and if we do get another pet in the future, it'll be a service dog for our son.

Ficus_religiosa

karasti said:

I am starting to get away from pets, though. As ours have died (at one point we had I think 7 pets, now we have 2 ferrets, the dog and the tortoise, who will probably outlive us) we haven't been replacing them. I just personally don't get a good feeling out of supporting the pet trade. Dogs and cats are different, depending where you get them from of course because of their long domesticated history. But animals like reptiles are still largely taken from the wild and then sold and bred until they die. So, we won't be getting any more reptiles, and if we do get another pet in the future, it'll be a service dog for our son.

I totally get this. Even though I think they are cool, I wouldn't ever get a Betta-fish because they are caught in the wild. Hamsters - where I live at least - mostly come from private breeders, even those in the pet-stores, so I think it's pretty safe. We got the other two as pups from the same pet store and I think they care a great deal about their animals. The hamsters had a very good temperament and were healthy. They also sell exotics like snakes, chameleons, skinks and wandering sticks which is often a sign that they take good care of the animals, since some of those aren't low maintenance

vinlyn

Where do you get the idea that beta fish are not bred in controlled situations? It's really quite interesting to see how they build a "bubble nest".

Ficus_religiosa

vinlyn said:

Where do you get the idea that beta fish are not bred in controlled situations? It's really quite interesting to see how they build a "bubble nest".

The pet store manager told me that :-/

vinlyn

In Thailand, for example, that really is true. And I won't say they're easy to breed like guppies or swordtails, but many breeders breed them here in the states.

karasti

Yeah hamsters and the like are pretty much just as domesticated. And you're right, it definitely depends on where you get them. Puppy mills are horrible places. There are also mills for ferrets, too, which are equally as bad. I personally prefer to adopt animals but where I live there is no ferret rescue (within about 300 miles) and with our dog, we got her from a family breeder because having small children in the house we didn't want to take a risk with possibly getting an abused dog that wouldn't react well to a toddler, or to have the dog traumatized further by living with a toddler, lol. So we did a lot of research, and got a boxer from a couple who have just 2 dogs that are their family dogs. They bred the female twice then had her spayed, and they remain close friends of ours. Fabulous people who treat their dogs like family, which is what we wanted in our dog.

It just kind of weirds me out thinking about animals who really belong in the wild being pets as entertainment, which is what it comes down to with chameleons and most other reptiles. They don't generally provide companionship, some of them you can't even handle. We had a veiled chameleon which was an amazing cool pet, but once we got him, I just felt wrong about it. Chameleons don't belong as pets. They are high maintenance because they are very sensitive to their environment, and being in a cage of any sort is not conducive to their health. Many of them die very young because of the stresses put on them. It's just sad. I live in the frozen tundra (well not quite, but close enough, lol). Animals from Madagascar and Africa just don't belong here, no matter how cool I think they are. It's just something I've more recently begun thinking about.

Cinorjer

"I'm in the process of talking my girlfriend into letting me have a hamster"

Dude, I've been married 22 years, and I ain't that whipped.

Sounds like you have a lucky girlfriend.

I used to raise and breed hamsters. Go for it. They're great little critters.

Ficus_religiosa

Cinorjer said:

"I'm in the process of talking my girlfriend into letting me have a hamster"

Dude, I've been married 22 years, and I ain't that whipped.

Sounds like you have a lucky girlfriend.

I used to raise and breed hamsters. Go for it. They're great little critters.

Haha! Well I think bringing a new pet into our home is a two-person thing, since it will also affect her..

karasti

That's a benefit of being a female, I guess I would never get a pet my husband was set against, but for the most part, he spoils me and I get whatever I want, thus the 2 ferrets that were my mother's day gift, LOL.

Cinorjer

My wife talked me into letting her get a big parrot last year that loves her and hates me and will launch itself through the air toward my head if we don't keep its wings clipped.

Then she had to rescue a Russian Turtle and is worried it's depressed and wants company because it just sits in its cage and stares at its food bowl, and recently she rescued a kitten that the next door neighbors moved out and abandoned, just left it sitting on the doorstep meowing for its family. That's on top of the three rescued dogs that take up all the bed every night and jump all over me when i come in from work. It's like living with Ellie May Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies. I never know what additional critters she's going to adopt next. I wish all I had to worry about was a hamster.

Come to think of it, I really am just as whipped, ain't I? Now I'm depressed.

karasti

lol Russian Tortoises (if it is a tortoise and not a turtle, turtles are aquatic and tortoises are not) hibernate. They will often dig a hole and not eat or drink for weeks or months at a time. In the winter, from about late October until late March/April we only offer water to ours. About once a week we put a little food in his dish in case he wants, but I don't think in any of the 6 years we've had him, he's ever taken a bite. If he has something to dig into (we use a combination of clean dirt/soil and coconut fiber) he might dig in and not even move for weeks.

Wisdom23

i had a hamster called cinnamon lol i loved her ever so much so i say yeah go for it.

Can i recommend Mr Bo-jangles as a name lol

Cinorjer

karasti said:

lol Russian Tortoises (if it is a tortoise and not a turtle, turtles are aquatic and tortoises are not) hibernate. They will often dig a hole and not eat or drink for weeks or months at a time. In the winter, from about late October until late March/April we only offer water to ours. About once a week we put a little food in his dish in case he wants, but I don't think in any of the 6 years we've had him, he's ever taken a bite. If he has something to dig into (we use a combination of clean dirt/soil and coconut fiber) he might dig in and not even move for weeks.

Yeah, it's a tortoise. The Wife keeps correcting me. I look in the big cage I built for it and see something that looks like what this country boy has all his life called a turtle so it's hard to remember that. It likes apples and won't touch the special tortoise food that costs a lot of money, of course. And I built a heat lamp and a special UV light into the cage and all it does is sit there and stare out at the world, thinking tortoise thoughts. Since it's a male, according to the Wife, probably "Where all the woman at?"

MaryAnne

@Ficus_religiosa

You have a THREE LB Chihuahua?? Wow.
Maybe you better make sure the hamster doesn't have a strong prey drive.....

DaftChris

@MaryAnne

My boyfriend has a tiny chihuahua as well. I'm afraid when I get my rabbit that it will kick his dogs ass.

seeker242

A friend of mine just adopted a hamster from a local animal shelter. I would personally look to try and adopt one before buying one at a pet store.

karasti

@Cinorjer you can mostly feed him a varied veggie and some fruit (too much will give him diarrhea) and shake on a little reptile vit D/Calcium supplement. Our tortoise is our second composter, lol. Not a single one of our reptiles would ever eat the premade pellet type of food. Veggies, and crickets (for the lizards).

footiam

Ficus_religiosa said:

I'm in the process of talking my girlfriend into letting me have a hamster (I let her have a dog, after all). We've had two hamsters before and they're just the ideal pet I think..
Anyone else had a hamster?

Our first hamster was called Hamtaro. He was a black with a white band... I think he lived for about three years..
Sometimes when we had dinner, we placed him in the bowl of salad where he would search for the tastiest left overs. He also loved when we fed him some egg white from the boiled eggs at breakfast.. Once my girlfriend forgot to close the cage, so he escaped and lived for two days in a basket with yarn - we placed some food on the floor in the living room and the room in which his cage was and waited for him to take some. When we knew he was in the living room, it was easy to just wait for him to come out to forage.. She just picked him up and carried him back to the cage, as he was very tame and never tried to run and hide..

The second hamster was called Bella. She lived in a small, pink cage at first. But we soon realized it was far too small and she was able to escape it. She also hid in the living room She was not completely tame at the time, but did not try to run away when I saw her.. She was then moved to Hamtaro's old cage. Today I would say it's also too small for a Syrian hamster.. Every morning, when I got up, she walked up the bridge to the top of the cage and waited to have treats from me..

I would like to be your hamster! I like treats!~

Cinorjer

karasti said:

@Cinorjer you can mostly feed him a varied veggie and some fruit (too much will give him diarrhea) and shake on a little reptile vit D/Calcium supplement. Our tortoise is our second composter, lol. Not a single one of our reptiles would ever eat the premade pellet type of food. Veggies, and crickets (for the lizards).

Much abliged. I'll pass it on to the wife.

JohnG

NO NO NO! Hamsters are 'EVIL'! When you lest expect it, they'll sneak into your room and.............EAT YOUR EYES! :grr:

And afterall, you look like a gerbal person.

Ficus_religiosa

I checked the noun "gerbal", since I didn't know it.. Uhm.. Lets say I hope it's also a rodent

Ficus_religiosa

MaryAnne said:

@Ficus_religiosa

You have a THREE LB Chihuahua?? Wow.
Maybe you better make sure the hamster doesn't have a strong prey drive.....

Yea, she's so small! She can't be breed due to her tiny size (our vet says she can, because the size of pups is directly linked to the amount of blood they get - small mom --> little blood/nutrition --> small pups - but every one else warns us against trying)

karasti

Interesting on the comment from the vet. I wonder if that applies to all mammals, because I know a girl who is 4'11" and 102 pounds who gave birth to a 10 pound baby, lol.

internale

Ficus_religiosa said:

Yea, she's so small! She can't be breed due to her tiny size (our vet says she can, because the size of pups is directly linked to the amount of blood they get - small mom --> little blood/nutrition --> small pups - but every one else warns us against trying)

Please don't breed her. Over 4 million healthy animals are killed in shelters every year in the US alone. Worldwide the number is staggering.

Ficus_religiosa

internale said:

Ficus_religiosa said:

Yea, she's so small! She can't be breed due to her tiny size (our vet says she can, because the size of pups is directly linked to the amount of blood they get - small mom --> little blood/nutrition --> small pups - but every one else warns us against trying)

Please don't breed her. Over 4 million healthy animals are killed in shelters every year in the US alone. Worldwide the number is staggering.

Well we won't.. First of all she's too small, secondly we would not be able to find proper buyers. Everyone seems to be into either no-raise-theory or dominance-theory.. Both are abuse imho..
When people wonder why our dog is so well behaved and sweet, and we tell them why, it's like they just don't want to get it...
They think our dog was a natural God-send.. In fact we trained and still train her very much, every day in an understanding, caring way - she has had numerous issues, especially with anxiety when in the dark and with other dogs.. She's almost over that now and is probably the least vocal, most trusty Chihuahua most people will ever meet

internale

@Ficus_religiosa I'm glad to hear it. I agree dominance theory is misguided. It seems to be falling out of favor in the US, thankfully. I'm not familiar with no raise theory. Out of curiosity, what method/theory did you use to train her?

Ficus_religiosa

internale said:

@Ficus_religiosa I'm glad to hear it. I agree dominance theory is misguided. It seems to be falling out of favor in the US, thankfully. I'm not familiar with no raise theory. Out of curiosity, what method/theory did you use to train her?

no-raise-theory is a word I just made up to describe a laissez faire approach to raising a dog - not teaching it anything, not go to puppy school with it, not learning how to read it, put a harness on it instead of teaching it not to pull the leash etc.

We use positive reinforcement. You do the right thing you get praise and treats, you do the wrong thing; we try again..
Our dog trainer based her lessons on the latest scientific research in dog behavior, and I must say her methods work.. We don't ever shout at or scold our dog - we don't have to. She always tries to please us the best way she knows (of course sometimes she doesn't want to go outside in the rain, but there's not really anything to do about that. She has to go, and so she reluctantly follows us outside after a few call ins :P )

internale

Ficus_religiosa said:

no-raise-theory is a word I just made up to describe a laissez faire approach to raising a dog - not teaching it anything, not go to puppy school with it, not learning how to read it, put a harness on it instead of teaching it not to pull the leash etc.

We use positive reinforcement. You do the right thing you get praise and treats, you do the wrong thing; we try again..
Our dog trainer based her lessons on the latest scientific research in dog behavior, and I must say her methods work.. We don't ever shout at or scold our dog - we don't have to. She always tries to please us the best way she knows (of course sometimes she doesn't want to go outside in the rain, but there's not really anything to do about that. She has to go, and so she reluctantly follows us outside after a few call ins :P )

Thanks! This is what we're trying to do with our dog. I'm not the best at always knowing what to do, but when we get a trainer we're going to make sure he/she uses positive training techniques.

Ficus_religiosa

I got my hamster half a year ago btw It's so cute and tame now.. I'm trying to teach it to come when I call - almonds is the trick

Cinorjer

Ficus_religiosa said:

I got my hamster half a year ago btw It's so cute and tame now.. I'm trying to teach it to come when I call - almonds is the trick

I come when my wife calls, but she used cheese crackers to train me.

Ficus_religiosa

I simply have to make a re-post to say, that I just successfully called it back from under the couch! It went after my voice (they see badly), and when it was close enough I just picked it up

Cinorjer

Every hamster I ever owned was a little escape artist. With those tiny legs, they fool you all the time. I've had a hamster escape and only found it days later when I tried to pour me a bowl of cereal and a fat but thirsty hamster fell out of the box.

Ficus_religiosa

This little one fell behind the couch cause it always runs along on top of it Our other hamsters all escaped one way or the other though! Wonder when it will happen with this one (with hamsters it's a matter of when)

Cinorjer

This thread reminds me of the first hamsters I owned. I was dumpster diving in the apartments down the street from where my family lived (and I would have been grounded if they caught me). People were always moving out and leaving neat stuff behind, though. Anyway, I found a cage one day under some other trash, and inside were two hamsters, emaciated with little hands and feet swollen from the final stages of dying of thirst and hunger. Someone had just chucked the cages in the trash with the hamsters still in it and let them slowly die. The owner didn't even care enough to let them loose in the grass or give them to a local pet store or any of the many kids running around.

I managed to rescue one hamster but the other was too far gone and died the following day. That taught me a lesson early in life about the thoughtless cruelty that anyone is capable of.

Ficus_religiosa

That's awful! What a terrible luck you had, finding them like that.. Glad one of them survived