Hamsters and Their Personalities

Before I got my first hamster, I just thought that they were cute furry rodents. After spending time with my first hamster, Smokey, I found out that he has a strong personality. Besides the fact that he is cute, friendly, and sweet, he likes to think he's a dog: he would stay awake in the morning to watch me leave to go to work every morning, then he would wake up every time I come home. As you can tell I keep him in my living room. He also enjoys greeting the guests when they come over. He would walk right up to the door of his cage and wait for the people to talk to him. Unlike other hamsters, he doesn't mind being wakened up during his normal sleeping hours during the day. I think he loves getting attention.

Since he was my first hamster, he made it very easy for me to handle him and train him. He does not like to bite people including me. After a few months, I was worried about him, because he was not aggressive with me, because I read a lot of stories that hamsters will bite their owners at least once. Smokey never did that. I was hoping that I didn't have to take him to the vet. I got to meet other hamster owners and they told me that he is okay - he's just not a biter, and be grateful for it.

 Silvia was a beautiful baby hamster when I got her from the pet store.  Her head looked silver and she had a white body.  The people at the pet store kept telling me they thought she was pretty.  She did not like leaving the store, and she was just jumping all around in her traveling cage.  Since day one, she was a biter, and I could not put her into her cage.  I had to put gardening gloves, so she wouldn't puncture her teeth into my skin.  I gave her 48 hours to get used to her new environment.  By then she did settle down a little, but she was still scared of me.  I worked with her for almost a month, and still she acted like an untamed hamster.  I was losing hope for her.  After three months, she finally stopped biting me, but she still had a lot of energy. 

I wondered if she would babies, she would be more tamed.  I got Smokey and Silvia together and she gave birth to liter of seven pups.  I noticed she was very happy to have those pups.  She was even proud of them, and move away from the nest every time I wanted to see them.  She was very responsible and kept them warm and happy.  According to her, they were not allowed to leave the nest until they were three weeks old.  She also spoiled them by letting them sleep on top of her when they were two weeks old.  Silvia didn't mind losing tons of sleep. 

With her attitude, I thought she would eat one of her pups, but she didn't.  She was too happy being a mom, and she did show it.

After getting rid of her babies when they were a month old, she started getting rough with her cage.  She would get loose and she would panic, so luckily she would try to find me and hope I would rescue her.  When I would pick her up, her whole body would melt inside my hands.  After the first time, she escaped from her cage and I found her, I finally realized that she does love me.  I didn't think she ever did before.  She has gotten out of her cage several times after that, but she would keep running to me.  I am grateful that she would find me instead of hide somewhere in my apartment.

I would say that Silvia and I have a love/hate relationship.  At times, she can be a real cute rodent, and other times, she just likes to challenge me.

 I decided to keep two of Silvia and Smokey's babies and sell the rest.  I kept one girl and one boy.  The girl I kept was the only hamster that had dark colored fur.  By the time, she was three weeks old, she had black fur.  Her other siblings were gray colored.  I guess you can say that she is the "black sheep" in her family.  As she got older, her fur lightened to a dark brown. 

She is not at all like her parents, she is very quiet and likes to be alone.  She has a favorite spot in her cage and she'll stay there for several hours everyday.  Ebony doesn't like to be held as many times as her parents do.  Sometimes, she reminds me of some teenaged girls who like living in their own little worlds.  Since I found out that hamsters have their own personalities, I am not worried about her.  She will use her wheel every evening, which is good for her. 

Ebony does have her dad's eating habits which is interesting.  She likes to stir her food around in her bowl before eating.  She does that all the time.  I would see one of her arms diving right into that bowl and she is stirring.  Smokey does the exact same thing.  They are definately related.

 When I found out that one of boys from the liter was a cuddler, I had to keep him.  She loves his head and ears petted.  He demands more attention than the rest of his family.  Grayson will climb up on the door and wait for me to open it and hold him.  He enjoys resting on my chest while I am watching television.  Twice he actually fell asleep on me.  It was sweet. 

Like his fater, Grayson loves to greet the guests.  He climbs on his door and waits for them to come to talk to him.  My family likes him and enjoys the way he loves to be held and petted.

He is a well behaved boy, and I haven't had any problems with him so far.  Knock on wood...  Well, he is very picky about his food and his snacks, and if I don't give him what he wants, he will dump his food out and he will soil them (if you know what I mean).  With that, I spoil him, so he won't waste that food and I have to keep buying more food.  Financially, it is worth spoiling him with that.