DC getting hamster...help!

[4267sparkles]

Morning

After much debating and discussion my DD & DS are each getting a Syrian hamster Im not the biggest fan of them tbh but its something the have done lots of research on and pretty much presented me with a good case lol.
Ive done some looking online and they seem to be pretty easy little things to look after and quite enjoyable pets for children.
We have the cages and bedding etc just looking for any advice or tips.
Kids cannot contain there excitement is sweet

I don't think they really make good pets.

For a start they mainly sleep during the day which is when children want to pet them.

They make a lot of noise at night - my son wouldn't have them in his bedroom so every night we had to love them to somewhere nobody could hear the wheel.

They are sometimes bitey

They don't live very long

Why not get them two Guinea pigs - much nicer pets.

They already have 2 guinea pigs at there grans which the love and look after very well. Dwarf hamsters tend to bite more but the research I have done into Syrian hamsters is that they are very friendly and can be much more sociable. I work full time and with the kids being at school they wouldnt be looking to play with them until evening.
Thanks for your input tho

We've got a Syrian hamster and we've had her over a year and a half. She's quite bitey and very fast! My son doesn't like handling her. After she's dies I wouldn't get another hamster. She's well loved and looked after, don't get me wrong! She has a big homemade cage and a good diet, I just don't think hamsters are very child friendly pets.

Ours doesn't get up until around 9pm. Except for maybe around lunchtime she gets up and goes to the toilet, gets a drink and goes back to bed!

Also worth remembering they need a big cage with lots of bedding, not the little cages pets at home have.

Syrian hamsters can be nice but they can also be very bitey - it's down to their personalities not necessarily handling. We had a lovely one but we also had one where you risked a finger every time you went into the cage for feeding etc.

And boy is it painful when they bite 😱😱

Don't keep them in bedrooms as they are very very noisy and make sure they have a big enough cage. Most pet shop ones aren't anywhere near big enough. Nothing with tunnels. As they get bigger they begin to get stuck and having had to dislodge a very distressed hamster from one with a bottle brush, I would never have tubes in a cage again.

I have a Syrian hamster - she's a great pet for a working adult like me, but bear in mind when they say nocturnal they mean often not awake until 8/9pm at night, like ours. If you wake them up, not only is it not great from a welfare perspective but they tend to be grumpy and that's when they're more likely to bite. I love my Syrian, but they're not good pets for young children due to being nocturnal.

With regards to cages, they need to be at least 80x50cm unbroken floorspace (shelves are bonuses, not replacements, for floorspace). www.woodgreen.org.uk/pet_advice/557_hamster_accommodation The bigger the better - my Syrian is in a 100x50cm cage. Yes, this is bigger than some rabbit hutches, but it's what they need. Zooplus.co.uk does some great cages - look at the Alaska / Barney / Alexander models. You also must have a wheel that is at least 28cm diameter - anything smaller, and they will have to bend their back to run and that causes painful spinal problems.

My Syrian is a demanding thing - incredibly sweet, but she will let you know when something isn't to her liking, or when she's bored! In some ways she's easy to look after, but in other ways she's still plenty of work - she needs at least an hour of playtime outside her cage daily. The two Syrians that you plan to get must never come into contact with each other - they'll either fight to the death or (if opposite sex, and the female is in heat) mate.

I have a dwarf too - don't think that they're better options because they're not. Dwarves need cages that are just as large, are faster and more prone to biting. Pairs of dwarves often fight and need to be separated permanently and immediately to avoid them fighting to the death.

Good info here on suitable and unsuitable hamster mixes hamsterhideout.com/forum/topic/102520-hamster-nutrition-iv-commercial-hamster-food-list/

Bedding - there's a wide range of options out there. I favour Fitch www.fitchrecycling.co.uk but Carefresh, Auboise and Megazorb are also commonly used. They need to have at least 3-4" deep to dig in. Avoid any "fluffy" bedding that resembles cotton wool - it's incredibly dangerous and can cause anything from fatal gut blockages to amputations.

Syrian hamsters can be wonderful pets, but I'm afraid they're not the easy children's pets that people often mistake them for.

Just echoing what rightsaidfrederickII says. You say you have the cages- if these were anything like what pets at home sell, please return. They are genuinely completely unsuitable (and would be illegal in many countries, for example Germany) and are only sold because that's what makes a profit.

Wheels should also be 11 inches wide- people are utterly shocked when they find out the actual requirements for hamsters. They are not nearly as easy and compact as people think- the way we used to keep them when we were younger is awful in terms of welfare and our understanding of that has massively progressed since most of us remember keeping them in small cages as children. Unfortunately pet shops are not admitting to that progression as hamsters are a huge source of income for them!

Please, please look into their actual requirements before you adopt- and don't believe anything you read from any pet shop. This is a nice summary as a start point: hamstersgalore.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/hamsters-basics.html