Anyone got the scoop on Dwarf Hamsters?

[guesswhatchickenbutt]

Long boring story short, but some friends of ours just bought a dwarf hamster and cage for their young child - turns out the child is too young for the hamster and now they want to get rid of it

My husband said they've got a nice cage and setup and they'll give it to us if we want it for free.

I've looked online and it seems like Dwarf Hamsters can be sad and lonely if they live alone - that you should get two same sex hamsters... unlike the bigger Syrian hamster that must be raised alone. So i don't want a lonely hamster (if we take this one of our friend's hands) but I don't want to get another one and get the sex wrong and end up with a male and a female and then 9 bajillion babies. I've heard it's quite difficult to sex a young dwarf hamster so I am not sure I'd trust my ability to figure out if this thing is a boy or a girl...

Sooo.... who's got the scoop on Dwarf Hamsters? I don't know a thing about them. I grew up with the bigger loner Syrian hamsters. And I need to decide if we take this hamster ASAP!

Thanks!

 

[Goat_Walker]

Well.. ive had hamsters my whole life, and the meanest was a chinese dwarf. My mom went to feed it and it jumped seven inches in the air to latch onto her finger, sinking its little teeth in. Took her five minutes of shaking her hand and crying to get it off, where it thumped to the ground and ran away under the fridge, lol. I thought it was funny - that my mom was hurt, not the hamster being thumped.

And As far as putting them in pairs, i wouldnt. We had a sister pair that we bought together and they lived together for a while - then it was fight fght fight over territory.

 

[EweSheep]

I never had a problem with having a single hamster and it did well with us when we socialize it. The dwarf hamster was still leery about us touching him but with the yellow exercise ball, he pretty much kept himself busy by touring the house. I do not let him in his ball for about half hour to an hour because any longer than that, he would fall asleep or I can not find him until he was stuck in the wedge of the dryer and wall.

We had him for over a year until he met his untimely death with my Siamese cat(she did not eat mice or kill them) who likes to paw him and play with him. He bit the cat's paw, on the way out of the cage with the cat's paw in his mouth, he invertially got himself smashed between his cage wall and cabinet wall. Poor guy, he was flat as a pancake and a cat who really liked him was out looking for him for days.

Try him out for a while and see how he does. If he does not seem to be needing more friends, I would not worry about it.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

My friend had a dwarf hamster and it was a friendly little thing. If this one is young, then you have a good chance of socializing it so it will be friendly. A single dwarf should be fine though. Sometimes they are more fun to watch than to handle which is fine too, but they seem to love those little exercise balls.

When you handle hamsters, just remember to wash your hands before handling them, especially if you've handled food. Hamsters don't seem to have very good eye sight and they will bite your fingers if they smell the food. I had a friendly hamster when I was little but one day she took a chunk out of my finger because I forgot to wash my hands after eating! Also, make sure you don't let them run on anything with edges unsupervised. They have a tendency to fall off of things!

Good luck if you decide to go for it! As long as you keep the cage clean, they are neat little pets.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Go for it!

The one we found (literally...under the dryer) hates me but loves my boyfriend. She loves running in her little ball, doing hamster chin-ups and loves running in her wheel.

She doesn't "seem" sad and depressed and I have seen them fighting inside of the cages at pet stores...I'd keep it by itself.

 

[HEChicken]

My DD has a dwarf hamster who is now about 20 months old. Before getting her, we researched and the information we got was that they don't play well with others and its best to keep them alone. Ours is EXTREMELY territorial. We do not dare to put our hand directly into the cage - we will be bitten for sure. (We're even careful when reaching in to feed and water to keep out of her way). The only way we can pick her up is by wearing a glove or putting a sock over our hand. Once out of the cage, she's fine - it is purely a territorial thing. We also have a little ball for her to run around the house in. We have a very predatory cat who would make a snack of her in no time if he found her out of the cage, but will move out of her way when she barrels towards him in the ball - quite amusing. The dogs also stay out of her way when she's heading towards them in the ball.

Hamsters are mostly nocturnal so in that sense don't make good pets. Ours wants to sleep all day and run in her wheel all night. Although we keep the wheel oiled, the relentless thump, thump, thump of it has forced us to move her at night to the spare room. The best time to interact with her is evening when she is waking up and ready to get on with her night. But for a small child who is going to bed about the time she is waking up...not a good choice.

 

[guesswhatchickenbutt]

Thanks for the scoop (and the cute photo!)... I know one of the downfalls of hamsters is that they're nocturnal and my kids aren't - LOL. But... I dunno... I hate the thought of this one being homeless. I'm a sucker for a pet in need. I mean they're super low maintenance and portable and self-contained. I wanted to get gerbils when my kids were older, but this hamster has got to find a home

Decisions, decisions.

 

[FlashPointFarm]

www.therodentguy.com

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

About the nocturnal thing....

Our is very active during the day. We keep the wheel in her cage during the day and at night, take it out if we can't get it to stop squeaking. We use the olive oil to try and keep it from squeaking, but sometimes....

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Wouldn't A bright night light fix the nocturnal thing?