I have a dwarf hamster, and she is extremly hyper all the time. Are they normally like this?

Question

She is a Campbells russian dwarf, and shes about 2 monthes old. she was hyper from the day i brought her home, never a dull moment, shes always awake i hardly see her sleep and shes always running about her cage like she needs ridlen. i can hardly hold her in my hands because she is so fast...its not a bad thing i supposed im just curious as to if other dwarf hamsters act this way. i also have a siberain dwarf hamster that is male in a seperate cage and hes the total opposite of her, calm and sleeps all day long.

Answer 1

As a show breeder, I can tell you that this behavior is NOT normal. It may just be as simple as your hamster just being hyperactive. There are so many health and behavioral problems being created, perpetuated and aggravated by commercial breeders, though I've not heard of hyperactivity being one of them. Nothing would surprise me though as the commericial breeders have destroyed the quality of dwarf hamsters in the US. What came first to my mind upon reading your question is that your hamster may have diabetes.

A diabetic dwarf will have all or some of the following symptoms:

1. Increased thirst, drinking excessively
2. Peeing excessively, strong smelly urine with either a sweetish smell or a acetone (nail polish remover) smell.
3. Sudden weight loss or weight gain
4. Tiredness (sleeping more than usual) or excessive exercise or a combination of both at the extremes
5. Irritability (only in some), unusual biting when the ham did not bite before
6. Increased hunger

You can test for diabetes by purchasing keto-diastix (small testing strips) for urinalysis at any pharmacy, though they may be behind the pharmacy counter with the other diabetic supplies. The keto-diastix test both glucose and ketone levels. You need to put your hamster in a clean empty container until it urinates. After it does, just put the end of the testing strip into the urine. The package will be color coded so you can read the results.

If you think you have a diabetic hamster, I encourage you to join the Yahoo! Group called Honey Hams. It's a group solely dedicated to diabetic hamsters. In the files section of the group are some files that tell you how you can modify the hamster's diet to help control the diabetes. Here's the link for the group:

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/honeyhams/

Unfortunately, diabetes is the biggest problems in Campbells Russian Dwarfs and Winter White Russian Dwarfs being sold by the pet stores. One national pet store chain has allowed a hamster club to test the dwarfs in one of their stores over a period of a few months and it was observed that 50% of the dwarfs being sold had diabetes before leaving the store. They were the ones with early onset diabetes, there's no way to see how many of the ones that didn't have it whne first tested ended up developing late onset diabetes. There is no doubt that another large percentage of them would.

If you do discover that your new little friend has diabetes, then modifying her diet to suit a diabetic hamster should have a noticable impact on her behavior (she should slow/calm down). While female hamsters do tend to be a little more active than males, it is not to the extreme that you have observed. The normal activity level is the level your male is displaying.

Hopefully, your little friend is just hyperactive and not diabetic. If she tests fine, be sure to retest her every week or two. You may want to test your male for curiosity's sake.

-Janice
http://www.holmdenhillhaven.com

Answer 2

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RE:
I have a dwarf hamster, and she is extremly hyper all the time. Are they normally like this?
She is a Campbells russian dwarf, and shes about 2 monthes old. she was hyper from the day i brought her home, never a dull moment, shes always awake i hardly see her sleep and shes always running about her cage like she needs ridlen. i can hardly hold her in my hands because she is so fast...its...

Answer 3

Their more hyper then a kid with ADHD. We have 10 and some of them bounce off the walls, it's all we can do to hold them. Thinking about it the females are a bit more active then the males and younger ones are even more so. We just got a partially blind 2 month old Russian and she has more energy then my 9 older ones who are 13 &14 months.

Answer 4

It's a good sign to see energetic hamsters. If you bought robo(rovski) dawrf hamsters, expect to see this ALL the time! Usually they will be kind of subdued on the first day anyway since they are adjusting to a totally knew environment. It just looks like they're adjusting. ^_^

Answer 5

1

Answer 6

for some of them YES!!! Females especially tend to be HYPER - something you can do before you handle her is put her in one of those hamster balls & let her run till she looks tired, THEN snuggle her!!!
Good luck!!!

Answer 7

yes especialy at nite