He can’t get it into the cheek pouch!
Golden hamsters are not particularly bright animals.
They are one of the few truly solitary species we’ve been able to domesticate (somewhat).
When I was a child, it was almost impossible to find one that didn’t bite. I never owned one that didn’t try, no matter how tame it was normally.
Not only are they solitary, they are also nocturnal, so your entire way of being is utterly incompatible with its way of being.
They’ve bred some strains of golden hamster that are not as likely to bite, and they have also been selected for a cuter, more teddy bear-like appearance.
This is also the most inbred of all domestic animals. All of the ones available on the pet market are derived from a single female and her litter that were captured near Aleppo in the 1930’s.
A dog is an animal that is pretty close to a person. They make you part of their world, and they definitely consider you to be a social partner.
A golden hamster merely comes to tolerate you.
I comes to tolerate being taken out of its cage at night and handled.
But they never come to love you.
They are a different being, existing in an entirely different universe of senses and emotions.
A dog comes to be “almost human.”
A hamster stays a hamster.
No matter if you name him Twinkles or Buttermilk and feed him high-priced hamster treats.
Natural History 
We got our first hamster around 1950, and really enjoyed the little rascal. “Nebbie” was always ready for play, was very calm when handled, came when called (of course there was always a bit of food waiting for him) even outside of the cage. His successor “Hammie” was much the same. Maybe temperament was more equable back then. They never got special food, just dog biscuits and raw vegetables. Amazing what could be stuffed into those cheek pouches.
Mine all came from Walmart, except for two, one of which came from a small pet store and the other was given to me. I was a hamster puppy miller in the fifth grade.
Never had a Hamster,too many cats. G.Pigs are much nicer and are much smarter than a brick or an eggplant.
Agree – guinea pigs are sweet, and make good pets. Never met a hamster that didn`t bite.
Guinea pigs are greedy animals that make the most awful and obnoxious noises. We had four at one point… Never again.
Had a few when I was a kid–what I remember most is having to clean the cage often so it didn’t smell–mice are even worse. I don’t recall them being particularly biddable or cuddly. When I was a kid, my Mom’s family was really into pet birds–budgies and canaries mostly–which did seem to form attachments to people and other animals. We had one canary that used to ride around on our dog Smoky’s head. Mom’s people also loved dogs but hated cats (didn’t own my first cat till I was in my 20’s–but he was a pip!)
I also have several friends who swear by their pet rats–“loveable, cuddly, playful”, etc. Having grown up in the inner city of Chicago, my recollections of rats don’t quite match this description–but I try to keep an open mind.
Since neither the wife nor I cotton to rodents or bunnies (though I enjoy eating the latter) and since she has a phobia about free-flying birds in closed spaces–she won’t enter an aviary–I think we’ll stick with dogs and cats–critters that this unrepentant hypocarnivore can truly relate to.
Fancy rats are lovely and let you into their world in a way hamsters don’t. They’re also far less likely to bite you than hamsters or gerbils. In fact, they’re quite affectionate and very responsive. Their biggest problem as a pet is they simply don’t live long enough for the emotional bond you can develop. That’s why I’ve only had 3 rats and won’t have any more. A lot of people have antipathy towards them, thinking of them all as dirty, scaly tailed vermin. But not many people who have dogs would want timber wolves roaming the streets of their city either. Like humans and dogs, rats are adaptable, intelligent and social animals. That’s what makes them excellent companion animals and also pest species.
As for rabbits, I ended up with a sob story and one that categorically wasn’t stopping. Well, that was 4 years ago – after clearing the junk out of the empty kennel and him visiting the plum fairy, I got a female from rescue to keep him company. Again, they’re intelligent, adaptable and social so have the hallmarks of good pet/pests. I’d never eat a cat or dog, but have no qualms with bunnies as I like most game meats. But I’ll be damned if I can find a decent recipe for rabbit or hare meat. It always turns out to be really dry yet slimy at the same time.
To share my life with, I’d rather have a dog out of choice any day. Then a cat, with a rabbit (or two) a close third. Most other animals you’d keep in the house make me feel more like a prison guard or collector.
Each of us has his or her phobias. Mine is wild rats–I could tell you some very embarrassing stories (but won’t). To be fair, I have handled others’ pet rats, but just never saw the attraction. Also, their very short life-span is a big turn-off for me–I don’t handle the loss of a beloved pet well at all.
I think cats and dogs–especially dogs–speak most loudly and clearly to our need to share our lives w/ another species, to have uncritical companions, and to keep that lonely solitude at the heart of each and every one of us, at bay.
I now have a Tom & Jerry mental image of you from the knees down, standing on a stool and screaming like a girl. Seriously though, a fear of wild rats is understandable in the light of what you can contract from them.
All along our journey, dogs have made human lives considerably easier than if we were alone as a species. Unlike any other domesticated animal, dogs work WITH us rather than for us like a horse or incidentally to us like a cat. They complete us in some sense and together we are more than the sum of the parts.
Pretty damn close BCP! Substitute for that image, a 220lb reincarnation of Grizzly Adams, leaping up and down stabbing at his compost pile w/ a pitchfork (and “screaming like a girl”) and you’d have it nailed. (LOL)
“This is also the most inbred of all domestic animals. All of the ones available on the pet market are derived from a single female and her litter that were captured near Aleppo in the 1930′s.”
It amazes how resilient the genotypes of small, prey animals–especially rodents–are. Time and again huge infestations of alien rodents have started from just a few introduced animals. I guess when you’re a short-lived prey species, MHC isn’t as relevant to species survival as it is w/ those species that produce fewer young, over a longer period of time.
Rats are much nicer pets; they also come to like you (I think so, anyway).
I agree that with your comparison between dogs and hamsters. We got suckered into getting a hamster when our kids were little. Our cat’s response was “I don’t give a damn what you call it. It’s a rat!” & he sat for hours trying to figure out how to get that cage off the high shelf it was on. One day, the cat managed to jump high enough to pull the cage down. On impact, the door popped open. What happened was that the hamster ran like heck down the stairs, the cat in hot pursuit and our dogs in pursuit of the cat. Somehow my husband managed to rescue the hamster, but it showed no gratitude as a dog does if you rescued it. Even a cat you rescue, cuddles up to you and purrs. I can’t think of one interaction with that hamster . Cats and especially dogs bond with people. But hamsters? Why do you keep buying them?
I got them because I was a nerdy kid, who read a great translation of a German book on hamsters. The book described their behaviors in the same way Konrad Lorenz described those of dogs, so I was hooked.
I didn’t get them for companionship. I can tell you that!
The most I know about rodents is that there was a lot of prison rape in the male mouse tanks I maintained at the wildlife hospitals.
. . .
Not much prison rape with hamsters. They can’t live together. When the females are in season, they let the males mount them. If they aren’t in season, they try to kill them (they are bigger, fatter, and stinkier than the males).
The females are notorious for eating their babies for no good reason.
You think being so inbred contributes to their psycho temperaments, or is it just normal for hamsters to be assholes? =P
If my memory serves, this is thought to be a response to crowding and other environmental stressors found in many species of small rodents.
Alright, it’s not a Syrian and it’s being provoked by a couple of berks, but I get the feeling that hamsters in general err on the side of belligerent.
I’ve had a few hamsters, all from pet shops. They have varied widely in temperament from sweet and cuddly to a spitting ball of fury and teeth. I’d rather have Syrians than Russian hamsters. They tell you that the latter are highly social so should be kept in at least pairs. they also tell you they are easy to handle. Both times I had them the little beggars were worse nippers than Syrians and cannibals. They got to about a year old and then one night one without warning, one chewed his/her companion’s ears and legs off, shortly followed by the survivor chewing it’s own feet off and dying. It was horrifying.
Keeping two or three female littermates together worked pretty well for me. Occasionally there would be one who acted stressed and turned aggressive, living with sisters, but not that often. But, that’s the only non-solitary living arrangement that might work, IME. Also, another case where using lack of aggression toward humans as a major selection criterion seems to have absolutely nothing to do with how aggressive they might act toward other hamsters. Some don’t do it at all, but I had one who ate each and every one of her babies. (The second litter was accidental, but I still felt awful, hamsterlike as that may be.)
Someone also gave me half a dozen lab rescues who probably hadn’t been socialized much toward humans, and I didn’t notice any difference compared to what you’d find in the average pet store. Not very domesticated critters in terms of behavior, indeed.
I hadn’t thought of it in those terms, but I also ran a hamster puppy mill for a while as a (nerdy) kid, trading them to a local pet store for credit. Wouldn’t do it now.
My nephews are on their 3rd hamster bred by a hamster fancier. No bitting. The last two were extroverts and would eagerly come out of their cage doors once opened. They would spend time climbing on hands and shirts.
I think that maybe you should refresh your hamster experience with a well-bred one. :-)
With the golden (or syrian) hamster, I always thought the female looked the prettier, albeit, as was said above, deadlier.
My granddaughter, Danielle, revealed she was going to be an animal lover, like me, when she began to breed hamsters. Then she began to sell them and there was a slight issue with her taking her litters to school for this purpose (she was about ten by then). These days she owns a lingerie shop, designs medical bras and occasionally breeds papillons.
I had one hamster after the other as a child. It was our dog substitute as we lived overseas at the time and “pet” dogs were not a common thing to have in the country at the time. Every single hamster we had was incredibly tame. I remember handling them quite roughly and irresponsibly when I was very young and I never suffered a single bite. Perhaps American pet store hamsters suffer from temperament problems vs. European pet store hamsters? We once had two litter mate males living together in a single cage until their deaths at nearly 4 years of age. They never had a single fight and slept cuddled together in an empty toilet paper roll for all their lives.
These were Walmart hamsters, mass produced from laboratory stock.
Ha, well there you go. Never by fish from Walmart, and I guess don’t buy hamsters either. ;)
European African Soft-furred Rats are friendlier than their North American counterpart. The reason for this is because there is no selection for tame temperament since most of the African Soft-furred Rats in America and Canada are produced as feeders for reptiles.
Guinea pigs are way cuter, cuddlier, and friendlier than hamsters!!!!!
Chubby NJ
I had hamsters as a child and wouldn’t wish the little monsters on anybody. Rats, and to a degree rabbits, are tons better if one wants a sociable pet