Dwarf Hamsters: an Educational Pet

When I was a young boy I loved animals. In fact, I wanted to raise animals. Every comic book advertised worm farms and rabbits. However, I had my eye on the guinea pigs and hamsters at the local "five and dime" that carried small rodents and fish yet it seemed like a full-blown pet store to me.

After my wife and I had children we wanted to get some pets and I remembered my desire to raise animals so my boys and I opted for hamsters. What I personally found was that hamsters could be mean and had a nasty habit of occasionally being cannibalistic. I went back and talked to the pet store owner and he suggested the possibility of raising Dwarf Hamsters. They were much more mild-mannered and they were very educational.

We bought a pair which cost us about $12. Since we wanted to breed them, we bought a pair (female and male) who got along great. We got a fish aquarium to keep the hamsters in and filled it with hamster bedding. In addition to that we placed a water dish in it as well as a "feeder" for food. We used a mix that was recommended by the pet store owner which cost about $4.99.

At that time, my sons were young and really enjoyed watching the hamsters play and run around the aquarium. We had also purchased some plastic tubes that the hamsters loved running through. Interestingly enough, the dwarf hamsters allowed us to handle them. The more we handled them; they became more and more comfortable with us.

One day we noticed that the female was getting a little big around the back. This is usually a sign of pregnancy and, in fact, she was. It is suggested that you move the males at this time however, we didn't move fast enough; she had the babies in about ten days. In this case, the "father" helped raise the "pups"; we were lucky. In fact, he was an incredible "parent".

What made the dwarf hamsters such provide such educational value was that when the female became pregnant, we placed paper in the aquarium and the female "nested". She would tear the paper up and create a "hut".