to be daunted by the thought of getting a hamster!

[MimiSam]

My (sensible) 8 year old is desperate for his first pet and wants a hamster. We have never looked after any pets before and we can get lack basic info online about cages, food, etc. But as to whether we need vetinary insurance (ie do hamsters get ill often?) or whether we could go away for the weekend and leave it (with enough food and drink of course), we're clueless...what are people's experiences of hamsters as pets for young chidlren? Advice gratefully received.

We have trained ours to wake up if we tap his cage and call his name - he is SO sweet when he comes out to say hello! :)

Oh and we use gaffer tape to fix the water bottle to the outside of the cage

we got a hamster a month ago. we didn't see her at all for the first 3 weeks, but now she is incredibly friendly, comes out to say hello as soon as she hears my/ds1's voice and is usually up first thing in the morning and from about 3pm.

she is gradually getting used to being handled, loves broccoli, climbs across the top of her cage using only her front paws monkey-bar style.... she is thoroughly entertaining, i have become a bit soppy about her to my surprise.

gerbils are lovely too, but if you get a breeding/eating their babies pair, as i did, it's fairly gruesome...

I LOVE that monkey bar style climbing mrs it has us in stitches

Our hamsters have been very good, easy pets for young children. They are active in the evening when we are all around so that works out fine. They don't live too long, and frankly that is an advantage, children's interest in pets wane and at least with hamsters you aren't stuck for decades with an unwanted pet.

I have had rats, gerbils, guinea pigs, rabbits and hamsters, but I do think of all these rodents the hamsters have been particularly good for primary aged children. Nice and slow and easy to handle.

Hamsters are evil. You should get a rat instead. Much more agreable and you can teach them to do tricks.

This is interesting.

We got 3 dwarf hampsters a month ago. They live very happily together but maybe that's because they are from the same litter (or whatever hampsters come from). They wake up as soon as anyone comes near the cage and are very inquisitivend friendly.

I have found that they smell awful though. I clean the cage every day but within a few hours it starts to smell again.

What do you use as flooring in the cage ChooChoo? Sawdust can kick up a real stink :( I use carefresh which is recycled paper of sorts but absorbs any manky wee smells. I think there's something similar called Megazorb as well.

Thank you. We do use sawdust. Can you buy the recycled stuff in pet shops?.

i want to buy some megazorb now, mainly cos it sounds like one of the power rangers

I use Carefresh but it's a bit pricey - I have looked into Megazorb but have only found it in HUGE bags. Anyone know of somewhere I can buy it in smaller quantities?

Sawdust DOES stink - blerk!

I get Carefresh online, from Pet Planet or similar but I think you can get it in Pets at Home as well. Don't know about megazorb as I've never bought it. Carefresh comes in 14L packs which fit into the average carrier bag.

Thank you all for your replies and advice, it's really helpful. I had been worried about the nocturnal thing, as obviously the children will be disappointed if the hamster's asleep all day...DS does want it in his room, but I think we might talk him out of that. Only alternative would be the kitchen/living room though and I'm a bit worried about the smell...I take on board the comments about buying from a breeder rather than the local pet shop, but how do you find a breeder? (As you can probably gather the world of pets is a new one for me!)

I am coming late to this discussion. I have 3 boys (8 and 10) and we got our first hamster in Jan. (DH had hamsters a lot when he was younger so not new to him). It has been very easy. We keep the hamstre downstairs overnight so no problems with being kept awake.

Our boys handle it a lot during the day (whenever it sticks it's head out of it's bed!). The only problem we have it having 3 kids they all want to handle it at the risk of exhausting the hamster (and probably shortening it's life). We try and limit excessive handling and give the poor thing a break :)

Don't bother with insurance - far too small and insignificant to waste money or time over - part of life's lesson to learn things can get ill or old and die.

Smell - no problem with males (females can be a bit smellier).

I meant to say - you are supposed to leave them alone for the first few weeks to get used to being somewhere new - that is not easy with most 8 year olds and will need policing.

If you stress them too much they can die.

The forum on Mad About Hamsters is brilliantly informative, in fact the whole website is.
It has a list of breeders on as well, and the hamster clubs listed will also be able to help you with breeders.
throckenholt the advice I've always been given is 24-48 hours to allow the hamster to acclimatise. After that it's better to handle the hamster as soon as possible so it gets used to it from an early age. Leave it too long and the hamster will be a bugger to tame.

dickiedavisthunderthighs

fair enough. We have two hamsters now - the first we managed to leave fairly quiet for a week or two, the other only managed a couple of days. The first one is male, very laid back and friendly, the second is female, was very scatty and a bit bity - although now at nearly 6 months is not bity any more.

I think the key is just to watch kids and hamster together like a hawk for the first few weeks until you are sure they are handling it gently enough and not overdoing it.

Hamsters are great. I would get a girl rather than a boy as I have found they are more active and friendly. My friend has a boy and he doesn't do much at all other than sleep (a bit like humans!). A word of warning, when we were little we bought females twice and discovered that due to hanky panky in the cage at pet shop they were pregnant and had babies.

Agree with comments about cages with lots of tubes, an absolute pain to clean out and put back together. We have a Ferplast. Can be taken apart and cleaned completely in 20 mins.

If you are worried about smell you can buy a hamster toilet which you can encourage them to use by putting wet and soiled sawdust in. You buy a little house and put cat litter type stuff in it which absorbs the moisture and stops smell. We have had some sucess with one, however, she keeps changing her wee corner.

When my son chose ours I was a little concerned as she was trying to bite the man in the shop, however, after letting her settle I handled her gently for a few days and she is fine with anyone.

I think they are great fun and can teach children a lot about life and caring. Ours is great. When we call her she will come out and play, hanging upside down from the roof of the cage. If I put her on the floor she comes when I call her and we give her exercise be encouraging her to climb the stairs.

I had hamsters myself, but now I think gerbils are more fun (we have 3) but the thing that annoys me most is the mess - always food, sawdust, hay and poo being scattered around when children get them out and handle them. Perhaps my dd is just very clumsy but the mess does spread around.