I am getting a hamster soon and I need to know the basics because I have never owned a hamster?

Question

Fedding(Right foods)
Handling
Cage
Shaving
A hamster that is good for a beginner

Answer 1

CARE

Hamster loves to exercise. They are naturally energetic and will do a lot of running. So make sure you provide all necessary equipment such as hamster wheels or adequate size of running space for them to

Hamsters are nocturnal creatures (active at night) so they need peace during the day to sleep. It is highly recommended to place the cage away from draughts and direct sunlight.

The cage floor should be covered with adequate layer of bedding. You can use the commercial wood shaving as they are absorbent and nontoxic.
Hamster also needs privacy during their resting time. Build them a simple small room for them to sleep. A small box will be a good idea.
Feed your hamsters adequately. Make sure they have enough food and more important water supply.
Wash the hamster cage once in a week. Keep the cage clean to prevent any infection risk.
Bathing your hamster are not recommended. Don't worry, they can clean themselves.
Build a good relationship with your hamsters. Talk to them, hold them and playing with the will keep the hamsters happy.


HOLDING

The most important thing you need to know is that hamsters are near-sighted and have very limited view. For that reason, handle your hamsters only when you are sitting down. Always remember to let your hamsters smell and see your hands before picking them up. When you start handling your hamster, hold them firmly in your hand to stop them from running or jumping down. When you cup both of your hands around the hamster, leave a small hole to poke its head so that it can see what is happening around it and feel safe.

It is important to leave enough room between your hands so as not to squeeze your hamster. This method can also be used when you carry your hamster across a room or when you want to pick it up from the ground. Let your hamster run from one hand to the other and even across your arms. You can see how fast and energetic creature they are once the bondings emerge.

Once you have mastered this technique, try picking up and holding your hamster using one hand. Curl your fingers around your hamster's body and lift it but try not to squeeze your hamster especially not below its forelegs as this will prevent it to breathe. It is also advisable not to use this one hand method to carry it for long distances.

Another way to hold your hamster is by holding it from the nape of its neck and once it is lifted, it becomes immediately still. On the other hand, this method should ONLY be used by experienced hamster owner or someone who knows exactly where to hold the hamster and how much pressure to apply.


CAGE


Choosing a suitable cage for your hamster(s) should be one of the most important decisions for each hamster owner. Bare in mind that the cage is like house same as for us human. All of us want to live in a safe, comfortable and clean home. Your hamster(s) should have the same rights and it is your responsibility to provide them with suitable living place to keep them happy, active and healthy.

There are several factors to consider when selecting hamster cages:-


Cage Size
The cage should have ample room for the hamster to do their favorite activity.. exercise!. For a solitary Syrian hamster, the cage should at least able to fit an exercise wheel and some extra space to live and doing other things. A small box that could act as a bedroom also recommended as the hamster usually prefers to have privacy when goes to sleep.

Dwarf hamsters should need a bigger space as we need to take into consideration that dwarf hamsters prefer to live in groups. So we need a cage that at least could cater for two of them plus spaces for them to play and sleep.

If you are planning to allow your hamster to breed, a bigger cage will be needed. Provide enough room for the hamsters to have their private spaces especially for a pregnant or nursing mother. There are cases when the mother attacks her companions due to overly protective reaction to their litters or maybe due to stress of feeling too crowded. Stress could also cause the mother to eat their litters.


Safety
Barred cages are commonly used as a hamster cage. For this type of cage, make sure the bars are close enough so that the hamsters couldn't slip through. This problem commonly occurs to dwarf hamsters or baby hamsters due to their small body size.

If you have other types of pets such as cats or dogs in your house, choose other types of cages such as aquarium or plastic modular cages rather than barred cages to prevent any unwanted circumstances.


Easy to clean
Choose a cage that will not give you headaches to clean up. A tedious cleaning job could make some people bored and might end up doing improper cleaning or even didn't do the cleaning job regularly enough.


Expandability
Some cages are designed to allow future expansion possible. Usually these types of cages are quite expensive. A simple cage could be expandable up to being just like a castle for hamsters. Unless you can afford it, this feature is rather optional.



FEEDING

Dry food should consist of:

corn (flaked or whole)
alfalfa pellets
sunflower seeds
a variety of small seeds
examples: red milo
whole wheat
whole oats

Optional items that hamsters will enjoy:

pea (flaked, split, or whole)
peanuts (shelled or not)

Note: Sunflower seeds and peanuts should NOT be salted!
**A staple diet consisting of only alfalfa pellets will become boring and monotonous for your hamster. Also, your hamster will not be receiveing the nutrients and vitamins it needs to be healthy. On the same note, staple diets containing many sunflower seeds should be avoided, as sunflower seeds are fattening for your hamster.
General Information
Staple Diets
Fresh food
Feeding your hamster fresh food
Feed your hamster a small handful of fresh food every day; if your hamster doesn't finish what you give it by the following evening, take out what's left and feed it less that evening. However, you should realise that as your hamster grows, it will be able to consume more fresh food.
Do not feed your hamster food that is mouldy or spoiled; only feed it food that you yourself would be willing to eat. Do not feed your hamster food directly from the refrigerator. When feeding it greens from the garden, be sure the food is not poisonous, and is not contaminated with chemicals caused by pollution, primarily car exhaust; this being said, do not feed greens to your hamster from the roadside, because, although they may look clean and fresh, they still caontain hamsful chemicals.



BEDDING


CEDAR BEDDING
Bedding is a very important issue as well.Cedar bedding can cause upper respiratory problems in your hamster and should be avoided.It is hard to get petshops to stop using it and to quit selling to hamster owners.There are several good beddings on the market.Carefresh and aspen are very good.I was in a petshop the other day.There was a lady buying bedding for her hamster.The owner said she could use cedar it was cheaper.He walked away for a minute and I told her that was not good and what will happen.I also told her that I have read up on it in the AHA & CHA have said it could kill your hamster she was shocked because she didn't know.I told her aspen was good and I picked up a bag of carefresh and told her this was good.The owner was really mad at me and told his wife he had never heard such a thing about cedar being bad they have used it off and on for years and never had any trouble.(my daughter had heard them and told me after we left the store)I tell these people all the time and they say well we sell them so fast it really shouldn't matter they just won't listen.I have made several shops alittle mad for what I have to say.LOL I just wish there was a law that made some of these idiot take classes or make it mandatory they know more about hamster for the sake of their well-being.What really made me upset with the peticular owner was the carefresh I was telling to buy was $4.50 for a bag of it.It would boost their sales if they would sell them the good stuff.

KILN DRIED PINE:
I have heard that it was questionable but have not found anything so far on it.I usually use aspen bedding.I came across this Brand called American choice its Natural Pine Bedding.This is what the package says.Kiln dried for max absorbency,multiscreened to remove irritating dust,ensure that they are dried purified and multiscreened to be the most absorbent and dust free bedding material available.It is made by American Wood Fibres Inc in Columbia Maryland.I bought it to line bottom of chin cages and it is dust free.I put it in my hamster tanks and it is the softess bedding I have found.They love it.When I put it in there it was so fluffy they can burrow down in it and I have only found a few pieces of hard wood in it.I am still trying to find out more about it.
Other good reliable beddings:
Carefresh
Aspen
Beachwood

Answer 2

I have a dwarf hamster. Dwarf hamsters are not supposed to be as friendly as the other kinds, but they're nice anyway. Go to this website for appropriate foods besides store brand hamster food (which is great too)
http://www.hamsterific.com/HamsterUniversity/FoodList.html

Handle it when you can so it learns to trust you. Don't drop it! This could cause internal damage to the hamster.

Never use cedar bedding! It will cause respiratory infections to the hamster. I use Carefresh bedding, anyone who knows a thing about hamsters will list Carefresh as a good bedding to use. Also, don't use paper or newspaper because it could cut your hamster's feet and the dyes from the newspaper ink might harm the hamster.

Hope I helped! Good luck.

P.S. A little about cages...

I don't use a barred cage for fear my hamster might escape through the bars. Also, it's extremely unhealthy for the hamster to chew on the cage bars, something he might do. I use a glass fish tank (minus the water and the fish!) Some people don't like this, but I think it works. If you do decide to use a glass fishtank, don't put it under a light because this will cause the greenhouse effect.

Again, good luck!!

Oh and one more thing!!! Don't house opposite sex hamsters together because you don't want to end up wit 1- 20 hamster babies you can't take care of! If you want two, make sure they are raised together so they know each other well. same sex only! don't introduce a new hamster to one you have already had for a while, they probably won't like each other.

for the last time I say good luck!!

Answer 3

Your best bet is to get a teddy bear hamster. When you bring it home, don't take it out of the box with your hands. Put the box in the cage and let it come out by itself. Wait until the next morning to put your hands in the cage. Pick it up with both hands. DO NOT put your hamster in one of those wire hamster cages....it will most likely get some part of it's body stuck. That happened to me 7 times and they died. Get a 10 gallon aquarium. Use some sort of soft bedding. Feed your hamster the hamster food from the pet store. But grapes, apples, bananas, and oranges are good as treats. But Remember.....moderation...don't give your hamster a whole banana or a whole orange.

Answer 4

Rule number 1: ONE hamster per cage, one hamster, one and only one, not two, not three, just ONE. Otherwise it gets bloody violent... They'll fight to death, the exceptions are very very VERY rare. If you want two hamsters then buy two cages, and NEVER let them meet. If you want two pets together, then choose female guinea pigs, most lovely pets I've had, I totally love them ♡ Here I have two Syrians (one male and one female), and three dwarf hamsters (one robo, two Russians, all males) Syrians are nice but they don't often like to be touched. Roborovski hamsters are very fast, you can't keep them on you, they'll go away, and the problem is, they run way faster than you do... Russians are very nice hamsters, and to my mind, the best ones. You can do whatever you want with them they're lovely. Even if one manages to run on the floor, they aren't that fast so you'll get the little boy (or girl) easily. I also had one Campbelli, he really liked to bite me, and I bled quite a few times. he didn't want me to put my hand inside of his cage. The cage shouldn't be too small, of course a Syrian will need a bigger cage than a dwarf hamster. Put a wheel in it. Here I also give my dwarf hamsters a toilet paper roll, they love playing with it, scratching and scratching. Poor roll ^-^

Answer 5

feeding - hamster foods (Tons of em) also treats (Milk,cucumber,yogurt,apple,lettuce andm more)
Handling- your hamster will not let you pick him up the 1st day or maybe even the first week. He will warm up , though. Pick him up with two hands .
Cage- critter trail is good
Shaving- as in litter go to www.petsmart.com they have food and bedding and everything for hamsters .
teddy bear hamsters are great for begginers NOT dwarf hams.

Answer 6

I don't know much about hamsters - but I do know before you get a pet, you need to figure these things out. Buy a hamster book, search the Internet. Take good care of your new pet!

Answer 7

Get "Richard Gere's Guide to owning Hamsters" it has many new and exciting tips.

Answer 8

Here's an informative website; http://www.hamsterhideout.com/beginnersguide.html

when you go to the website, click on the links below where it says "beginner's guide" and "more info;" those are both in red.

Answer 9

-Don't feed it meat (if you want to give it a treat remember they are herbivores)
-Don't throw it in the air,(unless there is somthing soft underneath)( kidding) and dont roll it continuasly in its little ball( they dont like it)
-Dont let it sleep with you or in your room(they like to chew.... yep yep)
-if the shavings get smelly it is probably because it is filled with pee pee
- a cute one that runs in circles( they are fun!)

Answer 10

hamsters taste like chicken! :D

Answer 11

someone at the pet store will fill you in. Have fun with your new pet!!