Everyone loves little hamsters, but how do you raise one well?

Hamsters are cute little pets that many people like to keep. They are mouse-like rodents with many coat colors and varieties, such as golden bears, pudding hamsters, silver fox hamsters, purple hamsters and so on. They are distributed all over the world, with a total of seven genera and eighteen species, of which three genera and eight species are found in China. Their body size generally ranges from 5 to 28 cm, and their weight is about 30 to 1,000 g. They have a short, stout body, a relatively short tail, and a pair of incisors that grow continuously. Some hamster varieties are very close to humans and have become a pet that everyone loves, so how should we raise hamsters?

How to raise hamsters

1. Diet

1. Hamsters mainly feed on food seeds and love nuts. They also eat plant stems or leaves, and occasionally may eat small insects.

2. Hamsters have a relatively high demand for water, so when keeping hamsters, you should provide them with sufficient water in time.

3. Most hamsters do not hibernate; in winter they store food to prepare for the cold season. You can also feed hamsters special hamster food and provide an appropriate amount of fruit and vegetables, and occasionally feed them some breadworms and dried small fish. Suitable vegetables and fruits include greens, radish, apple, strawberry, cherry, banana and so on, while the seeds and nuts are mostly common nuts such as sunflower seeds, peanuts, walnuts and pine nuts.

4. Plants that hamsters like to eat also include dandelion, plantain and so on. If you want to supplement hamsters with animal protein, you can choose beef, chicken, egg white, small insects and dried small fish specially for pets, and so on. Hamsters also have special nutritional paste and nutritional water, which can be consumed in appropriate amounts to supplement the necessary nutrition for hamsters.

2. Living environment

1. Pet hamsters generally live in cages. The bottom area of the cage must be at least greater than 0.5 sq m. The cage should be covered with soft materials such as wood shavings or paper shavings, wood shavings, straw and so on, to provide hamsters with a place to hide.

2. A running wheel can be installed in the cage. Pay attention to the size of the running wheel; it must not be grid-shaped or have too small a diameter, otherwise it will cause harm to the hamster.

3. At the same time, hamsters should also be provided with a molar stone, because a hamster's incisors grow continuously, so it must gnaw on relatively hard things to wear down its teeth, preventing the incisors from becoming too long and hindering eating and chewing, and also ensuring that the incisors remain sharp for convenient gnawing.

4. The environment where hamsters live must be able to be ventilated and have air exchanged frequently, and urine-wet bedding, food bowls and water bottles need to be cleaned every day. When cleaning the cage, pay attention to retaining part of the old bedding used by the hamster as much as possible, because the familiar smell of the hamster will make the hamster adapt more easily. Generally, clean once a month.

It is worth noting that hamsters are solitary animals. If two hamsters of the same sex are kept in the same cage, they will fight because of territorial competition, and may even kill each other, so they must be kept separately.