to be counting down the days until our hamster dies?

[SnuggMugg]

Just that really. 30 weeks pregnant and irritable. I hate our hamster. Is smells after a day. It makes a massive racket on its wheel. It has a horrid ugly cage. I feel guilty knowing it can't run around like a wild hamster should/would. It's just annoying and pointless. Hardly ever gets played with by DD. Am I a vile human being to have had a fleeting thought re how nice it is going to be when hamster is no more and refusing to get another?

I think people think I'm some kind of hamster abuser.... bit scared to tell people how I feel about my MIL also, so might save that one for a rainy day...

Poor hammy sounds unloved and ignored. Even if you don't like her you and your husband should be giving her the best life you can. She relies on you and you've failed her.

Wow. In what way exactly had the OP failed the 'hammy'? OP has explained how it is not unloved nor is it ignored.

This thread is bonkers.

You’ve taken away the hamsters iPhone? You monster. In the wild, Syrian hamsters would check their Instagram up to 75 times a day

I've been pleasantly pleased with hamsters compared to Guinea pigs or rabbits. They live about as long as a child's interest lasts, they're small, interesting to watch and easy to clean out. Have to say though that I clean out ours way more than the pet shop recommended clean. Not all of it, just the toilet part. Otherwise I agree it can get whiffy.

checking well it shouldn't have pissed on the floor then the cheeky fucker!

Consider yourself lucky. House rabbit decided to wee all over my lovely rocking chair this week. This was only discovered when DS sprawled himself across it and asked ‘Mummy, why is the chair wet?’

I adopted 2 gerbils from pets at home because I couldn't stand the thought of leaving them in that tiny box.

They are gerbil 8 and 9 if I count how many we have had over the years.

Honestly OP you do not know irritating noise until you have gerbils. They work together to make the most noise possible at really inconvenient times buuuuut when they cuddle up together in their coconut bed I luffs em an they melt my cold heart.

P. S. Also pregnant and I can smell them when the window is open and nobody else can.

There are lots of hamster rescues about. Please look at Facebook hamster rescue pages to find one near you. Alternatively get him/her a larger single tier cage, the barney is excellent, with a 28inch trixie wheel this should stop the bar biting. You can also get a ball pool toy from Argos or equivalent and put some cardboard and tubes in there for some time outside the cage. Imagine keeping a dog in a small area and not interacting with it, it wouldn’t be very nice. A well socialised hamster is lovely. Mine sleeps on me and loves being stroked and groomed (he’s got long hair). PM me of you would like me to help re-home your hamster.

I'm really not keen on our hamster either - he has just added to my workload and made me feel guilty on the evenings I don't take him out 😫. He's also a late riser, so dd hardly sees him 🤦‍♀️.

We did buy a monster cage for him, thought it is still too small, so added a second cage on by tubes - Still not happy with the size and can't believe the tiny size of cages some people think are acceptable to sell and buy.

Having said that, hamster does not chew the bars and the cage stays pretty clean for over a week (just need to sweep out a few poos). He has a sandpit and tunnel areas we have made, so hopefully is fairly entertained 😬.

Hi OP if you have a Pets At Home near you they rehome pets. Also join the Syrian Hamster page in Facebook and you might have some luck there? You can buy silent wheels for hamsters. We don't have one in our cage as it doesn't use it. The reason for the gnawing on the cage maybe to wear its teeth down ir boredom. We give ours the plain dog biscuits to help with this. I like our hamster but have ended up being the one who cleans it out as dcs only happy playing with whilst I'm cleaning it out. Clean it once a week but just about that time starts to reek! Found thats it's wee in the tube thats the culprit so clean that part midweek. I do like ours as I said but won't miss the cleaning out so I do understand. Haven't rtft but does yr dp clean it out? He should if he bought it. It would make him think twice then about doing it again!

Can’t get over the responses on here, it’s not like you’re threatening to drown the bloody thing!
Not everyone is an animal lover and sometimes you don’t realise the negatives until you actually get one!

I feel the same about my husband's cats

Yes you are vile. Rehome the hamster!

God OP there are some twerpish posts on this thread and no mistake! Are people even reading properly?

Look - the hamster is well-cared for. OP knows more about hamsters than some of you sniffling over it being 'unloved' - she's researched how to look after it, she appreciates AND CARES that small animals in cages would undoubtedly prefer to be free and not just a toy for humans. She just didn't want one (no crime fgs!) and doesn't 'love' it!

The hamster doesn't KNOW that it isn't 'loved' by its other-species captor,, people do realise that don't they?!

OP for keeping calm and humorous in the face of MN silliness.

Wait on.....if the hamster is sensitive enough to realise it isn't loved by the human overlord, won't being sent away to another human be even worse for its precious feelz?

The people who are calling the op 'vile' need to get. a. fucking. grip. Seriously. It's embarrassing how people will call a PERSON shitty names, and think nothing of it, but think a bad thought about an animal who eats its own poo, we'll, that's the worst thing ever.

You big, bad hamster hater I only read the first page and that was enough. You definitely don’t sound unhinged It’s a fricking hamster, that would drive me mad let alone being pregnant as well. Get rid and don’t give a second thought!

I hear you op! My kids had a hamster and I silently wished for it’s days to be numbered- then eventually he became poorly- I thought we’d wake up and he would be no more- after 24 hours I had to take him to vet to be humanely put down at the cost of £70. For a hamster.

You can get silent flat disc 'wheels' that they run on. We have a large one for ours.
If you genuinely don't want it anymore then pets at home rehome hamsters usually.
Try getting it more tubes and some things to chew on, and get DP to handle it each evening.

Stop taking the piss folks seriously I was enjoying those 'you are vile' posts! I'm really thinking about doing some serious soul searching. Maybe to determine what happened in my life to make me dislike hamsters so much? Maybe this all stems from a much bigger problem...

Sorry but your hamster isn’t well looked after. Feeding it and cleaning it out is doing the bare minimum. It needs exercise, toys to play with and it needs handling. It’s chewing its bars because it’s bored. This is the minimum size of cage it should be in.

We’ve had plenty of hamsters our last one was almost three when he was PTS, I was in bits and even the vet cried. You need to put effort in with them, like you would a dog or a cat, and then they’re lovely, friendly, intelligent pets.

It boils my piss that people think they can go in to a pet shop buy a small furry, bring it home and just feed and clean it but do nothing else. You’d never do that with a bigger pet because it’s cruel and it’s cruel to a small furry too.

OP you are taking all this like a champ unfortunately you would probably struggle to rehome it as a lot of people aren’t fond of hamsters and (like you!) correctly predict they will hardly be played with after the first week.

I wonder if it’s worth contacting local schools to see if any of them are after a class pet. My DC’s nursery had rabbits and the reception class had fish... might be worth a try?

From experience, so long as the hamster is fed, suitably housed and cared for, they don't give a shiny shite about being loved. Privately, away from the DC's little ears, I (affectionately) call ours Shit Head as in "how you doing, Shit Head?". Hamster has yet to complain. There's no obligation to handle them either, in fact some actively avoid being handled, handling is purely to satisfy the owners who want an interactive pet and they tend to be happiest left to their own devices with suitable boredom breakers in the cage and space to roam around.

Looking forward to being free of an obligation doesn't make you a bad person. You didn't want a hamster, didn't ask for a hamster, and yet have been handed a hamster. I'd be miffed too.

And my autocorrect keeps wanting to change hamster to hammer

fairy it's got loads of bloody toys! When DSD is here (DPs DD) it gets played with. That is every other weekend and one evening during the week. Other than that, I don't touch it. DP will sometimes get her out but not every night. I think some people are really naive to how most people treat hamsters. I am fairly sure this is the norm and there are millions of hamsters out there that are exactly living exactly the same. I didn't ask for the hamster. I didn't even know DP was getting it, but it sure as hell isn't a poorly looked after abused hamster that's living a life different to any other house hamster in the UK.

You know what my opinion is? That we should never have domesticated the bloody things in the first place. It's cruel. No cage is big enough.

Or maybe I should just get a cat and see what happens...

Not everyone is an animal lover and sometimes you don’t realise the negatives until you actually get one!

Anyone who homes a pet on the off chance they might like it is an idiot.