Hamsters as pets (children and hamsters)

As a foster home, we always take in hamsters who are no longer welcome in their home. The reasons are different: the children find the hamster boring, the hamster bites, the hamster nibbles on the bars and wakes the children, someone in the family is allergic, the hamster is sick, etc.

Hamsters are often gifts for children, but actually these cute rodents are not good pets for children. But why?

1. Hamsters are nocturnal. Although I see my dwarf hamsters every now and then a day, my golden hamsters are real night owls. In general, however, it can be said that hamsters only wake up around 9 or 10 p.m. But children go to bed at this hour and there is nothing more boring than staring into an empty enclosure. We don’t want to give an age at which a child should have a hamster, but in general the children should be aware that you shouldn’t wake hamsters and that it can happen that you never see the hamster. Until that "child" is self-employed, the parents are also responsible for paying the costs (food, enclosure and veterinarian). A hamster should therefore be the family pet and not the toy of a 10-year-old child.

2. Not all hamsters get tame and some are really shy or even snappy for life. In our foster homes, we found that the hamsters who had previously lived in children’s rooms are snappy. Because these were often woken from sleep and almost crushed in somewhat clumsy children’s hands. Often, however, we were able to regain the trust of the hamsters with a lot of patience, talk and many treats, and one or the other waits eagerly for the mealworms every evening at the window from the Hand. There is more on the subject under Zahmer Hamster.

3. A hamster is expensive! Of course, the animal itself is not expensive. Many run in the next pet shop and buy a hamster between 10-15 €, which is significantly cheaper than a guinea pig, for example. Why you shouldn’t buy any animal in a pet shop is here: https:// Gegen-zooladekaeufe.page4.com.

But why is a hamster so expensive now? If you want to keep a hamster properly, you need a sufficiently large enclosure and food and accessories, what one often can only order online. For the enclosure you can look for large used aquariums on Ebay classifieds. However, if you buy new, you have to be prepared for a lot of money. Over 100 € are normal. Exactly what a hamster needs in terms of accessories can be found in species-appropriate enclosures and healthy food. In addition, even a small animal can get sick and should get medical help and once again large sums can quickly arise come.

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