Happy Hamster Tips Made Easy

Hamster care can seem daunting at first, so here are some hamster tips to help.

Water Bottle

Water bottles are a popular choice for small mammalian pet owners, and for good reason. They prevent bedding and feces from contaminating water and keep your hamster dry. A vacuum keeps water in the bottle. When your hamster pushes the ball up, air weakens the vacuum enough for some water to come out. This allows your hamster to drink. However, sometimes the vacuum is too strong and pushing the ball does not let water escape. To prevent a dehydrated hammy, leave some air in the bottle when you fill it and test the ball before putting it in their cage.

Bottle Height

One thing many people don’t consider when placing a bottle is height. A water bottle’s height is important in maintaining your hamster’s back health. In the wild, hamsters drink out of lakes, ponds, and puddles, which are lower than the land they stand on. Water bottles position the water much higher. Many people only put the bottle one or two inches above the surface. However, this makes the hamster hunch down and curl up their neck to push the ball. This uncomfortable position is unnatural and can cause pain.

While at first it might seem counterintuitive, raising the bottle high enough your hamster stands on their hind feet to reach it is more natural. Their back is straight, and their neck has little to no bend. Get an adjustable height water bottle to customize it for your hamster. On wire cages, every bottle is like this. However, some tank bottles come with their own stands. Instead of using the stand, use velcro, which is sticky on one side. Stick one side of the velcro on the inside glass of the cage, and the other on the water bottle’s back. If you use a long strip, adjusting height is easy, but if you use short squares, make sure the height is right before sticking the velcro on the tank.

To find the right height for your hamster, hold a treat over their head so they stand up to get it. Using a soft liquid treat, like baby food or puree veggies, you have more time. Your hamster should not be vertical or straining to reach, just off their front feet with their back straight and head comfortably positioned. Once you find their comfortable height, make a mental note or have a ruler ready to measure, then put the bottle at a similar height.

Enrichment Hamster Tips

Enrichment gives your hamster something to do by allowing them to perform natural behaviors. Foraging, running, exploring, and digging are some natural hamster behaviors you can allow them to imitate in their enclosure.

Sand Bath Hamster Tips

Roborovski hamsters live in a desert environment, needing at least 40% of their floor space to be sand. Not dust or dusty sand, which harms their lungs. Natural non-bioactive aquarium sand, baked children’s play sand, and non-calcium Reptisand are safe options.

Other hamster species also need sand, although not as much. For these, a sand bath is adequate. I believe the best minimum sand bath size for Syrians and dwarfs is one they can walk around in comfortably. While sand baths are used as toilets, they also allow for digging, cleaning, and food staching if large enough. I used the base of a TinyTales cage for a sand bath in my Critter Nation in my Syrian hamster, Raven’s cage. In Sora’s cage I used a wide shallow glass dish, which allowed for at least 1 inch, or 2.54cm, of sand.

Sprays

Happy Hamster Tips Made Easy — *Hamsters like sprouts, too!*

Sprays are grain seeds directly on the stalk. They are an excellent form of enrichment because they are how a hamster would find grain seed in the wild. Millet sprays are the easiest to find because birds also eat them. Other types of spray are sorghum, pagima green, oat, canary grass, barley, flax, wheat, quinoa, and amaranth. With multiple species of Sorghum, Millet, and other sprays, your hamster has a lot of options. A good way to feed them is sticking them upright in bedding as if they were growing from the soil. Your hamster will reach up and pull the seeds down to get them, or chew it off from the base!

Foraging Toys

Hamsters love foraging toys too! DIY toys from toilet paper rolls, willow balls stuffed with treats, flip-top foragers, fresh fruit on hanging kabobs, wobble ball treat dispensers, and treats wrapped in toilet paper or paper towel all provide exciting entertainment.

Climbing Toys

Alright, this is a bit misleading on purpose. The truth is, hamsters don’t climb. They are terrestrial animals, not arboreal. Some hamsters have such poor depth perception they will walk right off the edge of anything! If your hamster is climbing bars, or monkey barring at the top, it’s not because they are having fun, but a sign of stress. The problem could be a ramp too slippery to scale, which is why Raven climbs the bars from the main floor space to the section with water and her wheel; she does not walk off edges so a two level cage is safe for her. Or more likely in your case, the enclosure is not large enough, and they feel cramped. Hamsters need a lot of space, over 775 square inches or 1,970 centimeters.

Cage Aggression

*The base of a Kaytee CritterTrail used as a sand bath in a Single Critter Nation. They’re that small!*

Cage aggression occurs when a hamster is kept in a tiny cage, or a cage with very little unbroken floor space. They may attack anything entering their cage, whether it be your hand or a new hide. Other symptoms are obsessive bar chewing, screeching when you approach their cage, destroying their own nests, and monkey barring. Bar chewing can lead to broken teeth, which may need to be pulled if they don’t grow back straight. 30 or 40 years ago, tiny cages were acceptable for tiny animals, but we learned a lot since then, updating standards to improve our beloved pet’s quality of life.

A common term for this in the pet community is cage rage. Cage rage is not a scientific term. It is named for the group of symptoms present when a hamster is in a tiny or unenriched space for prolonged time periods, recognized by experienced hamster owners worldwide. There are, however, scientific articles supporting a hamster’s improved quality of life in large, enriching cages, and detrimental stress symptoms in small ones.

Nesting Material Hamster Tips

Hamsters enjoy using soft materials for their nest. However, many nesting materials sold are dangerous. Cotton, wool, and other fibrous nesting fluff can entangle limbs, causing limb loss, panic, and suffocation. Additionally, pouched fluff can get impacted, preventing a hamster from removing it and causing infection without vet treatment.

Kapok is said to be safe because its delicate fibers break instead of entangling. However, kapok has seeds throughout the fluff, which encourage hamsters to eat it where they otherwise would not. Hamsters can’t digest kapok, instead it causes blockages if it makes it to the stomach and intestines, choking if it doesn’t.

Safe nesting materials are paper towel strips, lotion free tissues, toilet paper, real reptile moss, meadow or 3rd cut timothy hay, and non-shiny newspaper. My hamsters enjoy finding the material scattered around and bringing it back to their nest, making their beds just right.

Highlights

Hamsters can drink from small, shallow dishes, but bottles keep the water clean. When using a bottle, ensure it is high enough for your hamster’s back and neck to be mostly straight for comfort. Hamsters can get bored too, so make sure they have something to do. There are many enrichment options to choose from, having a variety is best. Make sure your hamster’s cage is spacious so they don’t feel cramped, and provide safe nesting material. These tips will get you further on your path to better pet care.