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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How to take care of a hamster: Expert tips to help your setup shine. Show comments. Advertisement. Advertisement. In Other News. Finance. Finance.
Hamsters feed primarily on seeds, fruits, vegetation, and occasionally burrowing insects. In the wild, they are crepuscular: they forage during the twilight hours. In captivity, however, they are known to live a conventionally nocturnal lifestyle, waking around sundown to feed and exercise. [4].
Hamsters produce two to four litters a year. Gestation takes 15 to 22 days and newborns only require nursing for approximately three weeks. The domestic hamster population is large; however, despite a rapid reproduction rate, wild hamster populations are diminishing due to habitat destruction and their place near the bottom of the food chain. [19]
Winter white hamsters are often found on the pet market in Europe, Japan, and North America. [9] Care of this hamster is similar to all other species of Phodopus. [25] The hamsters, along with most rodents, are prone to tumours. They can also receive injury in the cheek pouch by sharp objects damaging the fragile inner lining.
In the wild, they would eat a mix of plants and insects – and even our cute little domestic versions tend to enjoy a range of flavors and textures. ... They’re not great for human waistlines ...
Hamsters kept in captivity live for around 2.0–2.5 years. [22] Young hamsters provided widely varied diets early in life are less likely to suffer digestive problems as they mature, but this is not always possible in the wild due to lack of food; this causes the life expectancy of captive hamsters to be greater than that of wild hamsters. [23]
Hamsters are most active early in the night, then become less active as the night passes. [2] A study of Syrian hamsters in the wild found that they were active almost exclusively in the daytime, which is a surprising difference from behavior in the laboratory. [2] The sleeping behavior of wild hamsters is not well understood. [2]
Roborovski hamsters are found in desert regions, such as the basin of the lake Zaysan in Kazakhstan and regions of Tuva, Mongolia and Xinjiang in China. [7] The hamsters inhabit areas of loose sand and sparse vegetation and are rarely found in areas of dense vegetation and solid clay substrates. [8]