Hamsters – Types & Tips To Care For Your Cute & Furry Friends

• Check the body condition of a hamster, which must be skinny, fat with no swellings.
• It should be with the curious and bright attitude & never lethargic.
• The coats should be groomed well without any bare patches.
• Nose, ears, and eyes should be clean and should not have any discharge. Also, check they have any signs of crusts, staining, and wetness in the eye, ears, and nose.
• Notice the breathing, it should not labour with no gurgling, wheezing or clicking noises.
• Check the one that should not have signs of stiffness, reluctance or lameness.
• Try to adopt a young one, 6 weeks old hamster will be the best choice.
• Generally, check how it behaves to people, pick the calmest one for pets.

Hamsters maintenance:

They are lovely cute exotic pets and they need heavy maintenance & care. They are nocturnal and noisy at night.

• Syrian Hamster
• Winter White Russian Dwarf Hamster
• Campbell’s Dwarf Hamster
• Chinese Hamster
• Roborovski Hamster
• Mongolian Hamster
• Gansu Hamster
• Eversmann’s Hamster
• Chinese Striped Hamster
• Tibetan Dwarf Hamster
• Long-Tailed Dwarf Hamster
• Kam Dwarf Hamster
• Sokolov’s Dwarf Hamster
• European Hamster
• Gray Dwarf Hamster
• Ciscaucasian Hamster
• Romanian Hamster
• Turkish Hamster
• Greater Long-Tailed Hamster

In average its lifespan range from 2 to 2.5 years. Of course, this is average some may live longer and some may have a shorter life or live up to the average lifespan. The life expectancy depends on:

• Diet
• Illness
• Exercise
• Species
• Quality of care
• Genetics
• Living environment

Your little pet will spend more time in its cage, hence choose a perfect cage for him. Provide something like pet toys to chew on, which helps to avoid the growth of large teeth.

Hamsters can clean and groom themselves like cats but they can’t clean their cage. Feed them with water and food every day. Generally, they sleep at day and enjoy at night and hence don’t wake him up in the morning.

Loud sound and music will increase their stress. Don’t keep male and female together, because the female can give birth to 100 babies per year.

Don’t touch the baby hamsters, because the mother will become aggressive and stressed out.

Hamster cage:

While choosing a cage for your pet you should remember these things.

• Choose a cage according to the size and comforts inside the cage.
• The minimum size of the cage must be 2 square feet.
• Fill the cage with wheels and toys to play.
• Clean the cage weekly twice.

You can use materials like carefresh ultra, carefresh colors, Kaytee clean and cosy, aspen shavings and paper for doing the bedding. Before making bedding, make sure it is free from insects and mites that harms the hamster.

Try to avoid corn cob, newspaper and any scented bedding materials for the bedding.

• Naturally, they are nocturnal and natural explorers. They enjoy your companion and they prefer to live alone. Extreme temperature is not suitable for them.
• It stores food in their cheeks. They love treats. The word “Hamster” comes from the German word ‘hamstern’ which means hoard.
• They are colorblind and nearsighted. Their great sense of smell is an advantage. It belongs to the Cricetinae subfamily.
• European breed is the largest breed, which measures up to 34 cm.
• The tiny dwarf is the smallest breed that belongs to genus Phodopus species, which measures up to 4 inches long.
• Females are known as sows, male as boars and babies as pups.