hamsters (Hamsters)

Member Name: barbie84

Product:	Hamsters
Date:	31/12/08 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to look after

Disadvantages: none

Over the years we have owned many hamsters mainly due to the fact that they have a very short life span of only a couple of years, the longest we ever kept one was 4 years and my vet when i took it there ill told me it was a miracle it was alive at all.

There are a few varieties of hamster availabe in the pet trade the most common being the syrian hamster who has to be kept solitary as even a male and female will fight to the death, we have also owned russian dwarfs which are my favourite, they are usually grey with a white belly and a black stripe down there backs, they dont get as large as the syrian hamsters and can be kept in groups, i have been told they are very hard to breed and once they pair they pair for life, we have had 6 pairs of these and only one pair has ever bread and they only bread twice. I once made the mistake of buying what was labeled in a pet shop i believe as a reberski hamster, they are very tiny even at fully grown and are black in colour, what attracted me to them was the fact they looked like moles but the problem was they were very agressive and they didnt walk but jumped like a frog, they could clear my hall way in two jumps which was 18 foot long and jump 5 feet in the air.

The set up for a hamster is relatively cheap and for around £50 you can get the cage, food, bedding, house and toys along with the hamster, they dont require a lot of looking after and are a nocternal animal sleeping all day long, they need to be cleaned out once a week and have a form of exercise in and out of the cage we use a wheel and a exercise ball for this.

Everyone is under the impression that these are good pets for young children but i do not completely agree as they are very timid and are prone to nipping especially in the first few weeks of getting a new one, they are very tiny and are easily squashed too, i have always found hamsters to enjoy adults beter than children.

Summary: a nice pet