by Ryan Traenor
Hamsters are great little pets. They are cute, furry, cuddly, funny and relatively easy to take care of. Hamsters only have a lifespan of about 2 years, so following a few easy tips you can help to keep your hamster healthy and live the best and longest life possible.
More than a decade after our fellow citizens began bedding down on the sidewalks, their problems continue to seem so intractable that we have begun to do psychologically what government has been incapable of doing programmatically. We bring the numbers down—not by solving the problem, but by deciding it’s their own damn fault.
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
Hamsters are clean little animals, so help them out by keeping their cage clean. Use a nice non-allergenic bedding material; you can check your local pet store to see what is available. Their bedding material needs to be small pieces so they can build nests to keep warm in. If you are short on funds and cannot buy them some bedding material, you can use paper or cloth, but you may have to change it a little more often as the smell of urine will be fairly strong after about 1-2 weeks, depending upon the size of their cage. When using paper, make sure the ink printed on the paper is non-toxic, because they will chew pieces off to make into a nest. You can use shredded white office paper if available; they love it. Alternately, if you have access to cloth, even from clean worn-out clothing, you can cut it up into strips and give it to your hamster for their bedding.
Your hamster will stay healthy longer when you give it regular exercise. A wheel in the cage is good but it is also very beneficial to get a ball for your hamster and let him run around in it for an hour or so per day. This gives him a change of scenery and more exercise. A hamster has a lot of energy to burn, especially at night. If your hamster is still awake when you check on him in the morning, give him a run in the ball for awhile. Just don't forget he's in there. If he falls asleep in the ball, that can make him feel lonely and sad. Also, there is no food or water in the ball, so one hour is plenty at a time.
Make sure to feed your hamster the right foods. A hamster is not a vegetarian. Hamsters are omnivores, and they need some protein as well as the grains and nuts found in their purchased pet food. Some of the protein sources hamsters love are meal worms, grasshoppers, crickets, cheese, dry cat food (don't feed this too often), or little strips of unseasoned chicken. Your hamster will also get health benefits from some fresh fruits and vegetables, which you can feed them occasionally. Uneaten fresh food should be removed from their cage before it goes bad.
Finally, give your hamster lots of love. Happiness is part of a good healthy life for your pet hamster. Ryan Traenor is a virtual real estate consultant. Lethbridge SEOhttp://lethbridgeseo.com