Hamsters

[VelvetTurtle]

If hamsters are nocturnal are they are good pet for children or not? Guessing not if they sleep all day? Anyone have any experience of a hamster with children. Haven't had one since a kid and can't even remember it 😂

I would say no.
None of ours came out until after we went to bed (we have had about 10 over the years), and we're always asleep by the time we woke up.

They require a large enclosure (much larger than a shop will sell) - Syrian120 by 50cm, dwarf 100 by 50 minimum.
We also have mice and we love them, but again I wouldn't say suitable for children.

Rats or guinea pigs would be better suited.

Thanks. I looked at rats but only living 2 years put me off. Guinea pigs need a lot of outside space so ruled them out for that reason whilst we do have a garden it's not massive and don't want to take up so much space.

I agree with the above. They're lovely, cute to watch but not very easy to handle and can be very nibbly resulting in painful bites.

I used to hear mine playing on his wheel throughout the night . . . I was in the front bedroom and he was in the kitchen/diner at the back of the house!

Guinea pigs are an excellent choice for children, much more cuddly and easy to handle and their antics are very amusing

Hamsters are terrible pets for young children. Rats are fantastic, Guinea pigs are good but often outlive children’s interest.

I don't want to use my garden so will need to be an animal kept indoors.

Depends how old the children are.

Ours soon wakes up with a tasty bit of cucumber put in his cage.

We have had some lovely ones all through my childhood. Males are more doce and don't come into season and stink. Unfortunately the one we have at the moment is really skittish. We keep trying. He is letting us stoke him but this one is more nervous than any we have had before. I would recommend from a breeder as they do handle them a bit.

Doce means docile.

We have a Russian Dwarf and it's the most gorgeous friendly little thing - never nipped, always come out to see us night or day. He also has multiple wakings during the day and is happy to be handled then. He doesn't smell, perhaps because it's a male? The shaving bedding did stink though, now we get the more expensive softer paper type bedding.
They aren't sit in your lap and cuddle pets but they're fun and will run all over you.
I would recommend, I really didn't want one but I actually love him more than my kids do!!

@VelvetTurtle you can keep rats and guinea pigs inside.

There are so many rodents in rescues, please consider adopting before buying. However, if you do end up buying, please buy from a reputable breeder as opposed to a back yard breeder or chain store that uses rodent mills.

When I looked into it (guinea pigs) it said they need a large outdoor space to run around and I don't want to dedicate that much of my garden to them.

They're not ideal for young kids. They're pretty cute but the novelty soon wears off as they don't really do anything. They're not easy to handle, and are awake making a racket all night.
Guinea pigs are much more fun. If you've got space for an indoor rabbit cage they're quite happy indoors. They don't mind being handled and are robust little things. Plus you'll never waste any veggies ever again.

As a vet friend said
"Who the fuck decided a small, jumpy, bitey, fragile nocturnal prey animal that hates being handled was an ideal childrens pet?"

Guinea pigs are actually better suited to being indoor pets in the British climate. However, they need a lot of space - anything you buy in Pets at Home is nowhere near big enough. Google C&C cages to see suitable accommodation for them.

They can live happily indoors all year round, but be warned that as well
as a big enclosure, they must have constant access to high-quality hay which is possibly the messiest substance ever. It gets everywhere. And unlike rabbits, you can’t really train them to use a litter tray, so they need a lot of cleaning as they happily wee and poo wherever they fancy (and they poo a LOT).

If that doesn’t put you off, they are absolutely delightful creatures and have lovely little personalities. The easiest combination for novices is two or three girls.

Rats living two years is ideal as that will be the limit of your children's interest!

We have some very healthy guinea pigs and they seem to be determined to live forever.

We have a very sweet, friendly hamster too but she needs a massive cage (1m long!) and lives in a burrow so not super exciting for a child.

The only reason hamsters are seen as good pets for child is because they are cheap and easily replaceable.

They are not however disposable, the cages sold by the likes of Pets at Home are no where near as large as they need. You are looking at least 100 cm x 50cm with a 28cm diameter wheel as a minimum with a good several inches of substrate to dig in. They are nocturnal and bite and great escape artists. They are perhaps suited to older children who can handle them readily. Gerbils are similar but not nocturnal, however need to be kept in a similar sized housing and in groups and if the fight you have to keep them separate, and also run the risk of them being incorrectly sexed and having lots of little gerbils.

The best pets are cats, anything in a cage risks being forgotten about once the novelty wears off. Cats are relatively self sufficient and tends to be a full family pet with less input required than a dog.

We had an awful period when my children were young involving several successive hamsters. Awful for the children (hamsters kept dying) awful for me (huge guilt over poor hamsters that clearly just wanted to be FREE and spent all their waking hours just trying to escape even when we gave them the run of an entire room they gnawed away door frames trying to get out) and worst of all for the poor, poor hamsters! Why do we do this? It's cruel, simple as that. Never again. Don't buy hamsters for your children people!!

Sadly this behaviour is common in pet hamsters kept in commercial cages - they are chronically stressed because their environment doesn’t meet their needs. Hamsters in the wild forage over several miles each night in a desert environment. They seek their food by scent and they dig burrows. To replicate this in captivity they need a huge flat area (not platforms or tiers), very deep bedding as their base layer which will allow for tunnelling and access to hiding spaces and things to climb on and explore and their food scattered and hidden so they have to find it. What they don’t need are tall, narrow barred cages with plastic tunnels, a bit of sawdust in the bottom and a plastic house with some shredded paper in or cotton wool type bedding and a standard-issue small wheel (too small - the right size should allow them to run in a horizontal position without their body curving so their head and tail is higher than the middle of their back) and a little bowl full of food they’ve not had to forage for - none of that replicates their natural environment or allows them adequate enrichment and consequently they develop chronic stress and display this in their behaviours. This is then compounded by the habit which still refuses to die of pet shops selling plastic balls to use for exercise, which are very stressful and also hurt their spines.

Hamsters kept in an appropriate cage size (which is vastly bigger than anything you buy at Pets at Home) such as the IKEA hacks you see online, don’t typically show these behaviours.

This isn’t a criticism of you - sadly there is so much misinformation about hamsters, not helped by pet shops themselves continuing selling totally unsuitable cages and products for them in the interests of profit. It allows them to promote hamsters as a cheap and affordable easy pet, when they’re quite complex little things.

Yes I realise this. Nearly all cages and tanks you can buy in pet shops are inadequate. I never bought a ball or wheel thankfully, but knew they were still not getting what they needed. Poor creatures.