Talk:Hamster
From Academic Kids
I started to extend the "hamsters as pets" section. Due to its size, it may be useful to make it into an extra article in the future. The information is partially taken from http://www.hamsterseiten.de/, a German page (hence no copied wording and no copyright trouble ;) that is worth a visit. --Markus Krötzsch 23:30, 28 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Please help. i just took my hamster out of his cage and his fur is almost gone and his skin underneath is very dry and wrinkled.also his testicles and that area have swelled up a lot. it looks like some sort of cyst. please tell me what is wrong with him.
- Hamster lovers like me would love to help you. Please contact us on the Usenet newsgroup for hamster-owners; it is called alt.pets.hamsters. You should be able to access this newsgroup from any standard newsreader; most web browsers come with their own newsreader, and any ISP should have newsgroup access. But this forum here is an encyclopaedia project, not a discussion foru, so it is not the right place place to ask questions.
- Answers to many questions can be found here - The Alt.Pets.Hamsters FAQ
- http://www.rodentrefuge.co.uk/hamsterfaq.html
Do hampsters carry leprosy? --Ed Poor
Thanks, 62. Can you tell us a bit more about tropical hamsters? --Ed Poor
I don't think hamsters are very easily infected with leprosy: otherwise researchers wouldn't have to resort to using Armadillos. I'd bet, though, that hamsters are potential carriers of bubonic plague Malcolm Farmer
If so this will be an example of a zoonosis.
Hamsters as pets--OK, I think I have exhausted my knowledge. I always had some for about 15 years, but I hate to tell you how long it has been since I have *not* had any. Corrections/additions/updates would be appreciated. Elf | Talk 06:13, 23 Mar 2004 (UTC)
About plastic hamster habittrails and balls and such: I and friends used these things for years and years and never had problems with them. My hamsters never peed in the plastic tubes that I remember; they always got off the interstate and used their usual rest areas. The issues raised about sufficient airflow and about hamsters getting stuck make sense, though, so I modified the "do not use these" wording to "use with common sense and under supervision" wording. Elf | Talk 19:50, 4 May 2004 (UTC)
On breeding age: I read somewhere that hamsters are able to breed in a few weeks, not 3 months. Anyone have sources to back this?
On breeding age: It is different from breed to breed and gender to gender. Some hamsters may be sexually mature at 28 days old but it is not a good idea to breed they until about three months. (www.hamsterific.com).
I tried to change a lot of this but I didn't stick. I will come back and fix it later. In the last few years some really good habitats have been put out on the market. I also added that it is a good idea to have a hamster toilet(I'm sure that sounds weird but they work great!)And also a new non- wood bedding material was recently released which is less expensived and in my opinion much better. On hamster tubes: the hamster can become to large to fit in the tubes and they can sometimes be used for a chew toy if there isn't aomething better, like a dog biscuit. That may sound weird but it works really well. Also it is very important to have a running wheel. You can have a much smaller cage if you have a wheel. I speak from experiance on most of this stuff, having taken care of two hamsters and read all the information I could find on the internet. Thanks, Lorie Nov 15, 2004.
Dwarf Hamsters
There were two entries for "Mongolian hamster" in the list (Phodopus roborovskii, "more commonly called the Roborovskii hamster", and Cricetulus curtatus). One web page, which unfortunately I forgot to bookmark, says that different sources use this name for different species. Because the list looked really confusing with the same name repeated twice, I swapped the first entry to "Roborovskii hamster, also called the Mongolian hamster".
One more problem, though - both of these were listed as "tiny, now becoming popular as pets", and I couldn't tell if this was actually true in both cases or if somebody put the note beside the wrong Mongolian hamster. Web searches show that there is a fourth "Dwarf hamster" used as a pet, but it's the "Chinese dwarf hamster (Cricetulus griseus)", not Cricetulus curtatus. To make things even more confusing, the main text says:
Two other varieties of hamster are also growing in popularity as pets, the Dwarf Campbell's Russian and the Winter White Russian Hamsters (both subspecies of Phodopus sungorus). Two further species (the Chinese Hamster Cricetulus curtatus and the Roborovski Hamster Phodopus roborovskii) can be found on occasion.
So either the main text is confused, and it's Cricetulus griseus that's the Chinese Dwarf hamster, or the list is confused, and Cricetulus curtatis is not the Mongolian hamster. http://hamsterical.darn-tootin.com/aboutdh.html is my source for the Cricetulus griseus name, but it also thinks the Campbell's Russian Dwarf hamster is Phodopus campbelli, and not a subspecies of Phodopus sungorus.
- To my knowledge, the pet species is Cricetulus griseus. Lady Tenar 15:21, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)
I decided the notes on popular pets shouldn't be in the taxonomic list anyway, since there are no other notes except on naming, but the main text and the list should be brought into agreement.
- I'm fairly certain the dwarf hamsters in US pet stores are Phodopus. I'm not sure if Cricetulus is kept as a pet. I've not seen them in the states. --Aranae 17:59, Feb 9, 2005 (UTC)
Hamsters as pets section
Because the care for dwarf hamsters is somewhat different i would prefer to move the pet care section to golden hamster. Any objections? Lady Tenar 15:21, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)
- My interest in this article is natural history and taxonomy. That said, I think most people who come here are probably looking for information on their pets. I think it's good to move some specific parts that pertain only to golden hamsters, but quite a bit of the pet info should stay here. Also, I'd suggest making sure it's clear that more pet info can be found on the other sites. --Aranae 17:59, Feb 9, 2005 (UTC)
- on a second thought, i agree with you. But then it might be better to keep it all in one place. The dwarf hamsters are interesting enough for own articles without much pet stuff. I also came here because of interest in taxonomy, although i've been a passionate dwarf hamster breeder for some time. That's why i wanted the pet gone somehow. may be there will be hamster (pet) or something similar once the main article is big enough to warrant a split.Lady Tenar 14:29, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)
