Hamsters are illegal?!

[NinaNobody]

In Australia?
Just read this and am wondering why?
It does say because of the ecosystems but how could pet hamsters affect that?

I mean hamsters are quite common pets here but they don't spill out into the wild? I've never seen a wild hamster?

Is there a more specific reason?

How long would it take for one escaped hamster to find another escaped hamster in a country the size of Australia? Having had a Syrian hamster I know how lazy and anti social they can be.

@NinaNobody This is turning out to be one of the most interesting threads on mumsnet!

"I'm all for reintroducing native wolves here because Deer are eating EVERYTHING, even in The Phoenix Park around the corner."

Not sure the picnickers in Phoenix Park would be too happy about wolves...and a population of wolves there would be a genetically tiny, isolated pool like the Isle Royale wolves.

The deer in Phoenix Park are culled to manage numbers, as emotively described here:
https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/sniper-kills-38-deer-phoenix-29872910?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#google_vignette

If not culled then you'd probably end up with an Oostvaardersplassen type scenario with hordes of starving animals in a barren, stripped landscape, so realistically it's culling down numbers by rifle or get rid:
https://iwt.ie/time-to-remove-the-deer-from-the-park/

Absolutely agree with this @NinaNobody ! What would be the point of any chat forum if not to have discussion like this!
Just told my 8 yo who loves fun facts like this. 🐹

Someone would have to be breeding them in order to sell as pets. They're shipped in large volumes to pet stores, some die en route, some probably mate.

It is an interesting topic OP. I think the UK has some of the most lax laws around the keeping of animals. I work with animals, and my colleagues are from all over the world. I love hearing about the different laws/different types of animals kept and attitudes to them.

MNHQ I think we need a thumbs down emoji for the grumpy posts, if we're going to have emojis then at least add that!

@mnhq MNHQ I think we need a thumbs down emoji for the grumpy posts, if we're going to have emojis then at least add that!

A def thumbs up to this!

Do you not understand the reasons for the cull? It is to protect the ecosystem and wildlife that is native to the area. If it didn't happen the consequences would be huge.

Persecution by farmers and loss of natural habitat (because of agriculture) is why European hamsters are now critically endangered across their global range.

God I hate humans.

Do you not understand the reasons for the cull? It is to protect the ecosystem and wildlife that is native to the area. If it didn't happen the consequences would be huge.

Are we culling humans now? 😂

"How long would it take for one escaped hamster to find another escaped hamster in a country the size of Australia? Having had a Syrian hamster I know how lazy and anti social they can be."

I used to think this too, but....mistakes happen when sexing small furries. It's common for people to think they have two of one sex...only to find out the hard way that they have one of each. Sometimes the babies can be sold or rehomed, but a situation is created where a litter of babies need to be got rid of quickly. Then they tend to be sold cheaply to people who haven't thought about it much, or given to a workmate's kids or something like that. If the new owners get tired of them, or if the original "accidental breeder" can't find homes for them then the options are: start devoting a much larger chunk of your house space, time and money to keeping more of them than you intended and spaying/castrating the original pair, or euthanasia en masse.

I have euthanased an entire litter of cute gerbils presented to me for this reason - the second time the owner brought a litter in for euth- I made her hold them while I injected each one. I can see that plenty of people wouldn't do this and would release them "into the wild" aka dumping. Which, in this chilly damp country, as a PP pointed out, usually results in death from hypothermia fairly quickly, but in a favourable climate causes a population explosion in species which are sexually mature at a few months old, have a short gestation period and large litters, and get pregnant again very quickly.

Yeah I was up googling this last nite! The European hamster is used for it's fur as well.

The Syrian hamster was actually thought to be extinct until early in the last century bizarrely! All pet hamsters originate from a mother & a litter discovered in the Syrian desert by chance.

I've had numerous hamsters over the years & would love another but unfortunately my dcat is has a very high prey drive.

If only we could have quokkas roaming wild in the UK! It would improve the national mood no end.

Pet rats can be so cute! We had one years ago that used to run up and nibble your nose to say hello!

Yes, fully contained there is no threat. But people can be rather shit pet owners. I am on hamster and guinea pig groups, as I have them, and the number of accidental litters is high. Only takes one person to release a family that got out of hand to go forth and multiply. Also lots of animals kept on unsuitable conditions and likely to escape.

Cats should definitely be banned in Australia. High murder count of things that didn't evolve alongside them.

I read this and thought "OP must be following Bondi Vet" 🤣

"Cats should definitely be banned in Australia. High murder count of things that didn't evolve alongside them."

I know that serious consideration was given in New Zealand to banning outdoor cats, or banning cats altogether, for this reason.

I have a cat rehomed from work as a youngster. She's 17 now and when she dies I probably won't replace her. She probably does help with rodent control on the farm but we don't have many rats here anyway and we're trying to encourage birds and other wildlife. Even at her age she is still a brilliant and brutal killer.

I'm Australian but lived here for 20 years. I used to go and just look at the hamsters in Pets at Home for ages. So cute. But also marvel at the types of animals you can just buy here. A friend had a bearded dragon. In Australia you need a licence to have one of those as a pet. My best friend is a wildlife ranger and she has tree frogs as pets which she also had to get a licence for.

Personally I don't think exotic animals should just be for sale willy nilly anywhere. When we picked up one of our cats from the RSPCA (roughly 2015 so may have changed since then) they mentioned in passing that they were being overrun with abandoned degus because they were a bit of a craze for a while and people thought they would make great kids pets.

They're not exploring the whole country, though, are they? In the nature of things they would escape in populated areas where their chances of finding another escapee are rather better. Plus there are the ones that may be let loose deliberately en masse, e.g. because a pet hamster has unexpectedly had a litter.

Have you never heard of the expression "tongue in cheek"?

Better not start researching into what animals do to each other, then.

OP ignore ToKittyornottoKitty and Eldermilleniallyogii. MN would be a very boring and empty place if everyone thought like them.

I have found your thread really interesting and learnt new things. I thought the feral camel comment was a joke and I'm quite shocked to learn it wasn't, how have I never heard of that before?
I also went down a rabbit hole about European hamsters and YouTube videos of wild animals choosing to run on hamster wheels in the wild, so thank you for this thread!

Interesting thread.

I have also heard that French lavender is banned in Australia as it lives so well in the habitat and spreads like wildfire.

Didn't know this so I've learnt something today .🙂

We've owned hamsters and they can be incredible escape artists and they chew like fuck.
We're in the UK and if they escape here they're a gonna. Makes sense for hotter countries to ban them.

I also went down a rabbit hole about European hamsters and YouTube videos of wild animals choosing to run on hamster wheels in the wild, so thank you for this thread! I was literally just about to write that I’d been looking all this up in the small hours and had found the stories/videos about animals running on hamster wheels.

I had a friend whose sister had a hamster/s which ended up with a litter of what seemed like hundreds of babies. I was still at school so I don’t rightly remember how many but there seemed to be bloody loads of them. the mother ate some of them though <shudder>

It is and I learnt something from you starting this thread, so thank you!