Husbandry

Taming your hamster |  Choosing a Cage |  Cannibalism |  Recapturing the Escapee |  List of poisonous plants

Taming your hamster by Grant Forrest

Taming hamsters can be difficult, especially if you have a ‘rogue’ hamster that panics persistently or gets aggressive when attempting to pick him/her up. If you find yourself losing patience, remember that by nature hamsters are solitary, nervous animals. In attempting to tame them, we are effectively "breaking" thousands of years of evolutionary conditioning. In the wild, the panic and aggression is a defence against predators, of which there are many. It is astonishing really that many hamsters can be tamed so quickly with careful, gentle handling.

The best time of day to handle your hamster is the evening, between 7 and 10pm when they are most active. My approach is to clear a big space for the hamster, put the cage in this space and either open the cage door or take the cage top off. Rub some of the hamster's bedding on your hands to give them a familiar smell. Don't try to pick the hamster up if you have recently handled food as it may think your fingers are something tasty. When the hamster is out and about, practice scooping it up with both hands and get it used to being handled this way. It will be very nervous and skittish at first, but with time it should settle down. Be sure to use the floor, so that it doesn't have far to fall when it jumps from your hand, which it will almost certainly do from time to time. Don't try to grab the hamster from above, introduce your hands from floor level.

A common problem is aggression when trying to pick the hamster up. Sometimes it will half-roll onto its back, put its forepaws up and bare its teeth. If the hamster adopts this position, don't try to pick it up! You might be rewarded with a painful bite. Let it relax then reintroduce your hands slowly. If it persists in taking up an aggressive posture, try tempting it with a piece of vegetable or fruit. Gently stroking its back can also help to get it used to being touched - it will learn not to fear this and sometimes the job of picking it up becomes easier.

Some people, especially children, are put off trying to handle their hamster after they get bitten - hamsters have very sharp teeth and can deliver a painful bite, often drawing blood. In general, they tend not to turn around to bite, preferring to bite the object in front of them. This sounds obvious but if you keep your fingers away from their mouths you reduce the chance of being bitten.

This discussion relates to Syrian hamsters as they are the only kind of hamster that I have experience with. Dwarf hamsters require slightly different handling as I'm told that they are very territorial and for this reason they tend to bite more frequently. The Argente variety of Dwarf Campbell seems to be particularly aggressive and has been described by a well-known hamsoc member as "teeth with fur". I've been advised that using the cardboard cylinder from a toilet roll to scoop the hamster up and placing it an area away from its cage is helpful when handling this variety.

The ideal age to start taming young hamsters is not known but I try to start as early as possible. The very young ones are like little jumping beans so hold them very close to the floor. They are quite robust and can often survive falls but it's better not to take the chance. Make sure that they can't escape because from 4 weeks old they become very difficult to recapture.

In summary - DON'Ts

Despite all these measures some hamsters are, in the end, untameable. This is just nature and you shouldn't think that you are doing something wrong. You can still get enjoyment from your animal by watching it interact with its surroundings.

There has been some research that suggests that hamsters dislike being handled and respond by increasing their heart rate and respiration and can take up to an hour to calm down. This is the normal response for an untamed hamster. I believe that with regular handling, this stress response diminishes.

Finally...
If you are about to buy a hamster for a young child, pause a moment to consider whether it really is the best pet. In my view, hamsters do not make good pets for very young children.
If your little kids are desperate for a small furry pet, I would always recommend a rat as first choice. Rats are highly intelligent, more robust and tend (on average) to be more handleable and tameable than hamsters.

In defence of hamsters, their relative low intelligence (compared to rats) is more than compensated for by their good looks!

Choosing a Cage

There's a huge range of off-the-peg cages to choose from these days. The two main types are the wire-bar with a plastic base and the plastic or glass aquarium type. Each has its strengths and weaknesses that I've tried to summarise in the following table:

 

Wire Bar

Plastic/Glass Tank

Gnawing/Teeth

Wire bars are good for gnawing on. This keeps the animal's teeth in good condition.

Animals kept in tanks require additional materials for gnawing.

Exercise

Wire bars can be used for exercise

Require additional toys or exercise wheels

Fixings

Easy to fix wheels/water bottles to bars

Water bottles or wheels must be suspended in the cage or water bowls supplied. These have their own hazards

Sanitation

Removeable plastic bases are easy to clean but the open bars offer no barrier to the bedding or wood shavings that are thrown out of the cage by the hamster.

Some multi-part plastic tanks (eg Rotastak) can be time-consuming to disassemble and clean. On the other hand, they prevent the hamster from throwing wood shavings about. They may also act as a barrier against the spread of airborne infectious agents such as bacteria and viruses.

Ventilation

Usually good

May not be so good

Cost

Large or multi-level wire bar cages are often more expensive than an equal sized tank.

Young litters

Wire bars offer little protection against young pups that stray from the nest. This is especially the case with dwarfs.

Tanks offer good protection against young strays and are the usual choice of the breeder of dwarf hamsters.

If this has left you with " Option Paralysis" then a good rule of thumb is that wire cages are good for larger hamsters such as Syrians but tanks are better for dwarfs, especially if you plan to breed them.

Cannibalism

Cannibalism is a common and distressing problem for breeders of Syrian hamsters. Although not unique to Syrians, it seems to be more common in Syrians than in Dwarfs or other rodents. Some mothers may abandon their pups rather than kill them. Unable to maintain their body temperature or to suckle, abandoned pups can die in a matter of hours.

A quick search of the Internet was unable to provide me with an estimate of the actual frequency of cannibalism/abandonment but anecdotal evidence suggests that it is very common. I would estimate that as many as one in five females will cannibalise newborn litters at some point in their breeding months.

Several associated factors have been suggested, again, none have any firm evidence to back them up but I think most experienced breeders would agree with them:

My apologies for the "wooliness" of the last item - I have an impression from my breeding programme that cannabilism tends to run in particular breeding lines, assuming you ever get any pups from that line!

The advice to new breeders is straightforward and follows from the list above. Give your nursing mothers plenty of food. I found that scrambled egg mixed with an infant milk formula seemed to go down well (well, better on average than the flesh of the pups!). Perhaps most important, leave the nest alone!. I've seen experienced breeders lifting pups from a nest in the first week, but only from mothers that they were very confident about.

As a warning, I relate the following true story from my distant hamster-breeding past:

A mother and her day-old litter were taken to a vet as I was concerned that there were retained pups in the uterus (womb). The vet, through no fault of his own, knew very little about hamsters and picked one of the pups up, examining it in great detail and with great curiosity, as if it were a new experience for him. By the time I reached home, the cage was littered with newborn hamster body parts. That's not to say that just the stress of having the cage put in the car and jostled around wouldn't be enough to set a cannibal mother off, but it made me very wary of disturbing new litters.

Finally, as with all such hamster problems, following the accepted wisdom may not fix your hamster cannibals. You can only hope for the best and in the end, this is nature's way. Vengeance should not be wreaked upon the mother, she is only obeying her instincts. It is one of the quirks of our lovable little furries.

How to recapture an escaped hamster

This is a question that is asked frequently, an indication perhaps of how good hamsters are at escaping from a cage. The owner may be in a state of panic as hamsters can be very destructive when allowed to roam free. They can chew through just about anything - furniture, doors, curtains and electrical wiring are common targets.

If you lose the animal outdoors, the chances of recapture are not good, but an indoor escapee can often be recaptured using the following simple method.

Leave the "trap" in the room that the hamster escaped from, unless you suspect that it has taken up residence in another part of the house or flat. The best time to lay the trap is in the evening, with the lights off. With any luck, you will find the hamster in the bottom of the container in the morning.

Remember to shore up the hamster's cage before returning its occupant. Watch out for loose bars and clip-style wire doors that can be forced open by a strong pair of hamster teeth.

List of Poisonous Plants

The following list is not meant to be exhaustive.

A

alfalfa, almond pits, alocasia, amaryllis, apple seeds, arrow grass, avocado, azalea, autumn crocus,

B

baneberry, bayonet, bear grass, beech, belladonna, bird of paradise, bittersweet, black-eyed Susan, black locust, bleeding heart, bloodroot, bluebonnet, box, boxwood, buckeyes, burning bush, buttercup,

C

cactus/candelabra, caladium, castor bean, cherry pits, cherry laurel, chinaberry, christmas rose, chrysanthemum, clematis, coriaria, cornflower, corydalis, crown of thorns, cyclamen, common privet,

D

daffodil or jonquil, daphne, datura, deadly nightshade, death carmas, delphinium, dicentrea, dieffenbachia, dumb cane,

E

Easter lily, eggplant, elderberry, elephant ear, English ivy, euonymus, evergreen,

F

Ferns, flax, four o'clock, foxglove,

G

ground cherry, Golden chain, golden glow, gopher purge,

H

Hellebore, henbane, holly, honeysuckle, horse beans, horse brush, horse chestnuts, hyacinth, hydrangea,

I

Indian tobacco, iris, iris ivy,

J

Jack in the pulpit, java beans, jessamine, jerusalem cherry, jimson weed, jungle trumpets,

K

L

Lantana, larkspur laurel, lily, lily of the valley, locoweed, lupine,

M

Marigold, marijuana, mescal bean, mistletoe, monkshood, moonseed, morning glory, mountain laurel, mushrooms,

N

Nightshade,

O

Oleander,

P

poison hemlock, Peach pits, peony, periwinkle, philodendron, pimpernel, Poinciana, poison ivy, poison oak, pokeweed, poppy, potato, precatory bean,

Q

R

Rhododendron, rhubarb, rosary pea, rubber plant,

S

spider lily, Scotch broom, skunk cabbage, snowdrops, snow on the mountain, stagger weed, star of Bethlehem, sweet pea,

T

Tansy mustard, tobacco, tomato, tulip, tung tree,

U

V

Virginia creeper,

W

wild cherries, water hemlock, water hemlock, weeping fig, wild call, wisteria yews,

X

Y

Z

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