How to care for a hamster

All hamsters are herbivores. And the domestic hamster is no exception.

Winter reserves in burrows of hamsters often amount to up to 50 kg of grain. Typically, females store much more food than males, who rarely collect more than 4-5 kilograms. It seems that the female hamster takes care not only of herself, but also of her future offspring. When the cereal grains begin to ripen, the hamster returns from hunting with its cheek pouches tightly stuffed with grain. His pantries are in complete order: peas are stored in one, corn in the second, oats in the third. During one trip, the hamster brings up to 50 grams of grain in its cheek pouches, and in total stores 10-15 kilograms of grain.

If a hamster sees, for example, a dog, it stands on its hind legs, showing the enemy its unusual dark belly. At the same time, he snores, chatters his teeth and swells his cheek pouches. A dog unfamiliar with a hamster gets scared and leaves it alone.

Hamsters, like all representatives of the rodent order, constantly grow their front teeth - incisors. Therefore, they have to constantly gnaw on various hard objects, i.e. eat hard foods to dent your teeth.

When Djungarian hamsters eat, they sit on their hind legs, close their eyes and eat. From my own observations, I concluded that hamsters have a special preference for seeds, apples, cabbage, pears, bread, oatmeal, but not chocolate. After eating, they wash themselves: they stand on their hind legs and begin to smooth out their faces from ears to nose.

The Newton hamster, living in Romania and Bulgaria, is bred in medical laboratories. Perhaps in the near future this type of hamster will become popular in our country. Newton's hamster is very similar to the Syrian hamster both in appearance and in its conditions of detention. Newton's hamster differs from the Syrian in its black belly. By the way, these 2 types of hamsters are often confused with the common hamster. However, it is a larger animal, about the size of a guinea pig! Even nurtured from infancy, when he matures, he becomes vicious and even bites through three canvas mittens put on top of each other.

Conditions for keeping a domestic hamster

Anyone who decides to get a small pet like a hamster should know how to properly care for it.

In addition to daily cleaning of the cage, feeding and walking the animals, hamsters often need brushing, trimming of overgrown claws, dental care, and sometimes bathing.

Hamsters are clean animals. These animals clean their fur on their own, but if it is very thick and the hairs are long, the rodent will need the help of its owner.

To care for your hamster, it is recommended to purchase a set of special brushes. If the animal's coat is very dirty and water treatments are necessary, you can use inexpensive baby shampoo for soaping. You should not wash your hamster with soap, as it dries out the skin too much. When bathing, you must ensure that water and shampoo do not get into the animal’s eyes, ears and nose. The hamster should not be let out of your hands while washing, as the animal may become very frightened and begin to scratch when trying to touch it. When bathing a rodent, it is best not to resort to using various brushes and sponges. Once you have finished washing your hamster, you should dry it. This can be done using a hair dryer. After this, it is best to hold the animal in your arms for a while, wrapped in a cloth or towel. This will give him the opportunity to warm up and calm down.

A hamster's claws rarely need treatment, but sometimes, especially in old animals, they are not worn down enough, and uneven or curved long claws can be seen on the paws, which prevent the animal from walking. In this case, they are carefully trimmed using nail scissors. You cannot use a nail file to treat claws, as the animal may become very frightened by unusual sounds and sensations.

A hamster's teeth require constant care. If the food it eats is not hard enough, the animal’s teeth quickly grow and begin to interfere with its eating. Overgrown incisors can accidentally damage the rodent's gums, tongue, or lips. As a consequence of this, the animal stops eating and begins to starve. Only a veterinarian can correct this situation.

Hamsters drink quite rarely, and sometimes they don’t drink all day.

Watching my hamsters, I noticed that they love to chew on a special stone with vitamins, sawdust, and paper. When they eat something made of meat, for example, boiled sausage, then they drink it for 30-20 minutes. They love dairy products, for example: cow's milk, cheese.

Diseases of hamsters

Heart disease

Cardiovascular diseases in hamsters are quite rare. Their occurrence is associated with frequent stress and high ambient temperatures. The main symptoms of the disease are rapid breathing and pulse, as well as physical weakness. For treatment, the rodent's cage should be moved to a dark, quiet room with an air temperature of at least 220C, but not higher than 250C. If the animal is in serious condition, you can put a small piece of ice on the back of its head and give an injection of Effortil.

Microsporia

Microsporia is a skin disease caused by pathogenic microscopic fungi and affecting the skin, nails and hair of an animal. Microsporia is often called ringworm.

A sick hamster can infect a person, so at the first symptoms of the disease, the rodent should be wrapped in a clean cloth and taken to a veterinary clinic. Hamsters most often become infected with microsporia through contact with an affected animal (rat, dog, rabbit). The incubation period for microsporia is 10-30 days.

The main symptoms of the disease are that round gray spots covered with uneven scales appear on the scalp, neck and paws. Treatment must be prescribed by a veterinarian. This disease is very contagious, so the hamster owner should be careful and carefully observe the rules of personal hygiene when communicating with his pet.

Wet tail

Wet tail is a rather serious disease, often leading to the death of the animal. It has symptoms of diarrhea, which can occur as a reaction to water, the introduction of new food or stress. Not all diarrhea is a symptom of a wet tail. Diarrhea may begin due to the fact that you overfed your pet with green vegetables.

Therefore, to prevent hamsters from getting sick, you need to be very attentive to them, feed them properly and keep them clean.

Study of the behavior of the domestic hamster in various conditions

To learn more about the behavior of hamsters, I decided to conduct several experiments.

Studying the speed of movement of a hamster in a maze

To begin with, I decided to find out which of the individuals, the female or the male, moves faster. To carry out this work, I took an adult female, an adult male, a cub and prepared a labyrinth, the length of which was 1 meter 41 cm. Then, one by one, I launched the hamsters into the maze and, using a stopwatch, measured the time it would take for my pets to overcome the obstacle.

As a result of the study, the following results were obtained: the female runs the entire distance in 6 seconds, the male runs the same distance in 5 seconds, and the cub in 8 seconds. Knowing the distance and time it takes the hamsters to cover the distance, I calculated the speed at which they moved. The female ran the maze at a speed of 24 cm/sec, the male reached a speed of 28 cm/min, and the cub overcame the obstacle at a speed of 18 cm/sec.

Thus, I concluded that males move faster than females and cubs.

The effect of music on heart rate

In the second experiment, I decided to find out how the heart of a female and a male beats under loud and calm music. I got the following results: the male’s heart beats at a speed of 84 beats/min to slow music, and the female’s heart beats at 88 beats/min. To fast and loud music, the male has 106 beats/min, and the female has 100 beats/min.

From the experiment we can conclude that music affects heart rate.