Hamster Care Mistakes to Avoid
Everyone wants the best for our pets, but here are some hamster care mistakes to avoid.
Most Common Hamster Care Mistakes
Not doing enough research
Only read a few websites or articles? You have more hamster care research to do. That isn’t a bad thing, everyone should research before getting any pet so we can avoid more care mistakes. While most people don’t like research, your interest may surprise you. You aren’t researching mitochondria for a college assignment; you are finding a treasure of knowledge about something you’re already interested in.
I recommend reading all hamster related articles here and on other websites before getting one. You found ReliaPet, so you’re off to a good start.
Poor Diet/Unsafe Food
Poor diets aren’t good for any animal, but what is bad for hamsters? We should avoid cheap fillers like corn and any kind of hay, especially as a major ingredient. Hamsters can not digest hay, and corn has little to no nutritional value.
Almost every bag of pet food has nutrition facts and ingredients on the back. Checking these when choosing a hamster’s diet is important. Hamsters need 17-21% protein, 5-7% fat, and 6-15% fibre. Many hamster foods either offer too much or too little of these despite today’s research. Often you need to combine two types of food so your hamster gets all the nutrition they need. Some good diets are Higgen’s Sunburst with 25% Mazuri Rodent blocks, All Living Things Market Medley Hamster and Gerbil Diet with 25% All Living Things Mouse and Rat Diet. With Higgins Sunburst, it is necessary to remove the corn and pellet and supplement with a lab block, like All Living Things Mouse and Rat.
In the wild, hamsters eat insects, seeds, and plants. Insect matter in their diet is good. Some good bugs to feed are mealworms, super-worms, and crickets. They can be live or freeze-dried.
Believing They Are Cheap
Many people buy hamsters believing they are cheap pets. While cheaper than a parrot or horse, hamsters are not cheap. Without making a bin, a cage can be over $100. Hamster wheels range from 7 to 110 dollars. Water bottles, 4-15 dollars. Bedding is a recurring cost, price depending on what you buy and how much per purchase. Sunburst hamster food is between 5 and 7 dollars, also a recurring purchase. Cage accessories can add up. I spent over fifty dollars for mine. Also, having a vet fund is important. I spent over $500 for my hamster’s complete setup, not including the vet fund.
No Vet Fund
Hamster vet funds should start and grow from 200 dollars. When I took Quinn to the vet, the total cost was over 100 dollars for a simple abscess. All pets deserve vet care, even if the pet is cheaper than the procedure. Not providing vet care when needed is neglect. Chances are your hamster will need vet care, and you need to pay the expenses. Female hamsters can get pyometra, a uterine infection which is often only cured by removing the uterus, a major surgery. Males are at risk of testicular cancer. Both genders can get infected cuts, overgrown teeth, wet tail, and many other health issues.
No First Aid Kit
The hours before bringing your hamster to a vet can be crucial. So having a first aid kit is important. Don’t use this to replace vet care, only help until your hamster gets to the vet. Some, but not everything to include in this kit are: Pedialyte, wet veggie baby food like carrot or pea, and a microwave heat pad. The first one is for hydration, the second can be hydration, some nutrients if they won’t eat anything else, and to disguise the taste of yucky prescription medications. Use heating pads if your hamster is wet or sick and can’t regulate body temperature.
Not Sharing Responsibility
You shouldn’t get your kid a hamster and not share responsibility. A child learning management skills by caring for a pet works, but only if you do it correctly. This means you share ownership, supervise, and teach, so your kid cares for the hamster right. You and your child can research and learn together.
Waking your hamster
This can cause your hamster to be tired, grumpy, and more likely to bite. The only times it is okay to wake your hamster are for regular cage cleanings, weekly health checks, and vet appointments. Try to do any other interaction when both of you are already awake.
Sand baths
Hamsters need a sand bath. Roborovskis like at least 25% of their cage to be sand. Other hamsters need room for walking, digging, and rolling. Shallow glass or ceramic food dishes work very well for this. Many unsafe sands or ‘dusts’ are on the market. Chinchilla dust and calcium sands are dangerous. If it says it’s for chinchillas. it is most likely not safe for hamsters. Suitable options are non-calcium reptisand, small grain aquarium sand (avoid bioactive sand) and children play sand (bake to sterilize).
Hamster Cage Mistakes To Avoid
The Hamster Cage is Too Small
450in² of floor space is the United States minimum. The source for this number is a hamster care forum with absolutely no scientific backing. Regardless, the shaky and now outdated info took the United States by storm. The Germans backed their minimum of 775in² with science. Regardless of a hamster’s location, their needs are the same. 775 square inches should be your launchpad, not your goal. My hamster is in a critter nation, which is 864in², but an enclosure with 1,000 inches or more is awesome. Anything less than the lowest recommendation often causes cage rage or stress.
Hamsters can live in bin cages, which I recommend because you get more bang for your buck. It requires some DIY, but it’s easy enough to do. Christmas tree bins are around 1000 sq. inches. However, there are many other suitable choices. If you prefer buying a cage, there are plenty of great options out there. On any cage listing, it should show length x width x height for the assembled cage size. Multiply length times width on a calculator to get total floor space. You can do the same for bins, however make sure to measure the base with a measuring tape instead of taking the measurements on the bin for granted. The base, where your hamster will live, can be tapered and have smaller dimensions than at the top of the bin.
Hard to Clean
Imagine cleaning the cage. Can you reach all the nooks and crannies? How much disassembly is necessary? Making sure the design allows for easy cleaning is important to your hamster’s health. Cleaning a poorly designed cage can take hours and still have unreachable dirt.
Do not buy cages made with fun looking designs like fire trucks, dinosaurs, or circus tents. These are almost always way too small, difficult to clean, and easy to chew out of for already stressed hamsters. The most important part of any cage is it meeting or exceeding the needs of the hamster inside it. A good cage has more than enough room for adequate bedding depth, and meets or exceeds the recommended cage size. A good hamster cage is much wider than it is tall.
Poor Ventilation
Is wiring/mesh on at least three sides or on the lid? Does solid material block most air flow? Even before scheduled cleanings, ammonia can build to toxic levels. Passive ventilation helps remove gaseous ammonia from the bedding’s surface. This creates a safer environment for your hamster. However, using a fan to increase airflow is unnecessary and possibly harmful. Drafts can cause respiratory infections, so do not put the cage in the way of them or intentionally make any drafts in the cage.
Built-in Tubes
An enclosure with many tunnels looks fun, but is a safety hazard. They are hard to clean because you need to remove built-in tubes to wash them. Also, most have smaller ‘grip rings’ inside, which catch feces, urine, and soiled bedding. They are also weak points for escape. Tubes leading outside the cage are easy to chew through. Where they connect is often the weakest spot. Also, most built in tunnels are too small and can trap, scare, and stress hamsters. Combined with low airflow, this is often deadly. They can get hurt when you try helping them.
Tubes bought separately are better because they do not lead outside the cage. They are also shorter, so ventilation is not an issue. And you can buy a size appropriate for your hamster to walk through safely instead of having no choice but to use the only cage compatible size.
Too Much Broken Floor Space
Unbroken floor space gives hamsters room to run, dig, and play. Unbroken floor space is like a smaller, less enjoyable cage. But what is broken floor space?
Here is an activity to help explain. Get a piece of paper and scissors. The paper represents all the floor space in a cage. Let’s say it’s 1,000 square inches total. Right now, square inches exceed both minimums for a hamster cage. Let’s add a second floor to the cage. Cut the paper in half either way and stack them. Now you have 2 floors in the cage, each with 500 square inches. The max unbroken floor space for the cage now is 500 square inches, too small.
A cage with 4 stories? Okay, cut them both in half again and stack them. Now you have 250 square inches of unbroken floor space total for the cage. The cage is still 1,000 square inches of total floor space, but what matters to the hamster is unbroken floor space.
Now, if that piece of paper represented 2,000 square inches of floor space, cutting it in half would still have 1,000 inches of total unbroken floor space. The four stories would have 500 square inches. If the hamster is kept in a small cage, they may get cage rage. Levels are not the only way to break up total floor space. Having two cages of the same size connected by a tube may double total floor space, but their unbroken floor space will still total one of those cages.
Walls which separate most of two areas of the same cage can also break up floor space if they are too large, although I believe this to be a gray area. If the wall only goes halfway through the cage, I believe it is still unbroken, but if it is so much the passage seems like a doorway, it can break up the total unbroken floor space. I have found no evidence for or against this theory.
Broken floor space is okay so long as you have at least one unbroken area which meets or exceeds the minimum floor space. It can provide more enrichment, which is why ledges and half floors are so common in hamster cages, but when calculating unbroken floor space, only the biggest area matters.
Mistakes to Avoid on Bedding
Shallow Bedding
Scientists researched hamster bedding depths’ influence on behavior in male Syrian hamsters. They found at 10 cm of bedding, hamsters did more stereotypical behavior, like bar biting and excessive wheel use. At 40cm of bedding, or 14 inches, the hamsters could perform natural behaviors like burrowing, and showed a reduction in stress.
At 80cm of bedding depth, or 31.5 inches, bar biting completely stopped, and their average body weight rose significantly. The most ideal situation would have cages deep enough to allow for 2.58 feet of bedding, however most cages today do not. The current recommended bedding depth for hamsters is 12-18 inches, with more always being better.
Wrong Type of Bedding
Paper bedding does not eliminate ammonia. Here is a scientific study which shows the Evaluation of Cage Micro-Environment of Mice Housed on Various Types of Bedding Materials. On Page 14 table 2, they had to discontinue their paper bedding, CareFresh Ultra, after two weeks because the ammonia levels reached dangerously high levels.
You may have heard pine is not safe, however the scientific study which started the belief gained their data from people working in a lumber mill. All pine in the US is kiln dried, which removes toxic phenols and makes it safe for animal use. Horses have sensitive respiratory systems, like hamsters. Pine shavings are a safe, popular equine bedding. If you still dislike pine, aspen also neutralizes ammonia.
The issue with beddings: Any bedding (except fleece) is dusty. Good manufacturers remove as much as 99% of the dust from their beddings. Paper bedding is inevitably dusty because it’s a bunch of tiny pieces pressed together. Wood bedding is safer because it does not keep making dust after being cleaned.
Some beddings don’t hold a hamster burrow. Test this by sticking your finger into the bedding at an angle (about 45°). If it collapses after removing your finger, the same would happen when your hamster tried digging a tunnel. If you bought bedding that won’t hold a burrow, you can try mixing in soft hay. Most hamsters won’t eat it, but it’s harmless if ingested. It just offers no nutritional value. Soft hay, like meadowgrass and 3rd cut timothy, is safer for the hamster if they pouch it. Improving tunnel integrity by mixing a small amount of paper or hay (<40% than the main bedding) is a viable option with fewer problems than using paper by itself.
No fall stops
Until you get to know your hamster, include walls at the edge of any drop to make sure they can’t fall. Some hamsters are more wary than others. And some hamsters have such poor depth perception they just walk off like that drop was a solid surface. Good ways to make a fall stop, “railing”, or wall is to buy a wooden ramp(s) and use it as a wall. If this is not possible in some parts of the cage, include a fall break or make sure the area they will land in has no hard objects and the drop is very short, only a few inches max. Replace any ramps with adequately sized tubes.
If you have a barred cage and your hamster climbs, switching to a glass tank or bin cage may be necessary to prevent your hamster from falling. Often, they will intentionally fall instead of climbing down safely. Even though hamsters climb, they are not good at it and it is not safe for them to do so. Eliminating the bars also prevents them from chewing on the hard metal, which can break teeth and cause them to grow back improperly. Bar climbing is not a fun activity for hamsters, but a sign of stress. Many wired cages marketed towards hamsters are too small. Bin cages and tanks are better for the species in general.
Hamster Cage Accessory Mistakes to Avoid
Not Enough Hides
Hamsters need at least 2 roomy hides which they use as their homes to sleep, store food, and have a designated bathroom spot. The best ones are multi chamber hides. I encourage having one or more of these. If you have multiple levels in your cage, try to have a hide on each level so your hamster feels more secure in that area. This way they can always quickly access a hide if startled. Hamsters also enjoy a small hide in their sand bath.
No Enrichment
Cages lacking enrichment can stress and bore a hamster, leading to detrimental behaviors. Some ways to improve its living area are scatter feeding, hiding flax, oat, and millet sprays, using foraging toys, supervised play in a playpen, including different textures, and deep bedding.
Chew Toy Mistakes to Avoid
Some businesses make hamster chew toys from sawdust and honey, so hamsters think the toys are food, but eating sawdust is unsafe.
Apple and pear sticks, bamboo, unflavored pumice, and any honey-free, nontoxic wood are safe because hamsters do not eat it. Hamsters can be picky about their chew toys. If they have no interest in the non-edible options above, making them a treat may help. Whimzee chews and milk bone dog treats free of red-40 are some good edible chews which help maintain teeth. Other hard simple ingredient treats with safe ingredient and no hay will do the same.
Hamster Balls
With poor ventilation, ammonia builds up inside hamster balls. Existing vent holes trap hamster feet and cause serious injuries. Hamster balls take from a hamster’s already poor sense of vision, which is why they so often get stuck. This also turns stairs of any height into a dangerous drop. Instead, try supervised playtime in a playpen or a bathtub with the drain well covered. Instead of throwing or giving your hamster ball away, you can take the lid off and use it as a hide in your hamster’s enclosure. Just make sure it can’t roll by partially burying it.
Inadequate Wheel
Hamster wheels need to be at least 8 to 10 inches for dwarves and 12 inches for Syrians. Figure out if the wheel size is good for your hamster by watching your hamster’s back while they run. If it isn’t flat, they could suffer spinal damage in the long run. Don’t worry about getting a wheel too large for your hamster, because most wheels today are easy to move. A wheel too small is detrimental, but a wheel which looks “too large” only makes watching more comical! The main limitations on maximum size are price, total cage area and height, and the rare few instances where your hamster is unable to run in the wheel. This might happen if you put a roborovski hamster in a 20 inch wheel. However, a robo can easily move a 12 inch wheel, so I doubt they will have much trouble with larger. I suppose the other limitation is reason; as funny as it would be to watch, a robo hamster does not need a 15 or 20 inch wheel.
Mesh wheels without a solid bottom may be self-cleaning, but they are dangerous. A hamster’s legs can get caught and injured, sometimes requiring amputation. Bumblefoot, an infection caused by a sore getting contaminated with urine and feces, is another risk. Walking, running, and standing on mesh, a bunch of wires wound together, causes sores. A smooth wheel prevents bumblefoot by not injuring their feet.
Providing Better Care
Making mistakes in maintenance, care, and buying options is common. Knowing these prepares you for a proactive approach to preventing problems, which saves money and improves your care-taking skills. Your hamster will thank you!
References:
(Title translated from German) Veterinary Association for Animal Welfare Dwarf Hamsters
(Title translated from German) Veterinary Association for Animal Welfare Golden Hamsters
APA References
Fischer, K., Gebhardt-Henrich, S.G., & Steiger, A. (2007). Behaviour of golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) kept in four different cage sizes. Animal Welfare. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0962728600030967 PDF is in German: https://www.hamsterwelfare.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/behaviour-of-hamsters-four-different-cage-sizes-study.pdf
Gebhardt-Henrich, S. G., Vonlanthen, E. M., & Steiger, A. (2005). How does the running wheel affect the behaviour and reproduction of golden hamsters kept as pets? Division of Animal Housing and Welfare, Institute of Animal Genetics, Nutrition and Housing, Vetsuisse Faculty of the University of Bern, P.O. Box, CH-3001 Bern, Switzerland. PDF: https://www.tierschutz.vetsuisse.unibe.ch/unibe/portal/fak_vetmedizin/c_dept_dcr-vph/e_inst_tierschutz/content/e191756/e191761/e753472/e753519/GebhardtVonlanthen2005_ger_eng.pdf
Hauzenberger, A.R., Gebhardt-Henrich, S.G., & Steiger, A. (2006). The Influence of Bedding Depth on Behaviour in Golden Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus). Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 100, 280-294. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.APPLANIM.2005.11.012
Kuhnen, G. (1999). The effect of cage size and enrichment on core temperature and febrile response of the golden hamster. Laboratory Animals, 33, 221 – 227. https://doi.org/10.1258/002367799780578246
National Research Council (US) Subcommittee on Laboratory Animal Nutrition. (1995). Nutrient Requirements of Laboratory Animals: Fourth Revised Edition, 1995. National Academies Press (US). https://doi.org/10.17226/4758 For your convenience, the hamster nutrition requirements from the book above: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK231928/
Smith, E., Stockwell, J. D., Schweitzer, I., Langley, S. H., & Smith, A. L. (2004). Evaluation of cage micro-environment of mice housed on various types of bedding materials. Contemporary topics in laboratory animal science, 43(4), 12–17. https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/aalas/jaalas/2004/00000043/00000004/art00002?crawler=true
Spiehs, M. J., Brown-Brandl, T. M., Parker, D. B., Miller, D. N., Berry, E. D., & Wells, J. E. (2013). Effect of bedding materials on concentration of odorous compounds and in beef cattle bedded manure packs. Journal of environmental quality, 42(1), 65–75. https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2012.0251
