What's a hamster's intelligence?

Question

I was wondering how dumb and how smart a hamster is. Cuz i know fish are really dumb, they only have a memory of 3 seconds and then they forget everything. Well how long can a hamster remember? I'm wondering cuz i have a pet hamster lol. :P Like i know a hamster's eye sight is really bad. Only 6 - 8 inches or something right? :]

Anyways, I hope someone can answer my question. Thanks! :D

Answer 1

Hamsters are rodents and I have had many ! They are relativley smart creatures not as smart as rats or mice but they are definatly smarter than fish !

Answer 2

First, fish are not THAT dumb. And they retain memories a lot longer then three seconds. Have you noticed that around feeding time, whenever you walk by a fish tank, all the fish swarm to the front of the glass because they know it is feeding time and they know that humans bring the food? Why would fish do this if they didn't have memories longer then three seconds?

Besides, Mythbusters on Discovery channel proved goldfish remembered because they trained them to swimm through little red hoops to get food.

But, back to your question, hamsters aren't necessarily STUPID, they just can't really be trained. They are no where near as intelligent as some rodents like rats (one of my females could do over 17 tricks, including jumping through a hoop on command and climbing up a rope on command). They are solitary animals, not the brightest.

Answer 3

Fish actually aren't that dumb, belive it or not, some fish can learn tricks! iv seen it.  but they definitely aren't the smartest animals on the planet... but hamsters, they can be very intelligent. For a rodent. I'm not really sure what a hamsters memory is but that's not all intelligents is about. But yes they are very short sited.

Answer 4

believe it or not fish have a memory of over a week, many tests have been done involving training a fish to complete an obstacle course and then the obstacle course was put back in its tank a week later and the fish completed it no problem!

experts say fish actually have the memory of at LEAST 3 months!!

anyway the fact that hamsters are more than happy to run in their wheels for hours on end (without going anywhere) tells me they are pretty dumb.

rats and mice are extremely clever!

thats all :) lol

Answer 5

Fish have a longer memory than that, not that memory is a sign of smarts, but it does help. I work in a pet shop, and the fish seem more aware of feeding time than the more aware animals like hamsters and rabbits! I mean, the rabbits scatter and the fish swim to the sides of the tank, so...

Hamsters only have a memory of about twenty four hours or so, and they are very short sighted, you're right.

The memory is effected by their vision because they can't see very well- they rely a lot on a sense of smell. They can 'remember' a sense of smell as safe or not safe, though it isn't so much a memory as something that gets inbuilt over time.

Answer 6

As others have already mentioned, fish are smarter than many ppl believe.  I've noticed how our fish are able to recognize certain shapes & to form relationships with each other, so it's reasonable to assume that they have some memory & intelligence.

Our dwarf hamster also has changed his attitude toward us *dramatically* since we adopted him from a rescue last October.  We were warned that he was very agressive & had probably been abused early in his life, in fact the rescue ppl scooped him into the carrier with his igloo b/c they were reluctant to pick up the poor little guy.  Since he gradually became less aggressive & more trusting toward us, even when I occasionally skipped day of handling him, it's apparent that he's capable of learning, therefore has some memory & intelligence.  Another sign of his intelligence is that he quickly learned how to steer his exercise ball & definately prefers being "free-range" in the ball instead of being restricted to the Hamtrack.  He also obviously enjoys attention although he still gives an occasional nip.

Yes, your hamster does have very poor eyesight but he (she?) depends much more on hearing & smell.

Answer 7

Hamster can be pretty smart they can learn to come by their name.