In the wild, hamster behavior was expressed for the purpose of survival. In your home, these same behaviors can be seen in your hamster’s daily activities. By understanding all of your hamster’s instinctive needs, you will be able to better care for and maintain your new friend.
These attributes definitely contribute to your hamster’s behavior:
Night – This means that your hamster will spend most of the afternoon and evening running around his cage and being very busy. Perhaps this is because the temperature drops as the sun goes down in the hamster’s natural environment, allowing for more activity. For whatever reason, your hamster will pick up food, exercise on his running wheel, and explore his surroundings more in the dark. When the sun comes out, you are likely to find your hamster hiding in one of his hideouts fast asleep.
vigilant – One of the most cuddly features of the hamster is its ability to accumulate large amounts of food or bedding in its cheeks. Your hamster will stuff his face with literally anything to carry to various hiding places throughout his cage. This is important to understand so you remember to clean his cage every day. You don’t want his food supplies to spoil and make him sick. To appease your hamster’s natural hoarding tendencies, drop a few paper towels into his cage each night. He will have a lot of fun breaking it into pieces, digging a hole and hiding them for safekeeping.
lonely – Your hamster doesn’t necessarily need other hamsters around to be satisfied. In fact, the Syrian hamster should not be caged with anyone else or you could have disastrous consequences. Instead, they prefer to be alone and are quite content with this lonely life. If you have hamsters in the same cage, make sure they each have their own space, their own bowl, and their own toys to play with.
masticator – If it’s chewy, your hamster will chew it. Because they have very sharp front teeth, hamsters need to chew to keep their teeth healthy. Provide yours with plenty of chew toys, which you can buy at the pet store or order online. You can also put natural, unpainted wood in his cage, which will serve the same purpose.
Barber – Fortunately, hamsters are meticulous about their grooming habits. This is hamster behavior, we can all agree, that’s a blessing. While you may notice a bit of an odor when you first put your hamster in his cage (there is a slight odor when he first marks his territory), hamsters are clean, odorless pets. The only time you will have an odor problem is if you don’t clean the cage every day.
Other hamster behaviors can include things like nipping or biting, but working on taming your hamster can help. The best way to learn additional hamster behavioral traits is by observing them closely and learning more about their natural instincts.
