What is the cost of keeping a hamster?

Question

How much do you spend in a month or in a year??

Answer 1

Depends on how many you have! I own over a hundred hamsters at any given time and spend around $100 a month. The cost of owning one would be peanuts for me! But seriously...

If you're concerned with finding the cheapest way to house just one hamster, here's my suggestion. Purchase a 10 gallon aquarium for $10, a metal tank topper for $10, chew-proof, climb-proof water bottle (made by Lixit) for $6, a plastic solid 8" exercise wheel by Super Pet (small ones and metal ones are harmful) for $5 and a hut for $5. This will give you the basic set-up for under $40. Do not buy one of the cage set-ups you see being sold for $20-$25, they're not the best cages for hamsters and the included wheels are too small for Syrian hamsters. The wire cages one are the worst. If you have a Pet Supplies Plus near you, shop there, they're cheaper and carry all the products I've listed.

Next you have to purchase the hamster. Pet stores will charge you alot depending on the color so look for a breeder. Figure the hamster will cost you $10 from a breeder or $20 at many pet stores.

Once those are all purchased, you will only have to purchase the "maintenance" items. I suggest you find a feed store in your area. You can purchase a big package of compressed shavings for the same price as the small packages in the stores (never use cedar shavings). The shaving packages I purchase cost me $4.59. It takes me just over 2 of these to fill over one hundred cages. This means that if you're cleaning the cage once a week, the shavings will last you close to a year. Not bad, $4.59 a year. Next is the food. You can buy 25 lbs. of a cheap mix for around $7-$8 dollars but I'd suggest you purchase the Hamster/Gerbil blend made by SunSeed. It is a better quality mix. This is sold in 25 lb. bags for around $15. You will want to freeze as much of the seed as you can to keep it fresh. Twenty-five pounds of food should easily feed one hamster for a year. So after the initial purchases, the hamster will only cost you around $20 a year for care if you buy your supplies at a feed store. Not too bad!

-Janice
http://holmdenhillhaven.com

Answer 2

I don't have a hamster, but I do have two guinea pigs. We spend about $10 per month on bedding, $15 on food (for two), and we also feed them lots of fresh veggies, but I'm not sure how much that adds up to. Probably another $15 or so. Little pets are a lot less expensive than dogs or cats, but they are not "cheap". You may also have to take your small animal to the vet, so you will want to keep that in mind if you are going to get one. If you cannot afford the odd vet's visit, like maybe once a year or so (40-50$ a visit), I would wait to get a pet.

Answer 3

Well, after the cage and hamster itself, at the most $50. At walmart they sell this giant bag of hamster food for about 3 dollars and it lasts for months! I buy toys and shavings too...but every once in a while...Very non cost consuming If you just buy food every month than about $3-5.

Answer 4

well you have to buy the hamster the cage the shavings the food so the first month you have the hamster it will probly be bout 50 bucks then it dont cost you any money till you run back out of supplies

Answer 5

Hampsters a are a 5$-$10 a month pet

Answer 6

not much cost at all! a standard size box of food,at petsmart or any grocery store,is about $3.99.it would take 2 to 3 months for one hammy to eat all that!bags of shavings for bedding,come in different pricess from $2.00 for a small bag or one change,,to $8.oo or so for a large bag.(4or 5 changes).chnge once every 10 days or so.that s about 3 or 4 changes per month,so,about 6 or 8 dollars for bedding.chew treats are 88 cents at wall-mart.for a small price,u get so much love and friendship!my hammy died 3 days ago,after 2 and a half years.i miss him!hold him evry night,he'll get quite tame.small price,big benefits -go for it!

Answer 7

hampsters dont cost that much... you are looking at 15 dollars a month. thats litter, food, chew sticks, and treats. they are fun pets but can be little devils when they get out of the cage!! Good Luck

Answer 8

well, food bags are $7, i buy premium because they wouldnt eat that other junk. bedding costs about $4-$6. id go with the $10 bag of carefresh paper stuff bedding, it looks like recycled cardboard, only fuzzy and comes in colors. it really holds the smell of hamster waste well, so it dowesnt stink up the room. this stuff is nice because it absorbs the odors, and doesnt mask them, so it doesnt hurt the hamsters. they like to sleep and play in it too. i know i freaked out when stalin wasnt in his house, so i started moving the house over and in a corner, he poped out. the food i use is vitacraft menu. its cheep, and hamsters like it. i have 2 dwarf hamsters, russian dwarf hamsters, and i only spend about $10, maby $7 a week, it takes them a month or 2 to go thru a bag of this food, and they like the stuff. the bedding, you change every week or two, i usually do it every 2 weeks because this stuff is nice. and the bags they give you for $10 are enough for 1 and a half to 2 months of changes. hamsters arent very expensice to care for animals, i just wished they didnt make thier cages so kiddy, made something that made sence and had those tubes, they like those tubes. if you have any other hamster related questions, let me know. oh, also, emergency, always keep a bottle of DriTail on hand, because if they get sick, they need that stuff fast, or else they die. it works for wettail. i dont know why, but my hamster loves the stuff, he treats it like candy, so medicating stalin is easy. if you have 1 hamster, you just pop a few drops in thier water, but look at the bottle, it tells you the ratio of water to medicine. i found it in the petsmart store for around $3. this stuff should last you all year if he gets sick. other than that, try to stay away those wood beddings, except for the recycled paper one, if it makes it hard to breathe when you shufle it, it could be bad for him, because he has to live on top of it. softsorbent was ok, but because it came in really small particles, the hamsters had a blast, but at the cost of me having to pick it off of the floor and table. other than that, it was neat, i couldnt find it in the stores, it came with the cage. what kind of hamster do you have?

here is the softsorbent stuff
http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441813449&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302047583&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023691&bmUID=1169772509963&itemNo=1&Ntt=softsorbent&In=All&previousText=softsorbent&N=2

here is what i use for thier bedding, on both rats and hamsters

small size-
http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441811027&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302047882&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023695&bmUID=1169772624648&itemNo=0&Ntt=color+bedding&In=All&previousText=color+bedding&N=2
Large size-
http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441814146&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302030074&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023694&bmUID=1169772624665&itemNo=1&Ntt=color+bedding&In=All&previousText=color+bedding&N=2
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here is the food i use for the hamsters
http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441780309&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302047887&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023695&bmUID=1169772696448&itemNo=4&Ntt=menu&In=All&previousText=menu&N=2
and just incase anyone was wondering, here is what i feed my rats
http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441807871&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302047887&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023695&bmUID=1169772696186&itemNo=0&Ntt=menu&In=All&previousText=menu&N=2

hope this helps
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oh, i forgot, try not to buy stuff from walmart, they dont exactly care about the pet section, from experiance, Petco, thier costomer service rocks.