Hamsters

[Red2111]

well every hamster in my primary school bite and all the hampsters when i worked at Petco and Petsmart bit as well. so it turned me off of them.

 

 

more so the Teddy Bear hampsters than the dwarfs.

[CDM]

Really? That's so interesting (and no, that was not sarcasm, lol.) I wonder if the pet store and school hamsters bite more, because there is a lot more going on around them? Sort of a sensory overload kind of thing going on? I could definitely see pet store hammies biting more, since some customers like to tap on windows and tease.

 

Maybe I've just had good hamsters? Lucked-out, as it were?

[Red2111]

yeah i think its that CDM. kids liek to tap on the glass and the hampsters are already freaked out so they lash out in fear. normal instinct.

 

 

same can be argued for school hampsters *nods*

[greatguy]

I think mice and rats are beautiful creatures-from their ears to their feet to their mouths. I just don't like hamsters. It may be that they're too fat, but they're simply ugly. Just like anything else that is in supremely bad taste, they have a hard core of adoring followers though...

[Khymarea]

Hate hamsters. Used to work for a pet store, my job was usually rodents and every morning, I swear I was cleaning half-eaten rodent carcasses out of every hamster cage. I'm not sure if they died and the others were eating it, or if they killed it, but there's something just a little disturbing about cleaning up the bodies while the others watch, with their beady eyes and bloody paws/mouths wet from feasting... yech.

 

Not fond of mice either... that also stems from my time taking care of them at the pet store. In my experience, they are the stinkiest rodent. :/ Gerbils are my rodents of choice. Had gerbils growing up, and was only bitten once... when I was a kid, I decided to try and put two gerbils who didn't know each other together and got bitten while trying to break up the inevitable fight. Never did that again.

Edited November 10, 2012 by Khymarea

[Rachel72]

I had hamsters when I was younger...

[Wookieinmashoo]

I had a hamster I rescued from my niece and nephew because they didn't take care of it well. I had it for a year, named it Hammy (it actually came when I called it) and it eventually got old, started biting, then died. The kids called me hamster killer :|

[heavenswillow]

I've wanted a hamster for years OTL

[wild-dragon-jet]

I've never had a hamster, but i have had a guinea pig.

[Ælex]

I had a hamster, but it died.

So I got a dog.

[CDM]

My BF checked on our little Stove-Top today, and found that he had died in his sleep a couple hours earlier. We will miss him. Yes, he was "just" a Hamster, but he was so much fun and was always entertaining. He was even playing with us this morning, licking our hands and crawling up my BF's sleeves. Had no idea that he was going to go so soon. Two and a half years old, though, is pretty good for a Hamster.

 

RIP Stove-Top

Edited January 10, 2013 by CDM

[lizardtail]

ive never owned a hamster, the only ones i had ever interacted with bit people. so i've had rats for the past few years. wonderful fluffs, they are <3

[Nine]

They're okay, I just think a lot of pet stores aren't aware/don't care about their different behavioral requirements. I've seen cages with quite a few adults in them, and from what I understand about hamsters they can be super territorial and fight to the death. I think females will kill and eat their own young if people handle them too. It's especially sad since you'll see owners come along and think that's how the animals are meant to be kept, when it's noooooot.

[CDM]

We have two new additions. The BF and I were missing our little buddy so badly, so while we were in the city we went to visit where we had bought our original Dwarfies and came home with two siblings. Both are grey mottled and just adorable. We call them our little breakfast hammiches, because we called one McMuffin and the other, Hashbrown

 

It's so nice to see life in the cages and tubes again. We also bought some extra tubing, so that they would have lots of space, and there is now 20ft of tubing going in and out of both cages, and stretching across/above the kitchen cupboards on both sides.

 

The first night, we couldn't stop watching them go crazy, running around all of the tubes. Figuring out the twists and turns and going around the big loop.

[Ready]

When I was little, I had a hamster I carried around in a toy frying pan.

 

She would always climb in it when I placed it next to her, and then we would travel around the house together. c': I placed her on places like windowsills and tables to let her explore.

When she got bored, she'd walk back in the pan, and then we'd continue the journey.

[Twyro]

I've never had one, but I think they're pretty cute little critters! My neighbor used to have hamsters for a long time, the last one's name was Einstein. And I remember bugging him with my finger so much that he bit me (but nothing serious, I just had a sore finger for a couple of minutes).

And then she mentioned how he bit her once and her finger was bleeding so I was lucky it didn't happen to me.

[Banyanpan]

Not a big fan of hamsters, and I don't really ever want to own one personally. But it's nice to hear about other people's pets, they seem so cute and well behaved.

[Brotato]

I prefer Guinea Pigs personally.

[Natevaelle]

It has been years since I had a hamster. I do remember that I was very fond of them though. Aside from having pet hamsters, I would draw hamsters, collect newspaper and magazine clippings about hamsters, and read books about hamsters. (I read a novel entitled "I, Houdini" around a decade ago.) Going back to hamsters as pets, I have had teddy bear hamsters and Siberian dwarf hamsters. I had pictures and notes about each hamster I had. I went as far as making family trees for my hamsters.

 

Hamsters have such short lives and my small pets such as these seem to get sick and die sooner than my bigger pets. At the moment, my attention is on my puppy. I have always had pet dogs ever since, but this is the first time that I am caring for one on my own and training one.