Posts Tagged ‘poor eye sight’

Nature of Hamsters varies based on the environment, genetics and interaction with people. Hamsters are nocturnal as they are active at night and sleep in the morning. They are susceptible to temperature and can not bear extreme temperatures. The word Hamster is derived from German verb that mean “to hoard” because they have expandable cheek pouches where they store food.

Hamsters have poor eye sight; they are color blind and nearsighted they rely mostly on their senses of smell and hearing with smell they detect gender and food that is why they say that wash your hands before feeding Hamsters as your finger may smell like food and Hamster would not mind giving it a bite and that really hurts. They are particularly sensitive to high pitch noises and can hear communication in ultrasonic range, which is way too beyond human abilities. Therefore they must be kept at a quite place as in morning they sleep so we don’t disturb them and vice versa.

Hamsters have a very solitary nature and they needs some privacy to feel secure in their surroundings, for that purpose empty tissue boxes and round oatmeal containers should be placed inside their cages. Hamsters should be given some time to get used the surroundings and settle down with the environment, they should be left alone for sometime in the initial days of its adoption. Hamsters do communicate with humans when its starts to hiss, snap it jaws, freaks out when you touch it or adopts a defensive posture (i.e. ears back, eyes squinted) just leave it alone for a while.

Hamsters are small cuddly creatures and they are solitary rodents. So providing them with a little world of their own would be the best thing to do and not to mention a Clean One.

They are kept in either a Cage or an Aquarium; if the house you are going to give to your little hamster is a Cage then you should make sure it’s a wire cage with solid tray bottom, solid levels and a coated wire top. The Cage should be a minimum of 2 square feet with no more than half inch of spacing between bars and also make sure that the material it is made of is not chewable as they are very fond of chewing and swallowing such material may cause problems for them.

On the other hand if you go for an Aquarium it should be at least 24 inches long and 12 inches wide. The aquarium must be secure, well ventilated with coated wire and screen lid. It is better to have a long aquarium with more floor space than tall aquarium with unused height.

To ensure that the hamster has adequate supply of water, use a hanging water bottle that has a stainless steel sipper tube with a ball bearing in the spout. The water should be changed in every day or two.

As Hamsters have poor eye sight and mainly rely on their smell and hearing senses. Therefore they should be kept relatively in a “silent” environment. As we should be very careful for choosing a place for the hamster Cage to place, as they sleep in the day and are active at night.