How to tell if a hamster is playing dead, and what details should you pay attention to when keeping one?
The hamster is a very cute animal, and many friends now keep it as a pet; soft and adorable, it is a lot of fun. However, keeping a hamster is not simple, and it has a special trick: playing dead to fool you. So how do you tell whether a hamster is playing dead? And what details should you pay attention to when keeping one?
1. How do you tell whether a hamster is playing dead?
The lively-crowd lure method: hamsters are social animals, so if one is playing dead, you can put a few lively little hamsters nearby to throw a big party; when the little hamster hears the commotion, it will slowly come back to life.
The harsh interrogation method: as a living creature, a hamster is also afraid of “interrogation under torture"; you can pick it up and play with it, and once it is happy after a while, it will stop playing dead.
The breath method: place something light, such as silk floss or bits of toilet paper, on the little hamster's nose; as soon as there is breathing, you will see movement, and that is how you tell.
The body temperature method: if it has been playing dead for too long, then take the little hamster's temperature with a thermometer. You know how it is: the body temperature of a live one and a dead one is very different.
The food lure method: take some of the things the hamster likes to eat most and keep waving them around in front of its mouth; when the hamster smells them, it cannot help coming back to life to eat.
2. What details should you pay attention to when keeping a hamster?
1. A hamster's sense of smell is very keen, so if you have handled food it loves, it may well smell it and think you are food, and therefore bite you. It is recommended to wash your hands before and after touching a hamster.
2. Your hamster was originally kept with others in a pet shop; although young hamsters do not yet have a strong sense of territory, they will still often fight with other hamsters in the same cage, so their temperament will be rather irritable, and they will be wary of and hostile toward other creatures. It is recommended that you spend time with the hamster according to a schedule to eliminate its hostility.
3. You and the hamster are not yet familiar with each other, yet you frequently handle it and grab it with your hands, making it feel unsafe. It is still recommended that you proceed step by step according to a schedule to eliminate the hamster's hostility toward you.
4. The hamster's eyesight is not very good, and it mistakes your finger for food. When you hold the hamster on your hand, if your fingers are not held together, the hamster may well take your finger for food and bite down. Usually, though, it will not bite too hard; it has merely “kissed" you. So when placing the hamster on your hand, it is best to keep your fingers together, but do not hold them too tightly, as too tight will pinch the hamster's feet. It is also best not to tease the hamster with your fingers, to reduce the risk of being bitten.
5. Hamsters have a strong sense of territory. If you have touched another hamster, and your hand carries the scent of that other hamster, then the little hamster will absolutely and unceremoniously drive away the unfamiliar hamster (which is actually your hand). So being mistakenly bitten after touching another hamster is also a common occurrence. It is recommended to wash your hands after touching another hamster before touching your own little hamster.
Many people online have been bitten by hamsters, and everyone asks whether they need a rabies vaccination. Being bitten by a hamster may also cause rabies infection (the possibility may not be great, but because the rabies mortality rate reaches 100%), so it is recommended to carry out wound treatment and receive a rabies vaccine as soon as possible, and when necessary, also receive human rabies immune globulin.
Wound treatment for the skin: all bites and scratches should be rinsed immediately or as soon as possible with soapy water/detergent and plenty of clean water (about 15 minutes if conditions permit); if conditions allow, an iodine-containing preparation or a similar topical antiviral preparation should be applied to the wound. For deep wounds or severe contamination, anti-tetanus treatment and antibiotics, etc., should be used as appropriate to control infections other than the rabies virus.
It looks endearing, but after all it is an animal and lives according to its nature, so the keeping process must be scientific and careful.