Posts Tagged ‘smell’

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.

A Hamster’s Cage should be preferably cleaned every night. Hamster usually picks a certain place to do the excretion of urine and feces. Where as that urine-soaked bed should be cleaned regularly both for hamsters health and smell. The Cage must be cleaned completely about once a week removing all bedding and replacing it with fresh one. To reduce the urine smell the use of waffles is a good remedy as the chlorophyll in them helps reduce the urine smell; the Cage then smells cleaner for a much longer and so does the resident.

Hamsters when born are hairless but gradually grow quite a lot of hair and the kind of activities they usually get involved in, as a result of that their hair gets a lot of greasier and starts to smell as well but don’t ever think of giving Hamster a bath, Hamster can get seriously ill as they cannot bear extreme temperatures, therefore the options that you are left with are to clean the Hamster softly with a toothbrush or let the Hamster roll in the chinchilla sand or perhaps if the Hamster is literally very dirty then dip a cotton bud in lukewarm water and squeeze it out then dab the Hamster with it.

Hamster’s teeth do not stop growing through out their lives; you don’t have to worry about their teeth as their diet and habits keep their teeth clean without any need for brushing. Hamsters need gnawing surface to keep the incisors to the right length for that purpose wooden blocks and huts made of natural material should be provided in the Cage for Hamster.

Hands should be properly washed before taking Hamster into hands as it affects the health of both.