• Question from:Jonathan

Hi,

I wanted to know, and this isn't disrespectful to them, but very inteterested, are hamsters' lives boring - not, do you find a hamster's life boring, but do they?

For that matter, what do they find interesting? Not 'do they get excited when they find cheese or nuts of something (unless that is why)?', but I mean, when they get bored, how do they spruce their lives up?

Thanks,

Jonathan

Photo
  • Barts and the London, London
  • Posts: 713

Compared to humans hamsters need little stimulation. Some types are social and some prefer to live by themselves. All animals get excited by food! It is usually suggested that pet hamsters are given an exercise wheel to keep them fit and entertained. Good hamster behaviour to get a better idea.

Photo
  • Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  • Posts: 230

Many zoos now use the excitement food generates to liven up the days of their animals by making food a bit harder to find, so that the animals need to put in a bit more work to find their food. This can involve hiding food in different places so that the animal has to search for it, or making it more challenging to extract, for example putting nuts in holes in pieces of wood so that the animal needs to lever them out.  This stimulation has been tried with animals from elephants to monkeys, and while I don't know about hamsters, making their way of finding food a bit more like how they would find it in the wild could provide a bit more variation in their day, and some exercise.