Do You Know Your Hamster’s Likes and Dislikes?
📝 Summary
To get along with a hamster, learn its likes — eating, self-grooming (the 'spit bath'), and sleeping 14+ hours by day — and its dislikes: being woken to play, and being over-handled or pinned. Respect these and it will bond with you; a thick enough bed lets it burrow and stay warm.
1 What Hamsters Like and Dislike
What Hamsters Like
1. Eating: small but big eaters, and they pocket food in their cheeks. Apart from sleeping and wheel-running, they mostly eat — which makes them easy pets; feed them and you are done. Watching them eat is cute, and a treat quickly makes up after you annoy them.
2. Grooming: hamsters are very clean and groom themselves, licking a front paw wet then combing the fur — the ‘spit bath.’ Do not stop them thinking it unhygienic; it is natural and harmless.
3. Sleeping: they sleep by day and are lively at night, up to 14 hours a day. Their funny sleep poses show how relaxed they are.
What Hamsters Dislike
1. Being disturbed while sleeping: since they sleep by day and you sleep by night, many owners want to play then and wake them — which hamsters hate. Sudden waking scares them and breaks their clock.
2. Over-handling: some owners joke by pinning the neck or squeezing it in hand regardless of its will — also hated. Keep such jokes in bounds.
Hamsters also love to burrow; with thick enough bedding they dig in and stay warmer. For more on hamster habits, browse the site’s related articles.
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