Thinking of getting My daughter a hampster
 

My neighbors have gotten a hampster and now My 6 year old Daughter really wants one. I told her the only way she could have one is if she fed it and helped clean its habitrail. Has anyone on here gotten one for their kids at this age. Were your kids good about feeding and cleaning up after them when the newness wore off? We are thinking of getting a habitrail for it with the tubes to climb up. Do they smell? Any unput you have about hampsters or small animals is apreciated

My boys had a hamster at about that age. From my experience you will be the one cleaning the cage. I didn't mind, but just know, hamsters pee alot, LOL. I would take the whole thing apart once a week and scrub it out. They will take all their food to one end and pee at the other end. It needs that good cleaning once a week or it will stink. Also keep in mind, hamsters are nocturnal animals, so they play at night. Ours ran in his wheel all night long, again, we didn't mind, but some people might. They are also escape artists, LOL. I thought it was a great experience for my boys, but when "mr. stinky" left us...we didn't replace him.:D

I agree totally w/ lovethecooper. YOU will be cleaning them up weekly & they pee a lot.. it smells like ammonia big time . We got our two females at the pet store... little did I know they where preggers when I brought them home. In no time I had 17 hamsters & seven cages :eek: Thank goodness they only live about three years. Good luck ;)

LOL they multiply like Bunnies - our Hampster 'Andy' had babies too and we thought it was a boy - My oldest son was about 7-8 when he got his first hampster and was very good about taking care of him/her - he was so devestated when little 'Andy' passed though

I did most, really all the cleaning. I used a 20 gallon aquarium instead of the cage or tubes. They pee so much, you can't get the glass from the aquarium clean, even with soaking. They do smell and at times really bad!

My boys were wonderful about taking care of their hamsters ..............
for the first two days! After that it was pretty much me who took care of them. Still -- it is like a right of passage. Every kid needs a rodent to care for. When we moved to Florida, I thought I was going to be stuck moving the hamsters with us but the mover showed an interest and I jumped on the opportunity. He got two free hamsters, cage, miles of the habittrail, food, and bedding. That was one rehoming I was happy about! Another was more recent, my youngest had a pet snake -- now that required work. We had to go out and catch frogs all the time. So, if I had a choice, hamster or snake -- I would take the hamster.

I would say if she is good with your dogs, then she'd be OK with handling a tiny hamster.

I never really remember mine smelling.. although we did change the cage every few days with fresh bedding.

The cons of owning a hamster are they are REALLY good at getting out of their cage. Also, they don't live for longer than a few years.

My Husband and his two brothers had tarangulas,, snakes,lizards,you name it they had it. Their Mom has alot of stories about them. Thankfully My Son didnt want any of that because I really cant handle snakes or creepy crawly things.

Well if it must be between a snake and a hamster then my suggestion is for the four legged critter of course. My 5 year old had one, helped with the maintenance for about a week and then it was all me. I believe no matter how much I scrubbed that baby I was always able to smell "hamster" from the time I walked in the house, and trust me I cleaned it out a whole lot with weekly allover scrubbing and changing of the bedding..

Keep us updated!

I would recommend Gerbils for many reasons:

1. they are desert animals, so urinate much less than hampsters.

2. if you buy them at the same time you can have 2 (which is much more fun, and not a lot more mess.

3. the are not strictly nocturnal so won't keep everyone awake all night and then sleep all day.

Also, I would recommend an aquarium (as posted above). The plastic habitral type things are pretty at first, but a nightmare to clean and the little guys can chew their way out!!!

I say this after experimenting for years at our daycare with different pets. The gerbils were winners...they were easier care, inexpensive to maintain, played during the day, weren't biters, two were more fun....etc....

If you decide to do this, I'd be happy to give more info about care, I really did my research.:)

I got my second hamster when I was 6! He was the sweetest little guy ever. I highly, highly [highly, highly, highly, highly X100] reccomend a male teddy bear hamster. I've had two, and both were as sweet as puppies! I have heard it's not best to use and aqarium, because they don't get enough circulation. I had a habitrail for a short while. While it looked really cool and was probably fun for him, he used to escape from it nearly every week. I think your best bet would be a barred cage. At PetCo they have some with 3 stories (the hamsters use a ladder to climb to the next one. or if they're like mine they hold onto the edge of the next floor up and pull themselves up! lol) They don't smell if their cages are cleaned reguraly (about once a week).

They are great little pets. and they teach responsibility.

Funny, I was okay about the snake, but would not let him get a tarrantula. I just kept imagining it getting out and waking up with it on me. No way! LOL! He recently asked for an iguana. I reminded him of the snake and we reasoned through it -- we decided he is really too involved with sports/school/girls to have time for a lizard. Whew!

I apreciate any advice you have. I dont know about gerbils they remind me of mice with their long tail. My Daughter really wants the dwarf hampsters because thats what our neiighbor girl has. They are tiny little hampsters. We are still just looking into it. I think I might take her out today and look at the habitrails and we will look at the hampsters and gerbils

I got my kids dwarf hamsters when my oldest was 9 and they were thrilled, they loved helping with cleaning but after a while it was really just me:rolleyes: doing all the work:eek:.
They are little scam artists, once one of them got out (who knows how) and ended up under the range:confused:, actually I bought them this little car they could "drive" and they learned how to positioned it where it was under the entrance of the cage:eek: on the top part. Very smart little guys:rolleyes:

They don't smell, they STINK:eek:, it got to the point to were we were cleaning the cage twice a week:eek: and they still smelled..........................it was bad, no matter what I cleaned it with, including bleach. Soaking, disnfecting didn't help, I was even buying them a special shaving that was supposed to stop their urine from smelling, it didn't work:mad:
On the good part they are very cute:p, but I ended up spending more on the cage and toys than on the hamsters:rolleyes:.

Do you mean escape artists? :p

We got each of our kids a hamster when they were younger. I think my daughter was about 10 and my son was 7. While they did help out cleaning the cages, I was the one who did most of the work...but I didn't mind. I ended up falling in love with the little guys! :)

They're a great pet for kids...just make sure that they're supervised when the hamsters are out of the cage....they do love to take off and hide under furniture if you let them! :)

Their life span is 24 months or thereabouts...ours lasted 2 years almost exactly to the day. I had one of them die in my hands while I was comforting him...it was so sad. We cried and cried, but wouldn't trade the experience for anything. They had the most wonderful personalities.

:D :yeahthat: :doh: :embarasse :embarasse hmmm :D

My daughter is 5 and we have a hamster. She helps feed it and clean out the cage.

First, you will be the one cleaning the cage, trust me.
Second, let me suggest getting mice instead of hamsters. We have 2 fancy mice, and they are just as cute (cuter IMO :) ) than hamsters, but the most important thing is that hamsters tend to bite, whereas the mice usually don't. Mine have never ever bitten. Also, when you can't catch them, you can usually get a hold of the tail.

As for the smell, I have had lots of experience with that LOL. First off, know that the males smell worse than the females. Also, it is good to get them in pairs, since they are social creatures. Two females get along well, but two males will usually fight--even if not at first, they will eventually.

I have found the one thing to keep the odor down. It is called Aspen supreme (they have it at petsmart). It looks like rabbit pellets. Put this in the bottom of the cage (enough to cover) and then top that with the white (not the natural color) carefresh bedding material. You can change out the carefresh and leave the bottom material, and you can get two weeks out of each cleaning this way. After two weeks, you have to dump all bedding material and clean everything.

If you have any other questions, just ask. I'll help with what I know. :)

PS, look at my youtube videos (link below) and you'll see my mice and their set up for ideas. :) there are two mouse videos there.

I used to have one. I bought him when he was a wee little baby and stayed with me till the day he died. He lived a little more over 2 years. I remember one day, I looked in to his cage and he wasn't there! He chewed off the wire holding his door and got out in the middle of the night! We looked and looked everywhere but couldn't find him then when my dad was having a shower, he climbed out of the drain hole! He was all black and smells so bad that we had to bath him a few times to clean him!!! Eeewww. In Malaysia, there is always a hole on the bathroom floor for water to flow out and the toilet is kind of wet most of the time. Then another time, he got out went in to a store room to hide and we had to take out ALL the stuff from that store room and he was in the very corner of the very last box that we removed. It was good though. He was a veyr cute little companion.

Guinea Pigs
 

I had an adorable Guinea Pig named Dusty when I was a kid. I love that little guy. I would highly recommend them. They're affectionate and loving little balls of fluff. :D Sorry but I don't know much about hamsters. All I know is my cousin Nicole has what she THOUGHT were 2 girls but it turned out they were male and female. She ended up having over 20 babies and before she had a chance to stop her, the mama ate HALF of the litter! :eek:

So, what did you ever decide, Chachi?? Is she getting a hamster??? Inquiring minds want to know:D

Gerbils
 

Soon as I read the gerbils post, I was flooded with memories. When I was little (a very long time ago), we lived in the country, surrounded by corn fields. We always had a problem with little field mice after they harvested the corn. I guess all that big equipment scared the little things out of the fields and into our house. Mom had to fight them every fall. One year, we lost a gerbil in the house. That fall, mom found a colorful "mouse" in a trap. It was not the same gerbil we lost, but it was definately not all field mouse either. It was a white and brown, big-eared "moubil or would that be gerbouse." After a second one turned up, mom could not use the traps anymore. So the little cross-breeds had a reprieve. After a few chewed wires and an invasion of the pantry -- the humane novelty worn thin -- she finally had to get tough and think of them all as mice to get them out of the house. We were never allowed to have gerbils again.

My duaghter was about that age when she got her first one. I helped her alot at first with the cleaning. Now she does it all herself and does a good job. She has had this one for over 2 years now.

She is getting a couple of dwarf hampsters. We have already went out looking and have picked out the habitrail we are going to get. Right now Alexa Rae has to help us organize her bedroom and her playroom and after we get that done we are going to get it. My Husband is going to build up the tubes so it goes all around her room.

My 7 year old son has a hamster. its his 1st pet (for him only) and he is great with 'Speedy' every morning the 1st thing he does is feed his hamster and he cleans him out himself too. His sister on the other hand used to have rabbits and she never cleaned them out or feed them it was always left to me.

Make sure you watch the tubes. I remember mine used to chew right through them and sleep in the wheel-thing. :rolleyes:

LMAO, that's the funniest thing I've read in a long time!!!! :D I can just imagine... "well, I guess 'Andy' should really be 'Andrea', because 'he' is a girl!" LOL

I've never had a hampster, but a few of my friends had them. They seemed to love those little plastic balls you can put them in and the roll all over the floor by running. I don't remember my friend's stinking at all. He (I think it was a he) did bite me once though - OW!! They're so soft and cute though. :)

Wow, the tubes all around her room sounds very cool!

My hamster bit a lot. Even when he was handled quite a bit. Mine smelled really bad too.

I hear rats and mice make much better pets. But the dwarf hampsters are really cute.