Many animals are either nocturnal or active during daylight hours, but hamsters are different. They are actually most active during the twilight hours at dawn and in the evening. There are about two dozen different species of hamster that have been discovered, but only about 5 of them have been domesticated for pets. They are solitary animals that prefer a lot of personal space and aren’t afraid to fight for it.
Interesting Facts About Hamsters
#1. Hamsters have one of the shortest gestation cycles of any mammal. It can be as short as 16 days, but hamsters are also unique because they can delay the birthing process by more than a week if they feel like the conditions aren’t right for them. Hamsters can also become pregnant on the same day that they’ve given birth.
#2. Mother hamsters are very picky about having the father around. If the family is broken apart, it is very common for the mother hamster to eat her infants. Hamsters can even self-terminate a pregnancy. They do this to make sure there are enough available resources to support the entire family at the same time.
#3. Many hamsters are given a running wheel. The goal is to give the hamster some needed exercise, but a wheel that is too small can actually be dangerous to the animal. Arthritis has even developed in some hamsters who use wheels that are too small.
#4. Hamsters love to hoard things. It’s this behavior that actually gave them their name. This instinct to hoard things even occurs with domesticated hamsters. One of the most common items that is hoarded is food. They’ll store food they have found in their cheeks until they can reach a safe location to actually eat it.
#5. Hamsters are a threatened species out in the wild. Syrian hamsters are particularly vulnerable. For more than a decade, it was thought that the Syrian hamster had become extinct until some were captured in the late 1990s.
#6. The eyesight of a hamster is relatively poor. Not only are they colorblind, but they are also very nearsighted. It takes 10-14 days for an infant to even open their eyes for the first time so they can see. To compensate for this issue, hamsters rely on their whiskers and their other senses to defend themselves.
#7. All hamsters are relatively small. The largest species will grow to a total length of about 30 centimeters. The smallest adult hamsters may only be 5 centimeters in length.
Hamster Cams and Videos
Not everyone can own a hamster because of allergies or other personal reasons. These webcams help to make it possible to enjoy watching hamsters without any difficulty.
Frogtown Hamster cam: http://hamstercam.frogtown.com/
Oreo the Hamster cam: http://www.hamsters.webcam/
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