Things You Should Know Before Buying a Pet Hamster or Rat
Things You Never Knew You Needed to Know About Having Small Animals as Pets
Let's say your small child wants a rat or hamster and after getting one and having it in your home for a week, you suddenly find you are the one taking care of the little critter. You may see your little hairball doing things that turn your stomach but they are perfectly normal in the rodent world.
If you have a rat, the first thing you will notice when you bring whiskers out to play is that they are incontinent. That is to say...they pee all over everything including you, your clothes, your furniture, the floor as well as anybody else that may hold them. They are not potty trainable and you will end up pulling all your hair out trying before it happens.
If you have two young male rats, you may notice they hump each other like they are having sex. Don't worry, they can't get pregnant if they are male, but you might not want to let them get to close to the dog, or your leg. Your dog may not like it and well your leg will just end up getting urinated on.
Hamsters on the other hand are quite cute but not as affectionate as rats. They also have some bad habits. Most hamsters are nocturnal, this means they will sleep all day and only get up at night to play. Not the best pet for a child that is up all day and sleeps all night. You may also notice you hamster has a long cleaning routine after he wakes up and bothering him will only upset him. As you watch your little hamster cleaning you might notice him picking up the poo pellets in his mouth and flinging them out of his bed as he goes looking for more bedding to stuff in his nesting area. This is all quite natural.
Hamster will on occasion also eat their own poop. This is also very natural and will aid in the natural digestive process, it's called Coprophagia and if you have a dog, rabbit or cat you may have seen them doing it as well. Some animals like rabbits, do this in order to digest all the nutrients found in their foods.
Both hamsters and rats like a variety of foods but giving them a store bought mix may not be enough as they will only pick out the foods they like and leave the rest for you to throw away during the weekly cleaning.
Published by Mary Kirkland
Mary is originally from Redondo Beach, California and now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband and daughter. Mary has had extensive experience with small animal care as well as rescuing and re-homing.... View profile
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4 Comments
Post a CommentThey may be scent marking you, but those dribbles as you call them are not how they scent mark, that is pee. because they are incontinent. They may use the potty when they know they need to go, just as they would use a specific corner in their cage when they know they have to go. Another thing I would like to correct you on is they WILL eat Guinea pig and hamster foods. All mine did when they found some left over from the hamsters being out on the couch or in my chair.
One more thing. Rats will not eat everything. They won't eat rabbit, guinea pig, or hamster food. I actually use rabbit food for their litter box. It's cheap, easy to clean, and they don't eat it. If you have to buy commercial rat food. Get specially formulated rat blocks. You can also feed them a good brand dry dog food. I feed my rats a mix of Kibbles and bits, rat blocks, oatmeal, and dry noodles. Then they get fresh food too every night. Usually fresh fruits, veggies, cooked noodles... pretty much the same things I eat, minus the seasonings like salt and pepper.
Some things I would like to correct you on. Rats CAN be potty trained. Mine are! They have a litter box in their cage, and when I bring them out for play time I bring the litter box out with them. Now I'm not going to say they are perfect little angels and use the box every single time. They do use it most of the time. Also if you have a male rat it could sent mark you. Kind of the way male cats scent mark, except they will dribble a few drops of pee here and there on you. It's telling other rats that you are theirs. A few females will do it too. I have one female that scent marks me on my arm. It's completely odorless and washes right off.
Funny, I never associated their toilet habits with incontinence.