I'm getting a hamster

well its my birthday tomorrow, and i saw my dad earlier, a very rare occurance lol. he asked me what i wanted and i randomly said a hamster ive wanted one for ages,well i will have any furry really

so he said he will get me one for my birthday, even though he says at 20 i should be too old for wanting an hamster

I've had 14-ish since I was 12 til earlier this year.

So I can help and I also know a very good group of people on another forum (for bunnies) but they all know a lot about hamsters - so any questions - I'm here

Happy birthday til tommorrow btw

i have had one hamster that my friend bred when i was about 12. she was called bingo. im getting a syrian, as i like them and think some of the others are a bit small for me

We've had 5 robos in total - 2 sets of brothers and 1 set turned out to be sister and brother - they had incestual babies - ugh, one was born with 3 legs, one with 1 ear the other 3 were fine - we kept the 3 legged one - he was called Tripod but apart from them 5 we had Syrians as the rest. So

I guess you know what you're up against then

I love them. My son had one (Sulu) who was almost 3 when he died. Me and OH were in Pets At Home getting poo bags about 5 weeks ago...they now have a rescue section for small creatures. Oh dear. There he was...Screech (as named by the staff). He had been brought in in a tuperware box by his previous owners who 'wanted rid' and had no interest in him because he is huge, loud and scary. The contribution people pay goes to PAH charities (Dogs Trust and Greyhound Rescue being 2...)
Screech is now called Richard Hammond, is still huge and scary but seems very happy in our front room!!! The funniest thing was that it was OH that said we should get him and he was really anti my son getting his first hamster.

He is a Syrian, long haired...massive did I mention that? He is like a docked rat!

I wouldnt get a hamster from PAH - the ones I have gotten from the adoption centre (of course it may just be our PAH) have died within a fortnight - come with not much history and I dont like the way they are handled. We got a young one from the adoption bit (where owners take them when they dont want them) and he was called Gizmo - no history, aggressive - no I mean it - he was scary hence Gizmo for the name, perfect health - fed him what I fed the others which is PAH stuff, got the same routine as the other hamsters we had after he'd settled in for a few days - he died within two weeks of coming to us and the same happened with another female we got from there, although she was older and slightly overweight but in perfect health otheriwse - although she died a month later.

The ones we got from a small pet shop in our local town were the healthiest believe it or not. But Clo - there are loads in rescues if you want me to put you in touch with one in Surrey who can if they are able to - transport for you

It wasn't from Pets At Home....the original owners hadn't bought him at PAH, the original owners just dumped him there and PAH rehomed him, we paid a donation which goes to their charities.
Having said that Sulu, my son's hamster, was almost 3 when he died and he was from PAH...

Well I do know loads of hamsters and rabbits that have lived on into good old ages from PAH and I do know the adpotion scheme also - as I said before - I've had two from there

But I also know loads of animals that have been bought from PAH and have died the next day or after a week or have gotten a disease. My brother bought one from PAH and he'd never had a hamster before so everything was cleaned - the new cage he'd just bought - thoroughly washed and rewashed and dried, megazorb etc - the hamster contracted wet tail and died Whereas I got Ringo from our local pet store in town and he died earlier this year at the grand old age of 4.

I'm not saying anything about PAH's products but if you talk to anyone on rabbit or hamster or small furry forums - PAH is a very bad sore point due to how their animals are kept. I'll start another thread

But I do think a rescue would be a good idea though

Your so lucky!

I'd love another hamster, had one, called Pheonix, when I was 14/15, she lived a long time, I think she was almost 3 when she died. I loved her, she was an escape artist like no other and I always found her in my bed with me on so many occasions! Pheonix came from PAH, I have no idea how old she was when I got her but she was a dear little thing! I don't think Midge would appreciate any furries in my house though, so my hamster dreams are on hold just now!