Hamsters are gorgeous little creatures if kept as pets. They love attention and love to play with their owners. They are cute, funny and extremely active little rodents, especially at night when the sun goes down. There are over 25 species of hamsters, ranging from the large European hamster to the tiny dwarf hamster, many of which are popular pets.

Here we have presented some fun and interesting facts about these cute little animals, some of which you may already know.

• Hamsters belong to the hamster family
• Largest breed - European hamster, can grow up to 34 centimeters in length
• The smallest breed is a dwarf hamster, reaching 10.5 centimeters in length and 5.5 in width
• Some dwarf hamsters live up to 4 years old!
• Some breeds of dwarf hamsters can delay the birth of cubs if they are already feeding another brood!
• Hamsters are nocturnal mammals, which means they are more active at night and sleep during the day.
• Hamsters have a natural instinct to burrow and burrow.
• Hamsters' diet consists of dried foods, nuts, seeds, vegetables and berries, but they are animals called omnivores, which means they eat meat just like vegetables.
• Hamsters can store food in their cheeks so they collect available food and then take it back to their colony to eat later.
• Hamsters have short tails, a wide body, small ears, short legs, wide feet, and large eyes.
• They have dense fur that can be long or short. The color of the hamster's coat can be black, brown, gray, yellow, white, red, or a mixture of any of these colors.
• The most popular domesticated hamster is the Syrian golden brown
• The Syrian hamster can grow up to 15 cm long and can live up to 6 years with proper care
• There are 4 main breeds of hamsters: Syrian, Russian dwarf, Chinese and Roborovsky hamster.

Hamsters have been kept as pets for a rather long time. They were first found in Syria and got the name "hamsters" from the old German word "hamstern", which means "treasure". Although hamsters were first discovered in Syria, they are common in many other countries around the world.

Some More Exciting Hamster Facts

• Syrian hamsters live on their own, they are solitary creatures and need their own space. If placed with other hamsters, they will become very aggressive and may even kill them.
• The natural habitat of hamsters is shrinking all over the world. As a result, the hamster population is now under threat, and some species are on the verge of extinction.
• Hamsters do not have very good eyesight, they are very short-sighted and rely more on their sense of smell. Hamsters have scent glands, with the help of which they leave marks on stones and other objects, thereby indicating their path.
• Hamsters are color-blind, i.e. they are color blind
• When frightened, they can bite, but usually hamsters are kind and gentle creatures and love to play with their owners.
• Hamsters are fairly easy to train to do different tricks and respond to their name.
• Hamsters usually live from two to three years, however, one year of human life is equivalent to about 25 years of a hamster!
• The male hamster is sometimes called the hog and the female is sometimes called the sow.

As mentioned earlier, the most popular hamster breed today is the golden hamster, which is native to the desert regions of Syria in the Middle East. Here are some fun and exciting facts about him:

• Females in golden hamsters are larger than males
• Males live longer than females
• Individuals of this breed must live independently and will not share their space with other hamsters.
• Golden hamsters live on average from two to three years, but they can live much longer, up to 5-6 years, if they have proper care and food.
• The ideal food for them would be special hamster foods, yoghurts and fresh vegetables as well as access to fresh and clean water
• Golden hamsters need daily vitamin supplements
• Wild golden hamsters are very rare in nature, mainly only in some areas of Syria. These hamsters are believed to be endangered. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists this breed as "vulnerable"
• Golden hamsters have 4 toes on their front legs and 5 toes on their hind legs.
• The breed has at least 40 different color shades
• The largest litter that a female golden hamster gave birth to consisted of more than 20 cubs!
• The gestation period for a female is 16 to 18 days, making it one of the shortest of all placental mammals in the world.
• Almost all domesticated golden hamsters descended from a single female who gave birth to 12 cubs in 1930.
• Hamsters are intelligent enough to remember their relatives

Taking care of pet hamsters usually means creating the right environment for them. Since these smart little creatures love to interact with their masters, it's important that you play with them as much as possible. Therefore, placing a cage with hamsters in a room where people are always present is great way do not let them feel sad. Also, if you decide to get a hamster, it is important to remember that they are great escapees and can travel long distances - a hamster can travel up to 10 kilometers on its wheel in one night!

1. A total of 7 genera of hamsters are known, including about 19 species. The largest is an ordinary hamster (up to 35 cm in length, weighing up to 400 g and more), the smallest is Roborovsky's hamster (4-5 cm in length, the weight usually does not exceed 10 g).

Dagestan hamster

2. In the wild, hamsters can be found in the steppes, semi-deserts and deserts of Eurasia. Some hamsters climb mountains up to 4000 m, some happily live next to humans - in the fields, in gardens, vegetable gardens and even in buildings.

3. Popular in many countries home pet- the golden, or Syrian hamster in nature has a rather limited range - it can be found in western Syria and the border regions of Turkey. Millions of this species, living in homes and laboratories around the world, all descend from a single brood taken by Professor Aharoni in 1930. Hamsters managed to breed, and a year later part of the offspring were taken to England, from where they began their further "march around the world" as domestic and laboratory animals.

4. There are also several other species in captivity: the Chinese hamster, and representatives of the Upland hamster genus - Dzungarian, Campbell's hamster and Roborovsky's hamster. The rest are practically unknown to anyone except zoologists.

5. The idea of ​​hamsters as good-natured lugs is not entirely true. Most of them are quite aggressive animals. In nature, almost all hamsters lead a solitary lifestyle, without maintaining any permanent positive contacts with fellow tribesmen. By smell, the male finds a female ready for mating, mates with her, and this is where his participation in the procreation usually ends - the female raises the young alone. Such asociality of hamsters also extends to communication with humans: in captivity, they, as a rule, are poorly tamed, do not become attached to the owner and are not interested in communicating with him. In lines that have been raised in captivity for many generations, aggression towards humans is usually docked, but one should not expect the same from animals caught in nature: when trying to pick them up, they will bite violently, and in representatives of relatively large species the bites can be very painful.

6. Contrary to popular belief, hamster burrows are almost never difficult. In general, the life of a loner does not dispose to acquire a large and complex dwelling. A hamster's burrow usually has one or two exits, a nesting chamber and, in some cases, a pantry. But the volume of reserves in some species can be very significant. Hamsters do not go into a real long hibernation (like, for example, gophers), so they have to take care of the "food warehouse" for the winter - so that it would not be so sad to while away the long winter evenings.

7. One of the most well-known features of hamsters is their cheek pouches. This device really deserves at least a separate mention. It is clear that in order to create any significant forage reserves, you need to have a device for their transportation. In this case, evolution "tried" - in the cheek pouches, hamsters can carry a volume of food comparable to the size of the hamster itself.

8. As everyone knows, the basis of the hamster's diet is grain (seeds of various plants, both wild and cultivated). However, in addition to this, hamsters can use a wide variety of food sources. The green parts of plants are mainly used as a source of water - since abundant dew does not always occur, and hamsters most often do not have other ways to get water in nature. Hamsters of some species can happily use various fruits and roots for food. Also, most species show predatory tendencies to one degree or another and make up for the lack of protein at the expense of animal food - from insects to frogs and lizards.

9. The uniformity of the "hamster" appearance and lifestyle has its exceptions. For example, the name of a rat-shaped hamster speaks for itself - in appearance it can really be confused with a rat. "Rat" color, elongated body shape, relatively long tail - all this goes well with the "rat" way of life: unlike other hamsters, the rat hamster inhabits relatively humid habitats and has a corresponding metabolism.

10. A total of 7 genera of hamsters are known, including about 19 species. About - because the status of some forms remains a matter of debate among zoologists. Dzungarian and Campbell hamsters were previously considered one species, but now the species status of each of them is beyond doubt. But some researchers consider the hamsters of the Baraba, Transbaikalian and Chinese different kinds, and others - forms within one polymorphic species. They differ in the number of chromosomes, but produce fertile offspring.

Georgy Rurikov,
Institute for Problems
ecology and evolution (IPEE RAS)

Dzungarian hamster (lat.Phodopus sungorus) belongs to the rodent family. Its natural habitat is the South Siberian steppes. In nature, the Dzungarian hamster lives in a burrow and does not hibernate in winter. In appearance, the animal looks like a large mouse with ears. His hair is fluffy, in summer it is gray, a noticeable dark strip runs along the ridge, in winter the rodent brightens and the cover becomes silvery-gray. If you look closely at his habits, they are very similar to human. In particular, food grabbing manners - hamsters hold treats with both paws and look very funny. They have impressive cheek pouches in which they collect all their supplies.

Such animals grow up to 10 centimeters in length, they weigh no more than 50 grams. They are very sociable and cute pets, with black attentive beady eyes and alert ears. The soles of the hamsters' feet are covered with fur. You need to handle your pets carefully - they are very fragile. Unlike a similar hamster Campbell, Dzungarian hamsters are more peaceful: their brethren tend to bite or be afraid of harsh sounds, while Dzungarian hamsters are peaceful and somewhat phlegmatic.

photo: Dzungarian hamster weighs no more than 50 grams

Dzungarian hamsters are very clean and almost odorless, so they will become wonderful pets. They are suitable even for families with small children - they can sleep in their arms for a long time and love to be stroked. In a year, hamsters bring 2-3 litters, each of which has 3-9 babies. At the age of one month, they reach puberty, so they will need to be deposited in a separate cage. Pregnancy of a female hamster lasts 16-18 days.

photo: Dzungarian hamster lives about 2 years

When it comes to choosing housing for your hamster, this could be a small bar cage or a glass aquarium. Here you can place a house, a feeder, a drinker, a wheel for entertainment. If you wish, with the help of pipes and hoses, you can create several tunnels - the animals love to climb them. Letting them run around the room, where they can easily get lost, is quite risky, it is better to choose a more spacious cage.

photo: Dzungarian hamster is a nocturnal animal

• In captivity, the Dzungarian hamster can live for 2-3 years;
• Dzungariki are nocturnal creatures, the peak of their activity occurs in the evening and at night, but during the day they sleep;
• Hamsters are very active creatures, they run long distances per day;
• You will be able to make friends with your pet - at first it will hide in the far corners of the cage, but over time it will react to your voice, take food from your hands and even doze peacefully on your lap.

If you are interested in buying a Dzungarian hamster, then you can see and get to know them live in the Moscow contact zoo "UtiPuti", located near the metro station "Molodezhnaya". The zoo staff will be happy to answer all your questions and give the necessary advice on keeping and caring for hamsters. Zoo website -

People learned to tame animals thousands of years ago, they observed their behavior, instincts, habits and used this information to better understand our smaller brothers. Now we can use such information, for example, interesting facts about hamsters, to find a common language with a pet. Hamsters are now quite popular as pets, but are our views so similar to them?

Perhaps one of the most interesting topics for discussion about hamsters is their vision of the world. The very existence of such a question raises the assumption that our views diverge. This is actually the case.

Hamsters have severe myopia

Now let's figure out in order how hamsters see? Since these animals show their main activity at night due to natural predators, they do not need well-developed daytime vision. Hamsters have a highly developed myopia, they see relatively clearly only the nearest objects, while the rest of the picture of the world is blurred and only outlines are guessed. So they can navigate well and not collide with anything (all attention is directed to a small area of ​​the terrain).

As for light perception, it is rather poorly developed, the shades of the red day are indistinguishable from them, but what about orange and green is quite. This feature appeared due to the need to get food for yourself at night, so if you want to impress the hamster, add yellow and green tones to their life.

Here's a small example of how hamsters see:

The mustache also helps the hamster to learn about the world.

Many animals mark their territory, hamsters are such, for this they need special scent glands that emit a specific smell. Tubules leave the glands, through which this smell then spreads. Usually the animals mark the bedding and the rods of the cage, but if the owners overlook, the animal will also mark the furniture with carpets, where it often walks.

They will not explore the same territory all the time, they will rather remember it and notice individual changes. By the way, if you dim the lights while walking your hamster, it will be much more comfortable.

32 interesting facts about animals

Vision features are not the only thing these little animals can impress us with, here is a selection of interesting facts about hamsters for children and adults:

1. Syrian hamsters are loners, you should not add a company to them, as they will show aggression and may even kill an opponent.
2. Some hamster species may soon be on the verge of extinction due to the decline in their natural habitats.
3. Hamsters are quite friendly and gentle animals, but if scared or offended, they can bite badly.
4. Hamsters can respond to their name.
5. If you wish, you can teach the animal a few tricks, they are quite smart and very trainable.
6. One year of a hamster's life is approximately equal to twenty-five years of human life, so the animals live on average from two to three years.
7. In hamsters, males usually live a little longer than females.
8. Sometimes you may hear that male hamsters are called hogs and females are called sows.
9. In golden hamsters, males predominate, while females are slightly smaller.
10. Golden hamsters can live up to six years with proper care.
11. Hamsters most of all do not like to share space in a cage with someone.
12. Hamsters love fresh vegetables and yoghurts, but if spoiled, they can stop eating regular food.
13. Hamsters need to be given special vitamin supplements daily.
14. Golden hamsters come in over forty different shades.
15. Golden hamsters have four toes on the apron and five on the hind legs.
16. The record litter of the golden hamster numbered more than twenty cubs.
17. Pregnancy in female hamsters lasts just under three weeks (sixteen to eighteen days), the shortest period of placental mammals known today.
18. Hamsters are very intelligent animals, they remember their relatives.
19. In the wild, hamsters settle in the mountains at an altitude of almost four kilometers.
20. Hamsters behind their cheeks can store not only food, but also air, so they swim perfectly, staying on the water with the help of such "floats".
21. Hamsters can be quite different in size (from five to thirty-four centimeters), but they are easily recognizable by the special pouches located behind the cheeks.
22. Hamsters build their own burrows with many emergency exits and passages.
23. Hamsters, like squirrels, store more food than they ultimately eat over the winter (up to ninety kilograms).
24. Newton's hamster and the Syrian colored hamster are already considered endangered and are listed in the Red Book.
25. In Vietnam, hamsters are considered primarily carriers of diseases, therefore, for keeping them as pets, a fine of thirty million Vietnamese dong (about fifty-seven thousand rubles) is imposed.
26. In the Chinese hamster, ovarian cells are used in pharmacology (in medicines for multiple sclerosis and chronic lymphocytic leukemia).
27. Dwarf hamsters may delay labor a little if they are still feeding a previous litter.
28. If the hamster's wheel were not fixed, it would travel ten kilometers overnight.
29. Hamsters, like many rodents, are born with teeth that grow throughout their lives, so they need to grind them down.
30. Hamsters can carry food that weighs up to twenty percent of their own weight.
31. Often, hamsters drag shiny things into their hole, hide what they would be sorry to part with.
32. Hamsters can eat not only fruits, vegetables and grains, but also insects if they lack protein.

- wonderful pets, they are very smart and quite agreeable, it is easy to find a common language with them, despite different views of the world.

Such a pet will easily dilute the gray everyday life and help children learn how to handle animals.

Hamsters are wonderful pets. These are playful, agile, cute rodents who like care, affection, games with the owner. About 25 breeds of animals have been bred in the world, differing in size and appearance... Many surprising and unexpected stories can be told about large European, tiny dwarf, wild American, popular Dzungarian hamsters. Below are the most entertaining and interesting facts about these wonderful and cute pets.

1. The most large breed- European hamster. Its body length reaches 30 centimeters. And the smallest rodent is a dwarf hamster. It rarely grows more than 10 centimeters. But it lives much longer than representatives of other breeds: up to four years!
2. The animals have a unique ability: they can store uneaten or found food behind their cheeks in special bags for quite a long time in order to eat it later. Animals easily hold food in their mouths, the weight of which reaches 20% of their body weight!
3. The most popular and widely bred breed is the brown Syrian hamster with a golden sheen.
4. Some breeders call male rodents hogs, and females - sows. Although their pets have nothing to do with pigs.
5. Hamsters have been known for a long time. For the first time, this biological species was discovered in the semi-deserts of Syria. But the animals got their name from the German word "hamstern", which means "to save, store".
6. Hamsters have poor eyesight, and even colorless. Therefore, in studying the world around them, they rely more on a keen sense of smell and excellent hearing.
7. Rodents have special glands on their bodies that secrete an odorous secret. The animals use this liquid to mark the road.
8. Incisors in hamsters, like in all other rodents, grow throughout life and require grinding with coarse food. And the cubs are already born with teeth.
9. The animals can climb mountains to a height of four kilometers. They also float great, sucking in air with cheek pouches and using them as inflatable mattresses.
10. The owner must make sure to build a running wheel in the pet's cage. The hamster is so nimble and agile that it can cover a distance of 10 kilometers in a wheel during the night!
11. Almost all Syrian hamsters that exist today are the descendants of one single female. In 1930, she gave birth to 12 cubs, which gave rise to the breed.
12. The habitat of wild rodents is rapidly declining, so many populations are on the verge of extinction. The Syrian hamster and its close relative, Newton's hamster, are already listed in the Red Book as an endangered species.
13. Sex cells of males of the Chinese breed are used in pharmaceuticals for the production of drugs against serious diseases, including oncology.
14. In Vietnam, it is prohibited by law to breed and keep hamsters as pets. They are believed to carry many dangerous infections... A large fine is imposed for disobeying the law.
15. Representatives of the North American forest species like to store the shiny objects they have found in their burrows: buttons, brooches, beads, coins. When they take a little thing, they usually put a pebble or a stick in its place, as if exchanging.
16. Hamsters only look stupid and awkward. In fact, they are smart, agile and quick-witted creatures. Pets react to a nickname, remember cage neighbors and relatives, and can easily learn a few tricks.
17. One year of a hamster's life is almost 25 human years... It's a shame that furry pets live so shortly.
18. Pregnant females of some dwarf breeds have the ability to delay labor if they have not already milked the young from the previous litter.
19. The assumption that hamsters are collective animals is incorrect. In reality, they prefer to live alone, do not tolerate other individuals nearby. If you put several males in one cage, then a fight with a bloody and even fatal outcome is inevitable.
20. It is also wrong to say that hamsters eat only plant foods. In their natural habitat, animals often feast on insects, and at home they can be given boiled chicken or lean fish.