Hamsters are easy to feed, and quality commercial hamster food will take care of all their nutritional needs. Fresh food is essential for hamsters too, though, and they will enjoy and benefit from vegetables, like leafy greens and broccoli, and small amounts of fruits, like apples. That being said, sweet fruits should be kept to a minimum. Syrian hamsters can be short haired or long haired. The teddy bear hamster is one of the long haired hamster breeds, and males will have longer coats than females. Syrian Hamster Health and Care Mice are active and social creatures that love to live in groups, although male/female combinations are likely to breed, and males kept with males are prone to fight. If you don’t want to breed, a pair of females is the best option. That being said, it is often claimed that Syrian hamsters are the easiest to tame, and who are more likely to be sociable with humans. They are very social. So long as they lived in groups as a youngster, the Robo hamster will do well with a same-gender cage mate or even a group of Robo hamsters.

They are still sweet natured, but you will need to supervise any interactions between your Campbell’s dwarf hamster and young children. Both hamsters and mice are easy-to-care-for, low-maintenance pets with little feeding and housing requirements. Hamsters prefer to live alone, so if you want to keep more than one, you’ll need multiple cages. Mice, on the other hand, are social creatures and don’t enjoy being alone, so they’ll need a roomier cage with more levels and toys to play with. Bear in mind that both are nocturnal, but due to their ease of being handled, hamsters are a better choice for kids.Hamsters evolved about 16 million years ago, during the Miocene Epoch. They were originally from North Africa and Europe. They were also hamsters in Asia some 11 million years ago. After all, they are all hamsters. As such, their beguiling cuteness transcends any breed differences! The Winter White dwarf hamster’s coat actually isn’t pure white. It comes in three colorations: pearl, sapphire and pearl-sapphire. The only time a Winter White dwarf hamster will turn fully white is if it is exposed to true winter conditions. This is not recommended in captivity. Bartlett, Patricia Pope; Earle-Bridges, Michele (2003). The Hamster Handbook. Barron's Educational Series. p. 21. ISBN 9780764122941. Due to its incredibly tiny size, the Robo hamster is considered by many to be the cutest hamster breed of all. Important Robo Hamster Facts

But, today’s captive-bred hamsters may display a surprising range of coloration due to the influence of breeders. Right now, it is still more common to see a Campbell’s dwarf hamster in a pet shop than a Winter White dwarf hamster. But that, too, is starting to change. Important Winter White Dwarf Hamster Facts

Chinese Hamsters

It may be the case that dwarf breeds are more fragile than larger breeds but all pets require care and consideration. Acute tubular necrosis, mild focal myocardial degeneration, and adrenal medulla atrophy could be observed in extrapulmonary tissues of Syrian hamsters ( Song et al., 2020). Syrian hamster has been used in the study of myocardial pathology in COVID-19 ( Chen S. et al., 2020). SARS-CoV-2 infection of cardiomyocytes, increased CCL2 expression and macrophage infiltration were reported in their heart tissues, which was confirmed in autopsy samples of COVID-19 patients. This study provides direct evidence that SARS-CoV-2 infects cardiomyocytes in vivo. Therefore, Syrian hamsters may be applied in pathological research of systemic SARS-CoV-2 infection. One expert recommends involving children in the process of preparing the hamster’s habitat before he arrives. This is a good way of making sure everyone in the family knows how to be a responsible pet owner. Caring For Your Hamster Chinese hamsters are smaller than Syrian hamsters, and have been tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection ( Bertzbach et al., 2020). Decreases in body weights post infection were significant and infected hamsters failed to regain lost weight by the end of the experiment at 14 dpi. Histopathology revealed pneumonia and alveolar damage similar to what has been observed in Syrian hamsters ( Table 1; Bertzbach et al., 2020). However, the course of bronchitis and pneumonia described in Chinese hamsters was milder compared to Syrian hamsters, and pneumonia was more prolonged. Evident acute alveolar damage was present until 14 dpi with persistence of viral RNA ( Bertzbach et al., 2020). Chinese hamsters are highly susceptible to diabetes, which may be used to establish COVID-19 model with preexisting diabetes ( Gerritsen, 1982). Testimony from Grant C Riddle (born 1929, living in Lake Wildwood, CA) who had a pet hamster in 1942.

When seen from above, a sexually mature female hamster has a trim tail line; a male's tail line bulges on both sides. This might not be very visible in all species. Male hamsters typically have very large testes in relation to their body size. Before sexual maturity occurs, it is more difficult to determine a young hamster's sex. When examined, female hamsters have their anal and genital openings close together, whereas males have these two holes farther apart (the penis is usually withdrawn into the coat and thus appears as a hole or pink pimple). [3] Gestation and fecundity However, only about five hamster breeds are commonly kept as pets. Of these five breeds, the Syrian or Teddy Bear hamster is both the best known and the most popular.As one of the nicest breed of hamster, they will also happily welcome a workout partner/cage-mate of their own kind. The best-known species of hamster is the golden or Syrian hamster ( Mesocricetus auratus), which is the type most commonly kept as pets. There are numerous Syrian hamster variations including long-haired varieties and different colors. British zoologist Leonard Goodwin claimed most hamsters kept in the United Kingdom were descended from the colony he introduced for medical research purposes during the Second World War. [26] Hamsters were domesticated and kept as pets in the United States at least as early as 1942. [27] A spacious hamster cage made from a display cabinet Syrian hamsters MUST be kept alone. If they are kept with another Syrian hamster, prepare for bloodshed! Female Syrian hamsters tend to be more active than males. While Syrian hamsters are nocturnal, females are more apt to rouse themselves during the daytime than males.