How do I know if my hamster is happy and how to bond more with her?

Question

I have a year and a half teddy bear hamster named Fiesty. I have had Fiesty since she was a baby. In Fiesty's life she has had three cages. One I just got her on Auguast 1st and I got her the Crittertrail 2. Fiesty LOVES her new cage. Fiesty is a very active hamster, who always escapes from her cage or her ball.She'll chew on her cage bars until she is let free. Fiesty has always gotten into trouble. She's escapesd around 11 times out of her cages, escaped 4 times from her new ball I bought her last month, been lost under the couch, been in the pomeranians mouth and live to tell her tell, had her other cage before the new one I just got her knocked over by the cat and the cat chased her (thats why I had to get the new cage), and just 2 days ago Fiesty escaped from her ball and the cat grabbed her and had her on her back when my mom grabbed her. My mom wouldn't have known if Fiesty wasen't squeaking from being terrified. I've heard hamsters do this when they're scared. When I heard my mom yelling at the cat I ran into the living room and my mom handed me my poor hamster. I took her in the bathroom and saw that Fiesty must had been in the cats mouth because her back was wet from the slobber I guess. I grabbed some toilet paper and saw that my hamster was bleeding.This made me bust in tears because I love my hamster and thought that she was going to die. We didn't have the money to take her to the vet so we just put some neosporin and peroxcide on her untill it cleared up. And now Fiesty's spot is just a little red but she doesn't have any scabbs or open wounds.Although her hair is a little spiky from the neosporin (evan though I have tried to take a little water and scrubb it out) but other than that she's back to her old self.I take care of my hamster as best as I can.I give her fresh food and water each day. And every day when I go balck berry picking, ( we have a black berry bush in our backyard), I always give her the biggest one I can find.I brush Fiesty's hair with a brush that I got her from the pet store. I clean her cage in every two weeks. I usually take Fiesy under my trampoline to let her play (with me cloesly watching and always by her side), and to eat some grass.I put Fiesty in her ball to run around in the house for about two hours each day.Always bringing her water bottle to her every thirty minutes encase she is thirsty.Then putting her in her cage to see if she has to go to the bathroom, then putting her in her ball again.I give her treats that are good for hamsters, and to make sure it's ok I put a list of foods on the fridge that I got from a website on the internet that tells you what fopds are good and what there're good for and what foods are bad. So if you answer this I want to know Do you think my hamsters happy? And how can I bond more with my hamster?Please help!!

Answer 1

When u buy a cage ask the owers if u can make sure the bars are stirdy so they cant move thts wat i did

Answer 2

wtf?

who would take the time to read all this?!?

deffinately not me, hunn

just give it a cheese ball or whatever.

i'm sure that would thrill her..or him

[sorry, i didnt take enough interest to found out if it was a male or female]

:-/

Answer 3

My hamster has been chased by two cats (and I'm still amazed he wasn't touched by them), had his cage knocked down by my dog, and traveled some 1,500 miles with me from one state to another.

It sounds like you're bonding fine with your hamster, and if she's a year and a half old, she's pretty healthy.

The only thing I'd do differently is clean her cage every week. And I'd also recommend a different cage: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.js...

Answer 4

OMG-

are you FREAKIN kidding me?

who the h**l has time to read this????

Take your rodent on a rollercoaster and bond bond bond....

more flags more fun !

Answer 5

U want to "bond" w/ ur hamster? okayyy then.....well, you could always just pet her and feed her. Keep her clean, happy, and healthy. thats the only way i can think that would get you guys uhmmm "closer" together...

Best of Luck. : ]

Answer 6

Make sure you never neglect it. Change the cage often and let it play in grass outside. Reminder if you don't clean cage ammonia will build up in cage and kill it. Many many years ago as a kid I had one and didn't clean cage enough and he died and I feel guilty today about it 30 YEARS LATER! You will e fine just always give it fresh air and a clean environment.

Answer 7

I read the whole thing.  It seems like you are being a great hamster mommy.  I can only suggest a couple things.

1)  to help cure her escaping I suggest getting extensions for her cage.  It will give them more room to explore and they won't feel so trapped.  One of my hamsters, Bubba [a teddy bear too], also loved to escape.  We had a critter trail 3 for him.  For Christmas I got him a Crittertrail Z [i think that was it] and attatched it to the cage.  Now he chews less and has not escaped since.

2) to bond with your hamster, pet it often.  and hand feed it when ever you can.  I recently got a new hamster, Lorelei, who had a lot of social problems when it came to being with people.  (she was never held for the first 3 months of her life :( ), the day I brought her home she was hissing and showing her teeth, I was not able to hold her, and not even pet her.  Since I feed Lorelei her favorite foods by hand.  She still has a lot of problems but there is a HUGE improvment.  I can pick her up and she doesn't mind it for a while.  Since your hamster seems like a sociable hamster this should strengthen a bond you already have.   Also handle it as much as possible.  You develop a lot of trust this way between you and your hamster.  The day it falls asleep in your arms is when you have an unbreakable bond.  I have had only one hamster do that out of my experience with 6 hamsters.  Unfortunetaly she passed away on June 13th.  And the day she fell asleep in my arms was in April.  It will take a very long time to develop a trust like that.  Just keep what you are doing and your hamster will remain happy and with these pointers your bond should grow.

I hope this helps!

Answer 8

well I didnt read the whole thing but I can answer your question. If your hamster is eating well, playing regularly at night, and sleeping soundy during the day it is pretty healthy. you can "bond" with her by holding her dayly but not too mucha and by offering plenty of healthy treets,.

Answer 9

I definitely think your hampster must be the happiest hampster alive. I don't think there is any more you can do because you already do everything.  

Answer 10

u can tell u have a happy hamster if:

1. it yawns or stretches when it wakes up

2. its fur is thick, soft, clean, and shiny

3. its active and loves to run around

it seems that ur hamster escapes a lot and gets into trouble. sometimes this is because its bored. does it have a wheel inside its cage? plenty of tunnels and toys?

and u shouldnt let the hamster run around while a cat or dog is in the house. it could get injured again, and will become stressed becuz its scared. (hamsters do squeak when they're scared or hurt btw). so if u let ur hamster out, ALWAYS make sure cats and dogs are out of the house. and if u dont want it escaping from the ball, keep an eye on him at all times.

something u can do to bond with ur hamster is to create a mini playground for it. Take a really big cardboard box and put toilet paper tubes, cups, ladders and other toys inside. hide yummy treats and seeds everywhere in the playground, and let the hamster find it and store it in her cheek pouches. this is what hamsters naturally do in the wild, so she'll love it! my hamster sure does - it really makes her happy. (this also keeps ur hamster from getting too bored). you can hand-feed her treats as well - it'll help her bond with you.

if ur hamster has a clean cage, fun toys, delicious and nutritious food, and excercise, she'll be happy and healthy :)

hope that helps ;)

good luck :)

Answer 11

From my experience with hampsters- we had four.

It is really hard to tell if they are happy, there not like cats and dogs, it almost seems as there more solitary. Just make sure to pick her up and pet her and she will get used to it and you. Eventually she will become accustomed to you.

Next thing, be really careful with the cat and the hampster. I have cats as well, and my cats were always watching them. They wound up with wet tail caused from stress and died. Wet tail is really hard to tell (if you don't have too much experience with hampsters, I wouldn't be able to tell but I know my fiance would) However, they die quickly when they have wettail and the stress of cats can cause them to develop this. Just try to keep the cat away from the hampster. We actually switched from hampsters to guienie pigs after they died because they hold out better if  you have cats. Good luck  

Answer 12

im probably the only one who will read ALL OF THIS, next time try to elaborate... your hamster is fine. i doubt you can bond with her more byu the looks of it. what you should do is keep your other pets away from her, shes in easy reach for the cat and dog. she bites her cage, not because she wants to escape, but because she needs to teeth. hamsters need to wear some of their teeth away because it can be painfull if their teeth get too long. buy her toys to chew on.  

Answer 13

d**n haha

Answer 14

To tell u the truth its really hard to have a relationship with a hamster....get her a nice cage make sure its clean and little wheel to spin on and she be very happy:]

Answer 15

if it pisses all over you and crawling on you its probably happy