My first hamster was a black-eyed cream that was a notorious biter. We called her the black-eyed bitch.
Hamsters have no use, other than to be pets, pets that are routine biters. So there’s no temperament issues to worry about compromising through breeding for conformation oddities. After all, most hamsters are so surly that almost no one recommends them for children’s pets these days. I can’t say the same for the golden retriever.
I was once a hamster fancier. I used to breed all sorts of hamsters (all of the Golden or Syrian species– the dwarf and Chinese species were quite pricey in the early 90’s).
I’ve never had one that didn’t try to bite. Never. After a while, I got to where I expected that one would bite me at some point, and I just accepted it as an “occupational hazard.”
I’ve even found hamster conformation standards. These didn’t even exist in the United States when I was hamster crazy.
I’d love to try my hand at conformation breeding, but I don’t want to screw up an animal with a complex brain and social life, like a dog or a horse. Hamsters are pleasingly simple.
As for inbreeding issues, all Syrian hamsters are descended from a single female and her offspring that were captured near Aleppo by an Israeli zoologist named Israel Aharoni. The mother died soon after capture, so all the offspring from that litter wound up populating the whole world with this species.
For those of you who would like a good pet rodent for a child, guinea pigs (cavies) and rats are my top picks, especially the latter. Rats are far, far more responsive than any other species of rodent you are likely to purchase and far less likely to bite. Guinea pigs aren’t bad about biting either, but they have rather dull personalities.
Oooh, and you can get a snake and never have to feel guilty about actually culling the bad ones. Who needs to spend all that time harassing potential pet homes for their perfectness?
I highly recommend this. You can make great strides developing your own line, several generations per year in fact. And travel costs are minimal, you can carry those suckers on the plane with you!
Grooming is minimal. You can probably even dye them neat colors. And I’m sure it won’t be long until you can find some freaky variants like HAIRLESS! or tufted or albino.
How liberating it must be for a “serious” breeder to have an animal that you can just flush when it goes wrong.
I did cull them.
I fed them to my grandpa’s beagle/spaniel hunting dog.
But they’re pretty worthless when it comes to retrieving a pheasant or grouse.
They are pretty useless as a pet, too.
Rats are better. Much sweeter and biting is considered dysfunctional behavior in pet rats. =)
There are bobtail, rex (curly coated), hairless, siamese-pointed, and all kinds of other ‘fancy’ types, too!
I’ve had three in my life in the past, they’re loads of fun. You can even take walks with them perched on your shoulder, which they love.
If I were wanting a pet, I’d choose a rat. Rats are far better than hamsters as companions.
But to mass produce animals with distinct types, it’s very easy to use already heavily inbred animals that have no personality at all.
Useless? No problem, we’ll just work a bit harder on our Breed History.
Did you know ROYALTY owned these? Middle East you say? JESUS himself! These companions are ordained by the All-Mighty. Abraham, Isaac, and Mohammad (just to cover the bases) all had these as personal companions).
Why, I can trace my lines back to the Arc. Eat that 19th century pedigree pushers.
Not only that Syrian hamsters live in the Holy Land. Jesus may have had one.
When captured by a marauding dog who knows how to open a cage, hamsters emit great prey noises when grabbed by the neck. Bite they may, but not enough to deter a prey driven dog!
Syrian hamsters rarely bite, and if they are “routine biters,” they must have been mishandled/mistreated routinely. This is why the Syrian, who is much larger and more docile than the dwarf, is recommended for first time hamster owners.
I don’t see the logic or sense in comparing a hamster to a golden retriever, of course they are different from each other.
Anyone can be a breeder of hamsters, that in no way means that a breeder is an expert in care or has the experience necessary.
As for not being a “good pet rodent” for children, I do agree that there are better starter pets because most children are too rough with their pets which can result in a biting, seriously injured, or dead hamster.
Guinea pigs required much more space than a hamster, are far smellier, and can have plain personalities. I’ve heard plenty of praise given to rats but for most people, they just do not have aesthetic appeal.
I find your opinion biased and misleading.
It’s not misleading. It’s been my experience with them. European golden hamster lines are much tamer than those bred in America. And they are routine biters. I’ve never had one that didn’t bite.
My experiences as a boyhood hamster breeder have certainly biased me.
That is very unfortunate that you had to deal with fur-covered piranha. I’ve really never had to deal with a bitey Syrian, let alone oodles of them, and I’ve had hamsters for ten years and bred them and still breed them.
The ones that do usually bite would be the Campbell’s dwarfs, I’d be a lot less surprised by this if you had been breeding Campbell’s, because inbreeding them over and over will actually make the lines more aggressive, and they’re prone to aggression anyway.
You also must choose only docile hamsters to breed. Like just about anything else, personality tendencies can be inherited in hamsters. Breed bitey little brats, you’ll make more bitey little brats.
And while I agree that rats are significantly smarter than hamsters…
…they still can bite. I have been bitten by a rat that wasn’t mistreated and also bitten by a rat that was. For no reason. I still love rats, however, and the second rat I speak of is one of my rescues that I kept because we ended up bonding so much. Even after she viciously bit me…twice. I just had to show her that I wasn’t going to harm her as well as dominate her (if you ever watch rats dominate each other, you’d know it’s pretty easy to do with your hand).
…I still like hamsters! Hamsters and rats are my favorite rodents, aside from guinea pigs. Guinea pigs are hilarious and very full of personality if you give them the correct accommodations and just take the time to watch and play with them. I used to think they were boring, too.
When I just need something to squish, hamsters and cavies fit the bill. Rats are fun to play with, but they won’t sit still like pigs (at least not my females), and even most of my hamsters will sit still for a squish and a kiss. A lot of them will also respond to my voice and come out of their nests when I call them and tap on the floor of their cage.
Anyway, I think it’s unfortunate that you had such a bad experience with hamsters. I think they’re cute and amusing and I can handle all of mine without getting bitten. That is not to say I don’t have hamsters that will bite, I do have some that can be pretty mean, but I know how to handle them to avoid being bitten. *shrug*
I also want to say that I’m pretty open-minded…some of the comments on here did make me laugh. I may know a lot about hamsters and love them, but that doesn’t mean I don’t joke about having them for breakfast when they get annoying. :)
Just so you don’t take me for some ZOMG HAMPSTER ACTIVIST! coming on here to chew you out. Heh.
In Britain, there are strains of hamster that have been much more selected for a genial temperament. The “Black bear” and “Teddy bear” strains are very placid. I should say that I took in an ancient Teddy Bear, and she didn’t bite. These British strains tend to be somewhat larger than the typical American hamster. Those are the only docile hamsters I know of in this country.
Now, I like guinea pigs. For children who are mature enough not to roughly handle them, a guinea pig can be a great pet.
I just accept that this species of hamster is very close to its wild ancestors. It is a prey species that is nocturnal and solitary. It also has very poor eyesight. And because of these traits, they sometimes nail you. If a dog did this, I’d be upset, because dogs have been selectively bred to inhibit their bites. Plus, they are social and can follow rules. Hamsters, well, can’t.
To me, they are very much an “exotic animal,” and though not as dangerous as pet tigers, they have their inherent natures.
Now, rats are different. They do occasionally bite, but the ones I’ve been around have been really lovely.
I think that rats have a horrible reputation. If I were going to get a pet rodent that I really could interact with, I’d get a rat.
I didn’t realize that this has become “offensive material” to the hamster forum.
I’ve never been bitten by a domestic rat– ever. If I were in the market for a pet rodent, that’s what I’d get.
I’ll just say that for those contacting this website and saying 1. “I don’t know about hamsters.” 2. “I never handled them.” 3. “Hamsters shouldn’t be inbred.”
1. I know lots about hamsters. I used to raise them. I had my own breeding colony of wild-type goldens and black-eyed creams. I actually preferred the wild-type goldens because I found them to be hardier than the black-eyed creams. 2. Contrary to all advice mentioned in the books, I started handling my hamsters when their eyes opened. Even though these little ones grew into rather tame hamsters, they still occasionally bit me. 3. Hamsters probably shouldn’t be inbred, but they are actually the most inbred of all animals kept as pets. The golden hamster comes from a single litter and their mother that were captured near Aleppo, Syria, in 1930. The person who captured them was Israel Aharoni, a zoologist of the Jewish faith living in the old Ottoman province of Palestine (Israel wasn’t a country until 1948). The hamster mother died, and the seven offspring were hand-reared by Aharoni. All golden hamsters that you are likely to purchase as pets today come this single litter. I don’t know how you can prevent problems with inbreeding in hamsters, because they are already incredibly inbred.
Please understand, that I’m not denigrating hamsters. Golden hamsters are very close to their wild ancestors. These ancestors are solitary animals that are largely nocturnal or crepuscular in their activity patterns. They also have bad eyesight, and things like to eat them. As a result, their Umwelt (as ethologists call it) is such that they do bite.
These animals are incapable of loving people or bonding to us. Bonds simply mean nothing to them as wild animals.
This is how I view animals:
“We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”
Henry Beston The Outermost House
Hamsters may not be bright animals, but they can live in the arid regions of Syria and southern Turkey better than I can.
I have to be honest and agree that I have owned lots of hamsters and only ever been bitten about 3 times when the hamster was extremely frightened. As to your statement ‘So there’s no temperament issues to worry about compromising through breeding for conformation oddities’ I have heard through British breeders the exact opposite that you can breed for better temperament and tamability, and this was noticeable in the last few hamsters I recieved through breeders not pet stores.
I also assume that you are joking when you adress someones comment of being able to ‘flush when it goes wrong’ with feeding them to your dog. I also find it funny that you say you ‘know alot about hamsters’ when you seem to be under the impression that a dog is comparable to them, that tameness and agreesive is not able to be better bred into them, and that all yours seem to have been aggresive and bitten you. I also think your comment about animals being incapable of bonding applies to many including some dogs (they were once wild too) and have been inbred to the point with some of genetic malfunction.
Its a shame that you had bad experinces with hamsters but on this note I dont think breeding them is for you, choose another hobby
I owned so many hamsters when I was a child that it was something of an embarassment. I became as in tune with them as anyone could be. I could tell when a female was in season just from her odor, if that tells you anything.
I don’t know which country you are from, but in the US, we didn’t have hamsters that were bred for temperament until maybe a decade ago.
The ones I had were still quite wild. They also had not been selected to be larger and round in the face, like you see on some of the British show strains.