How to Raise a Hamster? A Detailed Guide to the Correct Care Methods

The hamster is a very mini and cute animal, a strongly territorial solitary animal, and also a very popular pet. There are many breeds of hamsters, such as the golden bear hamster, the three-striped hamster, the one-striped hamster, and so on. Let's take a look below at the methods for raising hamsters.

Methods for Raising Hamsters

Raising Environment

The most suitable temperature is 20-28°C. Avoid places with direct sunlight or direct wind, but make sure there is ventilation and airflow. Do not keep them too close to the TV, stereo, or computer; hamsters can hear sounds humans cannot, so radiation and noise should be avoided.

Summer: It is best not to turn on the air conditioner, because turning the air conditioner on and off will cause too great a temperature difference, and hamsters are very sensitive to temperature and catch colds easily.

Winter: Hamsters placed outdoors will go into pseudo-hibernation because it is too cold. Spread more bedding such as wood shavings, and provide the hamster with a wooden or grass hut for warmth. Or give more cotton so the hamster can build its own nest; absorbent cotton is fine, but natural cotton is best. The simplest method is to put the whole cage inside a cardboard box, but pay attention to ventilation. Do not give them items woven from cotton thread as a nest. Although warm, the hamster will bite the cotton item open and burrow inside to sleep, so some unbroken cotton threads can easily cause the hamster to suffocate.

Hamster Food

Vegetables: green vegetables, carrots, spinach, cucumber, cabbage, pumpkin (green and yellow vegetables are best)

Seeds: sunflower seeds, peanuts, walnuts, pine nuts

Fruits: apples, strawberries, cherries, etc.

Grains: chicken feed, bird feed, wheat, corn, millet

Plants: dandelion, kudzu, plantain

Animal protein: beef, chicken, boiled egg white, cheese, milk, yogurt, mealworms, superworms

Basic Supplies

Cage: In summer, please use a ventilated wire cage, or a half-wire half-plastic cage, such as an outdoor cage. In winter, pay attention to keeping warm; an all-plastic cage is more suitable for winter. Do not use wire mesh for the cage bottom, as the hamster can easily fracture or injure itself because of it.

Food bowl: Any small container can be used, as long as it is not easily tipped over and the edges are not too high, otherwise the hamster cannot climb in. Commonly used containers: glass ashtray, soy sauce dish, various small bowls, microwave container, small food storage box.

Water dispenser: The general design of a water dispenser has a stainless steel ball at the front; when buying, test whether it leaks. Do not use a bowl to hold water directly, because when the hamster drinks it will wet its fur and easily catch a chill and get sick.

Toilet: A general plastic box with cat litter in it makes a fairly simple toilet. Remove the clumped cat litter every day or replace it all, according to personal hygiene habits. Some hamsters will use it; it is not essential.

Bathroom: Some hamsters will bathe in cat litter in the toilet. Although it is not hygienic, this is a hamster's preference, so a bathing room is no longer needed. But for hamsters that love cleanliness, the owner should buy it a bathroom and put bath sand in it so the hamster can roll around to its heart's content.

Running wheel: Wild hamsters run 20 kilometers a day, so exercise is very important for hamsters. Without enough exercise, hamsters will be under too much stress and exhibit cage-biting behavior. At the same time, hamsters easily become overweight from excess nutrition. So a careful owner should give the hamster a running wheel. When buying, pay attention: choose a running wheel with no gaps, so the hamster is less likely to get injured.

Wood shavings: Many materials can be used. Most people choose wood shavings because they are relatively clean and easy to buy.

Chew items: A hamster's teeth grow continuously, so a chew stick is needed to wear down teeth that have grown too long. Many hamsters wear their teeth down in other ways, such as biting the cage. If they do not use the chew stone/chew stick you provide, there is no need to worry too much.

Hut: Huts come in ceramic, wooden, grass, and plastic versions, and hamsters like them all, because hamsters are animals that love to burrow and live in holes. If conditions allow, you should provide the hamster with a hut, which can be homemade.

Hamster Raising Tips

1. After a young hamster opens its eyes, it can already eat a little hamster food and can basically live on its own. At this time the mother hamster's maternal instinct also gradually weakens, and she does not mind much when we handle the young hamsters. This period is the best time to start training them. The types of hamster food should be as varied as possible; you can mix several kinds of hamster food together, and it is best to have more compound food. Do not think that just because a young hamster is so small, some compound food is almost bigger than its head; the young hamster's teeth are very strong, and they will hold the compound food and slowly gnaw on it. Older hamsters can eat grain-type foods, and sunflower seeds are a good choice.

2. Picky eating in hamsters is a big headache for owners. To have fewer worries later, cultivate the habit of not being picky from an early age. Training a hamster not to be picky can be started earlier; hamsters will begin to eat small things at about 9-11 days, and training can start from this stage. We can give the hamster more choices when feeding, or feed different things each time; this can all correct a hamster's picky eating habit.

3. A hamster's cage should ideally be more than 3 times larger than the hamster, because hamsters are extremely active; in the wild, their daily range is usually about 20 kilometers. We can use pasture grass, soft wood shavings, rice stems, or cut-up newspaper and toilet paper as bedding, and the particles should not be too small. Hamsters like dark, narrow nests and basically need cleaning every day, but leave a small portion of bedding stained with excrement mixed into the new bedding; this will make the hamster feel safe.

4. A general plastic box with cat litter in it makes a fairly simple hamster toilet. Remove the clumped cat litter every day or replace it all; a diligent owner can always keep a clean hamster.

5. Hamsters are naturally afraid of water. They wipe and clean their bodies with their own saliva every day, so it is not very necessary to bathe a hamster. If it is really too dirty, just dip a towel in a little water and gently wipe it for them. If a hamster's fur is dull and messy, rather than bathing it, it is better to pay attention to its health condition. There is no need to buy expensive imported foreign bath sand for hamsters; fine cat litter or some yellow sand from a construction site, filtered and washed clean, is fine to use. There is no need to give hamsters sunbaths.

6. For the cage used to raise hamsters, it is best to buy the kind with wheels, so the hamster can play and the owner can also save some money.