How much hamsters drink

Can you fit a large glass tank somewhere? Do you need to move the cage often? How much space to spare do you have in the room you want to keep the hamster? What is your budget? Picking it up from a petshop will spare you those taxes, but might be more expensive overall.

Not the most breatheable, be careful which kind you get. Glass tanks — can get these in larger sizes than plastic or metal cages, but they need to stay put. You need a lot of space and a wire mesh for the top of the tank. I looked around and found a fairly good one on Amazon, you can check it out here.

A word on glass tanks. Sometimes glass comes whole and the tank is fine, sometimes it comes broken. You will find the same Amazon links as above, but discussed in more detail, along with pictures. A hamster cage might seem expensive at first, and at a first glance it might be.

But you only need one, and your hamster will use it his entire life. This is not something you buy again and again every few months. Do not make the mistake I did, and skimp out on the cage.

The first 2 I got Teddy were too small for an adult Syrian hamster. If not, another option would be paper bedding. Bedding is something that lasts you for several weeks, even months, depending on how much you give your hamster, and how often you change it. I change his whole bedding every week, and his corners a bit more often. A good option for aspen bedding is this one by Kaytee. Aspen bedding is one of the safest types you can get for a hamster. You can check the listing on Amazon here, and read the reviews as well.

Paper beddings are a bit more expensive than wood shavings. As for the nesting material the hamster needs to put in his nest, a couple of ripped up paper towels will be enough.

Or, unscented, plain toilet paper squares. Teddy shoves the paper in his cheek pouches, and then starts taking them out in his home, decorating the place. Hamsters need just a bit of space to build their nest, and a good hideout will protect them A good hideout is one made of wood. It keeps the hamster warmer, absorbs moisture and prevents condensation, and is safe to chew.

Hamsters chew absolutely everything, including their hideout, so get your hammy a wood one. If you want to know more about the kind of hideout a hamster needs in general, you can check out this article.

So I got him a slightly larger, sturdier wood one. The thing about hideouts and toys for hamsters, most of the time they are too small for Syrian hamsters. Most of them are geared towards dwarf hamsters. Even if your hammy will chew and chew and chew on it, that hideout will still be in place for years. This is because hamster, again, chew on everything. And wood is he best material for their teeth, since it will file them down without hurting the hamster. There are a whole array of toys you can get your hamster, some you can buy, some are best if you make at home.

For example cardboard tubes left from paper towels the ones you have in your kitchen, maybe are great for hamsters. Again, the Syrian hamsters need much more space than a dwarf so be careful when you choose toys for your hammy. Everything I link in this article is also suitable for a Syrian hamster, since this was what I was looking for when I got toys for my Teddy. As for the cost, it depends on what you end up getting your hamster.

These are again things you buy for your hamster only once, and he will use his entire life. How much a hamster wheel can cost Hamsters need a lot of exercise, and fortunately an exercise wheel and ball are things you only buy once. Actually everything except the food and bedding will keep the hamster forever.

I skimped out on the cage, but the wheel as well. At first I left him that small plastic wheel that came with the cage, too small by even a baby Syrian. Which was fine, but only for a while. One he grew to his full size, he needed a larger one. When you get your hamster an exercise wheel, you need to account for how large he will get as an adult. If you want to know much more about choosing the right exercise wheel for your hamster, you definitely need to read this.

How much an exercise ball for your hamster will cost As with the exercise wheel, and exercise ball is a good way to give your hamster an opportunity to leave his cage safely. You can place the hamster in his exercise ball, and let him roam the house. Or, you can use it as a temporary place to keep him while you clean his cage. If you want to know more about how to care for your hamster when he is n his exercise ball, you can read this article.

If you get it from a petshop it might have less taxes, but be a bit more expensive overall. Again, this is an item you only buy once, like the wheel and cage and hideout. For example my Teddy has his ball since he was young, and I just figured out that I should get him a large enough ball to fit him as an adult. Unless someone steps on the ball, or a large pet or child plays with it, it should stay intact even if it bangs against the furniture.

This is partly because you can feed the hamster the food you eat as well, or you can get him a pre-made food mix. If you decide to feed your hamster whole foods from your home, then this food list article will help you figure out what kind of foods are safe and unsafe for a hamster to eat.

If you feed your hamster exclusively from your fridge or pantry, then his food will cost basically nothing. It lasts him about as much as the bedding, so 3 months. They stay healthy for along time, but once they get sick they need immediate attention. The most common problems a hamster can run into are wet tail, diabetes, hypothermia, dehydration, starvation, and colds.

Of course, there are a lot of other problems that can come up, but these are the most common. And most of these are easily fixable, if noticed in time. Bringing the hamster to a vet within 24 hours of developing a disease, or getting injured, is going to save him in most cases. But I can tell you that if you keep your hamster in the right conditions, feed him properly, give him plenty of room and exercise, he will be fine.

So a trip to the vet will be basically free. Just watch out for the temperature in the room you keep him in — more on that here. Transport cage for the hamster Your hammy will probably never have to leave you home. As with everything else for the hamster, this is something you only buy once.

If you want to know more about traveling with your hamster, and how to make sure he is comfortable during travel, you should check this out. Consider this before getting a hamster When I first got my Teddy I had no real info on hamsters.

My girlfriend fell in love with the idea of Teddy in an exercise ball running around the house, so we went looking for an orange Syrian hamster. When we got him, we spend an entire evening looking at him, at how cute he is, and how much energy he has. We had no idea what to expect, and there were some odd surprises. But I think that there definitely are some things you should think log and hard about before you get a hamster.

Can you offer the hamster the right conditions? By this I mean that hamsters need some specific conditions to live in. Hamsters need proper conditions, along with the right amount of bedding and food to stay healthy and happy. Hamsters are in fact a mix between nocturnal and crepuscular. That means that some will come out during the night, and some will only come out at dusk and dawn.

Their waking hours can change over time, but this is how they usually work. Or you might only catch about an hour or half an hour of playtime with him before you must sleep. But when you have to leave town for a few days, do you have someone who can come over and feed him? Both Syrians and Dwarf hamsters live up to years, under the right circumstances as pets. But in general, your furry friend will stay with you from 2 to 4 years, Dwarf hamsters being the most long-lived of all.

So if you do decide to get a hamster, take into account that random bits of wood shavings, a furry face, and evenings playing with a walnut or toilet paper roll will be in your life for the next years.

How a hamster will change your life Owning a hamster is not that difficult, all things considered. And many things that would annoy me in the day would just disappear when I play with him. A hamster, or a pet in general, will put a smile on your face, with everything this ball of fur does. Once you get a hamster, you will be more aware of how warm or clean your home is like bedding strewn everywhere , and even the noise level.

A word from Teddy I hope you found everything you were looking for here. I know us hamsters can seem like forgettable pets compared to larger ones, like cats or dogs. But we are a whole other type of pet, with lots of love and funny tricks to offer. So make sure you think about it well enough before you get one of us hammies to live with you.

If you want to know more about us hamsters, you can check out the articles below! Wondering what to choose between a hamster and a gerbil? But which should you choose?

If you want to know how a hamster would do if he were living with a gerbil, then you should read this article here.

Table of Contents Is a rodent a good pet for you? About the hamsterAbout the gerbilThe hamster lives alone, the gerbil loves a groupCage, toys, and bedding for the hamster and the gerbilFood and treats for the hamster and the gerbilHealth problems the two can getA word from Teddy Is a rodent a good pet for you?

Before we go any further, you need to ask yourself this question. Is a rodent a good pet for you? As rodents, they need plenty of wood to chew on — their teeth never stop growing and need to be filed down constantly. They will love to hide and spend lots of time digging, burrowing, and generally not being noticeable. After all, these poor souls have always been food for other, larger animals.

Both of these pets are too fragile and high-maintenance for a child. The cleaning, taming, and often even the playing will be passed onto you.

Not every child is like this, I know, but a hamster is not a puppy. Still, if this kind of pet sounds alright for you it did for me , whether you have kids or not, then by all means go and get yourself either a hamster or a gerbil.

About the hamster Hamsters are very small, fluffy creatures. There are 5 types of hamsters you can choose from, and none of them ever grow very large. They all would fit in the palm of your hand, even as adults.

Those 5 types are: Syrian hamsters — the biggest of the bunch, and the most common as a pet. Dwarf types — Roborovski, Campbell, Djungarian hammies.

Half the size of a Syrian. Chinese hamsters, sometimes called Chinese Dwarf hammies. The easiest to confuse with a gerbil, since they have a bit of a tail. Hamsters have adapted to eat mostly grains and a few veggies, maybe an insect or two. So getting a hamster would mean you might miss him if you go to bed around 10 PM and wake up early to go to work or school. In terms of shape, hamsters are short, stocky little creatures.

The Dwarf types look like they have no neck at all, while the Syrians have a distinct teddybear-like face. About the gerbil Gerbils are, for the most part, hard to tell apart from a hamster.

And their hind legs are longer and thinner, since they do a lot of standing and jumping. Gerbils come from roughly the same area as hamsters. Mostly Mongolia and northern China. As such they might resemble the Dwarf hamsters, who come from there as well. Gerbils do a lot of digging, more than hamsters actually.

So their cage would need to be filled up with more bedding, so they can tunnel away as much as they like. Food for gerbils is very similar to the food for hamsters: mostly grains, a bit of fruit and veg, and a bit of protein if they can catch it. In terms of what their bodies do and what they need for a happy life, hamsters and gerbils do not need very different things. Except for 2 things, which if you get wrong, it can be very bad.

The hamster lives alone, the gerbil loves a group One of the things you need to know about, and the most dangerous to get wrong, is the social aspect of these pets. You see hamsters and gerbils are fundamentally opposites in terms of being social. Hamsters like to be on their own, they will not share anything.

Even the Dwarf types, which you can sometimes manage to raise successfully in a same-sex pair, will argue often. A gerbil on the other hand will not like being alone. Much like guinea pigs, gerbils need to be kept in pairs, at the very least. A lone gerbil will become depressed and lose his appetite. A human, while entertaining, will never be able to supplement the attention of another gerbil.

So, please remember. A hamster should always be alone, a gerbil should always have a buddy. A buddy means either 3 females, or 2 males.

Or anything over that number, since it will benefit them to be in a larger number. That will mean a larger cage though, so take care how many gerbils you get. Cage, toys, and bedding for the hamster and the gerbil Now when it comes to housing a hamster, that can be fairly easy.

A cage big enough for a hamster will be a minimum of 24 x 12 inches, and about 12 inches tall. Hamsters, like gerbils, will always pick a bigger cage if they can. Close quarters can make them stressed and nippy. A pair of gerbils would need a 12 x 20 inch cage, which is 30 x 51 cm. Not that very different from a Syrian cage. Still if you can afford to go for a bigger cage, do so.

Now, a good cage that would fit either a single hamster, or two gerbils is this one. It will provide air and lots of ventilation, being a wire cage. The wires in the cage are close together so that neither a gerbil nor a Dwarf hamster would be able to escape. You can check the listing on Amazon here, and see it for yourself. Aside from the cage, both the gerbils and the hamster will need plenty of toys and objects in their cage. This means silly things like a cardboard tube can be amazing for them, since they both love to tunnel and they will stick their faces everywhere they can fit it.

You can make most toys at home, with a bit of cardboard and creativity. For example an egg carton, with a few holes cut into it is going to be the best hide and seek toy ever. Some toys, like the exercise wheel, will need to be bought. This is mostly because the wheel needs to be silent, and run smooth, without a hitch.

A tail and foot guard is welcome, and gerbil tails are not meant to get caught in anything. So an exercise wheel with just rungs, or wire mesh is not alright for gerbils. A solid-floored one, with not gaps for the little guys to catch their feet or tails on is great.

Gerbils are alright in it too, and their tails will stay safe as well. Aside from the wheel and the toys the cage will need bedding and a hideout. I recommend you get a wooden hideout, since these two pets will chew at everything, including their nest.

As for the bedding, it can be wood shavings or paper bedding. If you get wood shavings, make sure you keep away from cedar and pine since their strong aroma can choke the rodents. Food and treats for the hamster and the gerbil In terms of food, these two eat mostly the same things. Fruits are welcome, although some should be avoided — like citrus for example, or apple cores and peels. Vegetables are good for them as well, just keep them away from onion, garlic, leek, and other such veggies.

Best to ask before you feed your hamster or gerbils anything new. Nuts and peanuts are a favorite among these guys, so they will enjoy the treat. Just stay away from sweets, saucy foods, spicy foods, or any kind of condiments at all. For the most part hamsters and gerbils have the same foods and treats. Health problems the two can get Their health problems are mostly the same.

Both rodents need their teeth constantly filed down, otherwise they just grow too large. Ear and hearing problems can arise as well, and so can eye problems. Tumors and lumps are a topic that is common for hamsters and gerbils, actually for rodents in general. Most of the problems can be easily solved by a vet, but you will need a specific one.

If you just look to a small pet vet, he might only be able to help with pets as small as cats. Normally hamsters have a year lifespan, depending on their type. The Robo Dwarf lives the longest 2 years while the Chinese lives a shorter life, about 2 years.

Gerbils on the other hand have been known to live up to 5 years in captivity. So whichever one you choose as a pet, make sure you have the time and willingness to take care of them properly.

A word from Teddy I hope you found what you were looking for in this article. If you want to know more about us hamsters you should check out the related articles below. Do Hamsters Smell Bad? But do they exist? Do hamsters smell? If they do, how do you take care of that? I know I had these questions when I first got my Teddy. Table of Contents So do hamsters smell? No — hamsters themselves, the animals, do not smell.

But their environment can get a bit smelly, in some cases. At the time of writing this he is nearly a year and a half old.

Or had any particular smell to him at all. He is an adult Syrian hamster, but this applies across all hamster breeds. Hamsters are very clean animals In fact, hamsters clean themselves about as often and thorough as house cats. In the wild hamsters are prey, and are hunted by basically every animal.

Some of them fly, some crawl, some slither, and some run. So, the hamster will obsessively clean himself at every turn, to make sure he has as little scent as possible. Hamsters actually pee outside their hideouts, so their predators will have a harder time finding them. Always the furthest from where you placed his hideout. Hamster are very clean little things, and watching them clean themselves is always cute. But as I said above, his cage can get a bit smelly sometimes.

So of course he will eat, poo, sleep, run in this cage and these can all leave a mark, or scent. You can find that corner by noticing your hamster when he wakes up to use that corner. Or, you can look for any recently wet or moist corners. Just change the bedding in every corner if you want to be extra sure.

But they rarely ever pee there. So, make sure you change the bedding in the corners more often than the whole bedding. The corners might need changing every days though, depending on your hamster and how sensitive your smell is. A litter box for your hamster It might sound like you have a cat now.

The hamster cleans himself regularly and now needs a litter box. But hamsters do use a litter box, if you give them one. You can use the bottom half of a hideout, this one actually should be plastic for ease of cleaning. Then, place mineral sand in that halved hideout. Tadaa, litter box! As long as you place it in the corner your hamster usually uses for peeing, everything will be fine.

The hamster might kick some of it up and take a sandbath as well. If you want to know which kind of bedding is safe for hamsters, and which bedding to never get, read this list here. Your hamster might be sick Sometimes this happens to hamsters, like wet tail for example. Wet tail is an illness more common in Syrian hamsters than Dwarfs. This can be treated, but you need to call your vet as soon as you spot this.

Now, when or if your hamster gets wet tail, the stool will be a bit smelly, and will wet the bedding as well. Or, maybe your hamster has a different type of illness that can make his urine smell particularly bad. Like an infection for example. Again, contact your vet as soon as you notice this. If your hamster seems to be moving very slowly, always has his ears folded, is more hunched than usual, and sleeps a lot, call your veterinarian.

The hamster might have some food hidden in his hideout Some foods can get very smelly if left out for too long. The clearest example I have is when I gave Teddy some cabbage.

He was a funny sight, nipping at the cabbage from left to right like a typing machine. Some of them he hid in his hideout, and I only noticed the next day. There was a weird, sulphury smell around his cage. I put Teddy in his exercise ball, and looked inside his hideout.

He had some cabbage pieces, and they stank. Oh boy. So, if you give your hammy a kind of food that can get smelly fast, give him very small amounts, and not often. This applies for vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, asparagus. Boiled egg white is in this category as well. Hamsters have their seasons as well By this I mean that hamsters have periods when their cage can get much smellier than usual.

I could never track it to a specific season — like winter or summer, or rainy or very dry, or something else. But it happened about twice a year. I chalked that up to him just being a male, and maybe marking his territory more aggressively. The period for Teddy goes away after a couple of weeks, and he never looked ill or lethargic, or out of place. Just a stinky cage, is all. Females go into heat every few days. Females can actually breed immediately after giving birth, so their mating periods are short but much more often than other animals.

Every 4 days to be exact. A female going into heat is normal, and healthy. It can get a bit smelly, but again, changing the bedding more often will help with this. How to clean a hamster cage properly This depends a bit on what kind of cage you have for your hamster. But keeping a clean cage for your hamster will keep it non-smelly as long as possible.

If you want to know what kind and size cage your hamster needs, check out this article. Place the hamster in a temporary holding place This can be an exercise ball, a transport cage, or anything else that can safely keep your hamster and allows him air to breathe.

Pick up your hamster and place him directly where he needs to be, like the ball or transport cage. Always use a scooping and cupping method, and do not come from behind him. If the hamster is not easy to pick up, or very difficult to handle, bait him with a treat. If they need cleaning, do so with a warm moist cloth, or hot water and a very small amount of soap, and leave out to dry very well. Food bowls and water bottles need cleaning more often than the wheel or hideout.

Take out all the bedding and nesting material Keep just a bit of it, to make things more familiar for your hamster. Once all the bedding is removed you should be left with an empty cage or glass tank. In the pee corner you might see some very dry white substances. It can be scrubbed off, but only if you allow it enough time to soak. Use something very coarse like a metal brush will help. But unless you do this regularly every week, that corner will become white forever. Clean everything off with hot water, and use a toothpick or the metal brush to scrub and pick away at it.

Use a hair dryer if you have to. Excess moisture can make the new bedding smelly, and even build up some moldy spots. Place the toys and hideout back into his cage, and let the hamster back in. But if you want to know more about us hamsters, make sure to check the articles below!

If you want to know how a hamster would fare if he were to live in the same cage as a rat or mouse, then you should read this article here. As in, leaving the hamster in his cage all his life is not a problem, as long as he has a large enough cage. He does need a bit of exercise, but this is where his exercise wheel comes to the rescue. The water that is obtained from the vapor is distilled.

Hamsters are not natural swimmers. They generally hail from dry climates and do not have a preference or natural inclination towards the water. If you place a water dish in your hamster's habitat, they will not choose to play in their water dish but may accidentally get wet while playing in their cage. We suggest water bottles as opposed to water bowls because your hamster could unintentionally get wet and can quickly catch a cold.

A cold might not seem like much to us humans, but they can become very harmful to a hamster. A hamster will knock over a water dish, spilling the water in their cage and making a mess. Or they might accidentally spill nesting materials in the bowl which can contaminate the water.

Some hamsters may prefer a water bowl over a water bottle. If your hamster prefers a water bottle, it is best to place the dish higher up and changing their water daily is very important. Hamsters cannot survive more than a day or two without water. In fact, a hamster can begin to experience dehydration a few just a few hours without water. Some signs of dehydration are:. One way to tell if your hamster is dehydrated is carefully and gently pinch the loose skin at the scruff of their neck.

In a properly hydrated hamster, the skin should quickly fall back into place. If your hamster is dehydrated, the skin will slowly fall back to its original position.

If you believe your hamster is dehydrated, you need to seek veterinary care for your pet right away. If your hamster has been without water for more than a few hours, your veterinarian can provide an IV for your hamster to help remedy the problem quickly. Here are a few things to keep in mind when purchasing a water bottle for your hamster's cage.

Water bottles come in a variety of sizes, that is because some are intended for a variety of animals! A water bottle with a larger opening for feeding or one that holds a lot of water might be for larger dogs. If the water bottle is too big an excessive amount of water might come out at once which might be upsetting to your hamster. If you have more than one hamster, you will need more than one water bottle for your hamsters. Also, place the water bottles in different places around the cage.

Water bottles can be installed on the side of a cage or as part of a freestanding structure. Depending on the size of your cage and how much space is available, you may choose a mounted water bottle for your pet hamster. After you rinse the water bottle with hot water, fill it with cold water all the way to the top to ensure a vacuum is created inside, and no water can leak out. Test the water bottle before giving it to your hamster to ensure they can easily access the water.

You can do this by locating the ball bearing and pushing it upwards. The best way to offer water to a hamster is to use a water bottle. This prevents the water from spilling, which certainly will happen if you use a water bowl, and allows you to monitor how much Fluffy is drinking. It keeps the water clean from bacteria, which would otherwise make your hamster sick.

According to the Peoples' Dispensary for Sick Animals, hamsters drink about 10 milliliters -- or about 2 teaspoons -- per grams of body weight per day. Hamster can weigh up to 7 ounces, or grams, depending on the type.

Tammy Dray has been writing since She specializes in health, wellness and travel topics and has credits in various publications including Woman's Day, Marie Claire, Adirondack Life and Self.

She is also a seasoned independent traveler and a certified personal trainer and nutrition consultant. Dray is pursuing a criminal justice degree at Penn Foster College. By using the site, you agree to the uses of cookies and other technology as outlined in our Policy, and to our Terms of Use.