Things You'll Need
- Small animal enclosure, such as commercially available hamster cage or 10-gallon glass aquarium with lid
- Small animal bedding, such as aspen or oak shavings, citrus litter, recycled paper products or corncob by-products
- Separate room with a door for hamster cage
- Commercially available hamster chow or pellets
- Small nontoxic bowls
- Hamster water bottle
- Hamster exercise wheel
- Empty toilet-paper roll or clean jar
- Bleach
- Scrub brush
- Detergent soap
Instructions
Housing
Purchase a small animal enclosure made of stainless steel, hard plastic or glass with a solid floor that is resistant to gnawing, and that can be easily cleaned and sanitized. The enclosure should have a secure lid and be well-ventilated. Adequate floor space for an adult hamster's cage is 200 to 400 square inches with a height between 6 and 12 inches.
Provide at least 2 inches of bedding for solid-floored cages. Many materials are commercially available and include recycled paper products, citrus litter, aspen or oak shavings, compressed wheat straw or corncob by-products.
Designate a safe room for the hamster, free of any other animals such as dogs and cats, and keep the door closed when unsupervised. The room temperature for a hamster should be between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
Provide a dark place for the hamster to hide such as a tube, jar or can that is made of nontoxic nonabrasive materials.
Avoid housing groups of hamsters, especially multiple males, or introduce a new hamster into another adult's cage. Except the Djungarian hamster, most hamsters are relatively asocial, territorially aggressive and best housed separately.
Nutrition
Offer a commercial hamster chow in pellet or block form as the primary food. Feed within 90 days of milling to ensure the highest nutritional value. Feed supplements, treats and seeds sparingly as they should comprise no more than 15 percent of the diet.
Use nontoxic small plastic dishes for food and place them on the floor of the cage.
Offer water through a sipper tube or water bottle. Do not use open crocks for water as they are prone to contamination and spillage.
Offer fresh food daily with the understanding that the hamster will store and hide food throughout its cage in small burrows and that all of this will be removed in weekly cleaning. Remove fresh vegetable and fruit treats before they spoil.
Exercise and Health
Provide the hamster with an exercise wheel or ball for daily exercise.
Have a veterinarian examine the hamster and perform a fecal examination for parasites. Sometimes a veterinarian will recommend treating a hamster for certain intestinal parasites just to be safe.
Monitor for signs of disease such as diarrhea, anorexia, lumps on the face or body, external parasites, skin lesions, or hair loss. Have a veterinarian examine the hamster appropriately.
Provide the hamster with a nontoxic wood chew toy for gnawing, as constant wear is necessary for dental health. The hamster has open-rooted continually growing teeth.
Quarantine any newly acquired hamster in a different room from current pets for a minimum of 30 days to limit spread of disease.
Sanitation
Inspect the cage daily and remove liquid and solid wastes.
Clean the cage thoroughly one to two times weekly by removing all of the bedding and stored food. Scrub with soap and water, and rinse well. Use dry fresh bedding material.
Disinfect the cage twice a month with diluted bleach solution using one part bleach to 30 parts of water. Let the solution stand for at least 15 minutes and then rinse well with plain water.
Clean the food containers and water bottles daily with soap and water, and disinfect them weekly.
Wash your hands well after touching the hamster or anything in contact with it. Wash your hands between the handling of different hamsters and other pets.