Thinking of adopting a hamster

hello932

Hi

A colleague of mine at work is being transferred to france in a few weeks. As such he cant bring his pet hamster to take with him. Hes offered anyone in the office to take the hamster as their own if they so wish. Can someone give me a comprehensive link to website that covers hamster care as a pet? Can hamsters give humans diseases?

Hermit07

Im sure there are lots of websites but heres some info

There are several varietys of hamsters but they can be broken down into 2 main types

Syrian (teddy bear hamster)
These are large hamsters about the size of your hand. They come in a variety of colours including long-haired and if you get one from a young age can get quite tame. They are solitary and need their own cage as they will not tolerate sharing with another hamster. These are the best variety for young children and need a decent sized cage and once handled from a young age are very friendly and cute. Its best an adult tames them before a young child handles them.

Dwarf (chinese, russian winter white, Roborovski & various crosses)
There are several sub varieties of these and they are tiny little hamsters, they also come in a variety of colours. They are social and can be kept in small same sexed groups, Be careful though as pet shops dont always sex them correctly. They dont make such good pets as they tend to move very fast and nip much more readily than the Syrian hamster

Hamsters are noctural and usually sleep all day and make an appearance in the evening just in time for the kids going to bed Once you buy the cage and hamster, they are not expensive to keep. Cages vary in price from 30 euro to 90 euro. Hamster themselves are about 10 to 20 euro. They eat a diet of mixed seed and small amounts of fresh fruit/veg, they also need some animal protein. The fresh food must be removed daily as they are hoarders and usually hide the food somewhere in their cage and fresh food will go off fairly easily. Hamsters have cheek pouches which they will fill up with food which is very cute but great care must be taken not to give them anything sticky such as sweets, chocolate, crisps etc as this will get stuck and cause serious problems.

Bedding in the cage can be wood chips/straw or hay. They need a nesting material and you can get this in the pet shop but toilet roll does the job just as well, the hamster will shred this and make a nest. Cage accessories can be a wheel for exercise, try get a silent one, an empty toilet roll tube to hide in, an empty jam jar etc. They can make a lot of noise at night for such small creatures. Their cage should be cleaned out once a week.

If the hamster gets too cold they will hibernate so watch out for this in the winter, Do not allow the children to distrub the hamster when it is alsleep during the day. Also beware of young children dropping them, they cant see that well so can accidently fall and if dropped from even a small height, it will kill them or badly injure them

I love hamsters and they dont need much maintenace

Kalahari

http://www.petwebsite.com/hamsters/hamster_care.htm

Try there for the basics of hamster care, and don't worry about catching anything from them as they don't really give people diseases apart from very rare cases when e.g. the person has a severely suppressed immune system. Just obviously wash hands after handling etc like you would with any pet. They are great little creatures, and i'm sure your colleague can also give you advice on how to care for it.

Sigma Force

More like humans can pass on things like the common cold to hamsters.