Anatomy
All hamsters are small rodents, the largest is the European hamster. They have short legs and short tails, features that are normal for an animal that spends much of it’s time underground. This article will mention some essential information so you have an overview of hamster!
Their legs are extremely strong so that burrowing in the ground is easy for them. They can also walk up to 8 miles in a single night of foraging for food. The tail, ears and feet are covered in a fine fur and the rest of the body is covered in a much thicker fur. This helps keep the hamster warm in the cold winter nights.
Probably the most famous characteristic of hamsters is of course their ability to stuff loads of food into their cheeks. They have special cheeks which can expand out to their shoulders and it means they can forage a long way from their burrow but still transport the food back. Hamsters think its very funny that we have to use shopping bags, they think cheeks are much more convenient.
The Five Senses
Eyesight
All hamsters are mostly active at dawn and dusk so they have large eyes but this does not mean they have good eyesight. In fact it’s not very good at all. They do not seem to have any perception of depth – a hamster coming to the end of a solid surface will simple drop off the edge because it doesn’t know how far the fall is. They are brilliant climbers and will quickly climb up to the top of curtains and get down by simply letting go.
If a hamster detects movement from above it will go onto it’s back so that it can defend itself using it’s feet and teeth. In the wild this would be a bird but in the home this could mean your hands reaching down to pick it up. That’s why you should always approach your hamster from in front.
Smell
What a hamster lacks in eyesight it makes up for with it’s sense of smell. As soon as you open the fridge door, that little nose will start twitching and the nostrils will be flaring. Your hamster will search out favourite foods such as sunflower seeds from food dishes even when put under all the other foods. Fresh greens, and best of all a dandelion leaf have even been known to wake a sleeping hamster who can’t resist a nibble.
Hearing
Hamsters have very good hearing. You should notice that when awake, your hamsters ears are upright to catch as much sound as possible. In relaxed or sleepy mode the ears are folded or crumpled. It is surprising how quickly young hamsters learn to associate certain clinking sounds of dishes etc with being fed. Your hamster will learn the sound of your voice and so you should regularly talk to it, just don’t expect much more than the occasional squeak back.
Taste
Hamsters are omnivores which means they eat vegetables as well as meat. In the wild they would mostly eat seeds and grasses but they are quite happy when they find an insect to eat.
Touch
Hamster have extremely dexterous front paws. If you watch your hamster feeding or cleaning itself you’ll see just how finely it can move it’s fingers.
Whiskers
With nocturnal animals whiskers play an important role while traveling to forage for food in the dark. Just remember that hamsters dislike having their extremely sensitive whiskers touched so be careful not to pull them or stroke them.
Breeds
There are three main types of hamster that are kept as pets: Syrian, Chinese and Dwarf. In total, there are currently more than twenty different species of hamster in the world. Different species have different body shapes, different sizes, and different colourings, as they are all adapted to live in their own areas of the world. Hamsters exist in lots of contrasting climates, from expanses of Syrian desert to snowy Siberian regions.
Which hamster you choose will have effects on how much care, how much cleaning and how much food you will need to provide them with. It will also affect whether or not you can keep them together, and some owners even report some differences of temperament between species.
Traditional Hamsters
Syrian
The Syrian hamster is the largest of the pet hamsters. It is normally between 15 to 20 cm long and can weigh between 150 to 200 grams. It is also the most common in pet shops and comes in various colours, patterns and hair types. If you watch the videos here you’ll see a Syrian hamster.
You can get short haired, long haired (it is only the males that can get the very long coats, the females stay fluffy), satin coated (this is a very shiny coat), Rex coated (the coat is slightly curly with the whiskers around the nose curling forward instead of sticking straight out) or combinations of these.
There are many colours commonly available including golden, cream, white, black, cinnamon, yellow, silver grey, dark grey, honey, sable etc. There are also other colours that might only be available from specialist breeders such as lilac, rust, smoke pearl, lilac pearl, silver black, melanistic yellow, dove etc.
In any of the above you can get a coloured hamster with white spots or a coloured hamster with a white band around it’s middle. In some colours you can also get a tortoiseshell, which is a coloured hamster with ‘yellow’ patches and also a tortoiseshell and white which is a tri-coloured animal (as with cats tortoiseshells are all females).
As you can see there is a lot of choice when it comes to choosing your Syrian hamster!
Dwarf hamsters
Russian Campbell
This hamster is only about 10 cm long and can be found in a number of colours, some of which may only be available from specialist breeders. Some of these colours are normal, argenté, albino, black, black eyed white, black eyed argenté, blue fawn, lilac, lilac fawn, opal, platinum and mottled (this being a coloured hamster with white spots.
Russian Winter White
This hamster is a little smaller than the Campbell, being about 8 cm long. This variety only comes in 5 colours at the moment – Normal, sapphire, normal pearl, sapphire pearl and mottled.
Roborovski
This is the smallest of the hamsters (about 5 cm long) and also the fastest – because of this, it is not an ideal pet for young children. They come in various colours, some of which are very new to the UK (2011) and so may not yet be available as pets. These colours include normal, husky (white faced), brown locus and pied.
Chinese
This hamster, although classed as a Dwarf, is part of the Rat-like hamsters and grows to about 12 cm long. It has a slightly longer tail than the other hamsters. There are only 2 colours available at this time – normal and the dominant spot, which is a coloured hamster with white spots.
Are Hamsters Rodents?
Yes. Hamsters belong to the rodent family, as do other popular pets like rats and guinea pigs. Rodents are a group of mammals that are typically earth-bound or subterranean, and so they are often found in burrows or within thick areas of vegetation. Some species of rodent have proved popular pets, like this cute Syrian hamster.
Although all hamsters are rodents, not all hamsters are the same species. There are just a few species of hamsters that are kept as pets, and they all come from different areas of the world. Syrian hamsters are a species (unsurprisingly) first formally recorded as living in the Syrian desert. Chinese hamsters are a smaller species of rodent from regions around China, whilst Dwarf hamsters are three separate species from areas in and around Russia and Siberia. We’ve created a ‘Hamster History’ page to offer you some more information on the origins of the different species of pets that are available.
Are Hamsters Nocturnal?
Yes – hamsters that are kept as pets are nocturnal species. Many of these animals’ ancestors would need to operate at night, both to escape the heat of the day and to avoid being eaten by visual predators. Therefore, your pet will naturally sleep for most of the day, and become more active at night.
It’s not a good idea to wake your hamster during the morning or afternoon, however, some pets are able to shift their natural rhythms by a few hours to become active in the late evening. Pets won’t benefit from being woken in the early hours of the afternoon (neither would we be like to be woken in the early hours of the morning) but you may be able to shift their sleep cycle slightly so that you can interact with them more.
The fact that hamsters are mostly awake at night is something that you’ll want to consider when judging whether or not to purchase a hamster as a pet, particularly if you’re doing so for children. Amongst other reasons, most experts and pet societies say that hamsters should only be purchased for older children (over ten or eleven), as they will be up and about more during evening hours. Most pet hamsters need to be kept on their own, so as a pet they rely more heavily on interaction with their owners than other pets.
So, you are thinking about adopting a hamster but wondering whether or not this is the right pet for you? Check out Should I Get A Hamster?