Hamsters For Dummies

Sarah Montague

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781118068298
• Edition: 1

The fun and easy way to care for a cute, cuddly hamster

Hamsters are the most popular rodents kept as pets. Hamsters For Dummies helps those owners who have little or no experience caring for this small mammal. This book covers selecting a healthy hamster, health care and nutrition, and housing and supplies. Readers will also find information on training and playing with hamsters.

Chapter 1

Hankering for a Hamster

In This Chapter

Getting acquainted

Tracing the hamster’s path to domesticity

Meeting the species of pet hamsters

Examining hamster anatomy

T he old comic line “What’s not to like?” fits hamsters perfectly. With their bright, inquisitive faces, agile bodies, and deft little paws, they’ve been engaging and entertaining families for generations.

Your decision to purchase a hamster may have been prompted by memories of a childhood friend. But whether this is your first hamster or just the first one you’ve had since you earned your allowance by cleaning the cage, you’ll want to know how to make life safe and fun for your new companion, for yourself, and for your family.

How to Use This Book

Hamsters are hoarders, who stuff their cheek pouches full of goodies they may want to eat later. Think of this book the same way: as your secret cache of knowledge that you can use a little at a time, or all at once. You may have picked up this book along with your new hamster at the pet shop, or maybe you decided to read up on these animals before making a purchase. No matter where you started, this book tells you where to go next.

If you’re interested in the history of the breed, I’ve included some tidbits of olde hamster for you to enjoy, but if you want to cut to the chase, I’ve made that easy too. The book is clearly organized in chapters you can read consecutively, or from which you can pick and choose to find out just want you need to know, just when you need to know it. Text in sidebars (the occasional gray box) is interesting but not essential, so you can skip them if you’re in a hurry.

While reading Hamsters For Dummies, be on the lookout for these icons:

Paragraphs with this icon attached offer some juicy advice for making the most of your hamster experience.

When you see this icon, pay attention: The info in these paragraphs is worth storing in your mental filing cabinet.

This icon alerts you to information that helps you be the best pet owner possible by recognizing and avoiding potential dangers.

Paragraphs accompanied by this icon often contain medical or historical information and are not absolutely essential (unless you’re earning a PhD in hamster).

While one breed of hamster, the Syrian Gold, is probably the most popular, in this book I also tell you about four other breeds that are common household pets, and what’s fun and interesting about each.

Unfortunately, not all pet shops have knowledgeable staff, so use the pictures and descriptions in this book to help you determine what you’ve bought or are buying. Each breed of hamster differs, not only in size but also in temperament and some habits. The more you know, the more successful your hamster experience will be.

I explain what hamsters like to eat, how they socialize, what to look for in a healthy hamster, and how to spot the signs that yours may not be feeling too well. And because hamsters are very often pets in a family, I also talk about how to help your children love and care for their new friend, too.

Hate textbooks? Don’t worry, this isn’t one. Think of it as a picnic. Eat/read what you like, and put the rest back in the basket.

What Is a Hamster?

Hamsters, along with their kissing cousins the guinea pig, the vole, mice, and rats, are rodents. They have lots of company: About 40 percent of the world’s mammal population is rodents — about 1,500 species out of some 4,000. (No wonder it’s crowded out there!) House mice and lab rats may come to mind first, but rodents include chipmunks, woodchucks, and beavers.

Although as different as porcupines (yes, they’re rodents, too!) are from squirrels, rodents all have some characteristics in common — much the way everyone on your father’s side of the family has those jagged eyebrows, and all your first cousins can carry a tune.

“What big teeth you have, grandma . . .”

A rodent’s teeth are one of its most distinctive features. Rodents have a single pair of incisors in each jaw. These long, sharp teeth (which look a little like the claws of a hammer) continue to grow throughout the animal’s life and are worn down by chewing.

Between a rodent’s incisors and molars is a handy gap called a diastema, which allows him to store food or housing materials (like dirt or wood) before his powerful jaws push those materials back to be ground down by the molars.

Family values

It’s a tough life being a small, furry object out in the wild, waiting to be some predator’s lunch. (Birds of prey dine regularly on rodents.) For this reason, many rodent species become sexually mature very early (in some cases in as little as a few weeks). They also have large litters to ensure the survival of, if not the fittest, at least the mostest! (I talk about how to control your family of hamsters in Chapter 7.)

Rodents also nurse their young, another distinctively mammalian characteristic. This behavior helps make them seem affectionately familiar to us, even as we marvel at what is so different about them.

Not just a rodent

Let’s face it: The word rodent doesn’t exactly inspire warmth and affection. Instead, it makes homeowners think of hidden messes and ruined wiring, and it gives farmers visions of ruined crops. But domestic hamsters have lots of endearing attributes. For example, they’re hard workers and good housekeepers — habits that they picked up in the wild.

Many species of hamsters exist, but they generally share small, stout bodies; short tails; cheek pouches (they really have that “made-for-Disney” look); and terrific burrowing abilities. Ha...