Hamsters are great little pets, especially for a first pet for a child. With your help you can teach your child some valuable life lessons. Responsibility being the nu ber one lesson, as well as love, compassion, and unfortunately death.
My son received his hamster as a gift, which is not the way anyone should come to have a pet, but it happened, and we dealt with it. You should never get anyone a pet for a ‘surprise’ gift. It’s okay to buy a pet as a present, as long as the person receiving knows, nd is also involved on making the decisions. A pet is a responsibility and should be something that you want, not something that you are obligated to take care of. Of course we did grow to love out hamster, which my son ended up naming Mr. Jingles.
Hamsters can live to be up to three years old. There are many different types of hamsters as well. Mr. Jingles is a teddy bear hamster. We have had him since last Christmas, (2006), and up until about three months ago, he wanted nothing to do with us. He would run and hide anytime we came into the room. To try and catch him to put him in his big ball so that we could clean the cage was almost impossible, not to mention dangerous! He would try to bite! Despite all this, he was such a cutie, and even though he wasn’t too fond of us, we grew to love him in no time!
Taking care of a hamster isn’t too hard for the most part. When you purchase a hamster you will need to get some necessities. Your hamster will need a cage, a wheel, (for exercise, which is very important), and an exercise ball too. Then of course the basics, a food bowl, a water bottle, and some sort of ‘house’ for them to sleep in. You will also need to provide things for you hamster to chew on. Thy make chew sticks, and various other things for them to gnaw on. This is very important. The purpose of chew sticks is to keep their teeth trimmed down, otherwise the teeth will continue to grow and cut into their chin. This will cause numerous problems. If this does happen for some reason, the vet can grind the hamsters teeth down for you Besides these things, food and water is pretty much all you will need. They do make cages now that have plastic inserts, (tubes), that connect, and your hamster can run and play in the tubes too!
I mentioned earlier that our hamster wanted nothing to do with us until about three months ago. This change of heart came about when he fell ill. Mr.Jingles was very sick. So sick in fact that I thought he was going to die. Something was wrong with his eyes. Unfortunately I hadn’t noticed right away either that out hamster was ill. Hamsters are night creatures. They eat and play when most of us are in bed. What made me actually check on him was the fact that the water level in his bottle hadn’t moved for a couple days. I decided to wake him. When I did, he came staggering out of his little house, and his eyes appeared to be gone! Hamsters are prone to some illness’. The most common of those is ‘wet tail’, which is not what our hamster had. I researched all about hamster disease, and while I was trying to figure out what he had I kept in mind other illness’ that hamsters’ get. Hamsters are prone to teeth problems, cancer, tapeworm, eye injuries, and trauma, (trauma is caused by hamster being dropped, kicked, or stepped on). I couldn’t find anything about what was wrong with our hamster though. It was very close to an eye injury, but the only help on could find on any of the sites I went to was for eye injuries directly caused by other hamsters. Not only did his eyes appear to be gone, but he couldn’t walk right either.He was losing weight rapidly too. Once hamsters get sick, they deteriorate very quickly. He couldn’t see and wasn’t eating. A this point a trip to the vet was needed, but having had car problems that wiped out my saving, that wasn’t an option. Of course doing nothing and letting him die wasn’t an option either. I was desperate. I decided to write about what was happening with Mr.Jingles and publish it on line in hopes that somebody had had the same experience and knew how to help. A few hours later, after posting the story , I got a response from a wonderful lady who actually breeds hamsters! The advice she gave me was odd, and a little unconventional, but I was willing to try anything. She told me that Mr.Jingles had a very bad infection in his eyes, causing them to swell shut, and appear as if they were gone. She explained to me that if a hamster cannot see, it will not eat. (Although hamsters are born with very bad eye site). She said that since he hadn’t eaten in a couple of days it was extremely important that he eat immediately. He could no longer walk at this…when he tried, he just fell over. She instructed me to get an eyedropper and a can of beer. She said to give the hamster just a couple drops of beer using the eye dropper. She told me that something in the beer would make him eat. Then so he wouldn’t be dehydrated, she told me to give him the clear, plain pedialyte, about a dropper full. She told me to do this, (the beer and the pedialyte), twice a day for as long as it took until I could get his eyes open, (since they won’t eat on their own if they can’t see). Now to fix his eyes she told me to get saline solution. She told me to wet the ends of q-tips and gently wipe his eye slits as much as he would let me. The very first time I did this his eyes started oozing. I kept wiping, and he was letting me too. I think he knew I was helping him, and not hurting him. He continued to let me wipe his eyes, and give him the beer and pedialyte through the eyedropper. I as amazed that the beer worked too…after he would get a few drops of beer down I would move him to i food bowl, and he would eat! After a few days of this he was gaining some of the weight back, and after a week, one of his eyes appeared! He was still not walking well though, but at least was no longer falling over. Three days after the first eye opened, the second one did as well. He continued to stumble when he walked for about a good month after both eyes were opened, but is now back to normal. He is also bigger then he ever was too! Now when he hears my voice, even if it’s during th day, he gets out of his little house and greets me! He lets me pick him up now, and pet him too.
I initially started writing this article as a guide on what you would need after you bought your very first hamster, but as I wrote, I decided to share this experience with everyone who comes across this article. What happened to Mr. Jingles is not a well documented illness. I had a very hard time finding an answer, and had I not found that women, Mr.Jingles would have passed on. I wanted to share this information for anyone who one day finds themselves in the same situation. As I started before, once a hamster gets sick, they deteriorate very quickly. Take good care of your hamster, and as always, if your hamster, or any animals you have gets sick, your best bet is the vet. Do not try to ‘cure’ your sick animals by yourself. I asked for help, and I was fortunate enough to get some great information that saved Mr. Jingles!
