The Story of Getting a Hamster

My new hamster is King of the Mountain!

I have been struggling this past month with wanting a new pet.  My husband and I own an orange kitty named Penny.  She is very sweet, but she doesn't like to cuddle with me much.  She prefers to be left alone to stare out a window all day.  And that is generally what I let her do.  And because of this, I realized that I wanted a little more company while I am at home working.  I wanted to find something so freakin adorable that I would have an uncontrollable desire to constantly take pictures of it.  (Penny doesn't like when I try to take pictures of her.)  I wanted something small and easy to take care of.  I wanted something that wouldn't stink up my house or take up a ton of space.  And that is when I decided I needed, not even just wanted, but needed to buy a hamster.  I began to do research into what type of hamster I should buy.  I had a couple different dwarf hamsters growing up, but I had a feeling that another type might suit my needs better.  It didn't take that long for me to learn of the existence of Long-haired Syrian Hamsters.  I immediately fell in love!  And I knew that I needed to buy a long-haired syrian hamster and not just any other hamster.  Throughout my research into the typical care, habitat, food, toys, health, lifespan, and personality of these hamsters, I knew I was making a good decision.  And then it was time to find one to keep.  I was a little discouraged that most of the numerous pet stores here in town don't carry this breed of hamster.  But I found one chain of stores that do: PetSmart.  At this point, I knew I needed to present this idea to my husband and get his approval for a new member of our little family.  Surprisingly, with every little effort on my part, he agreed!  And so, on the 13th of September, we went out to one of the three PetSmarts here in town.  I requested to look at the long-haired syrians, and they showed me three.  I was trying to focus on the questions I knew I needed to ask from the research I had done and to watch for any signs that the hamsters weren't healthy, but the amount of cuteness that my brain was trying to comprehend, was just too much to handle.  I chose the hamster that seemed most interested in me.  She was very small still, just the size of a full grown dwarf hamster and had a orange head and rear with creamish white in the middle.  I was so in love!  On the way home, my husband and I discussed good names.  He suggested name her Tauriel.  I thought it was a perfect fit and the name stuck.  When we got her home and opened the box, I was a little surprised at how sleepy she seemed.  She also appeared to have wet herself on the ride home.  I had to coax her out of her box into her new home.  She finally came out, ate a little, and then went to bed without exploring much.  She seemed tired and stressed from such a traumatic experience of moving to a new home that I decided that as much as I didn't want to, I needed to leave her be.  I checked on her every hour or less and she was always sleeping.  I figured this was normal due to the fact that hamsters are normally most active at night and into the morning, but sleep during the day.  However, that night, she didn't seem to get up before it was time for me to go to bed.  I continued to check on her every couple hours for the next two days.  She was always sleeping when I would look into her tank.  I couldn't help myself and I woke her up a couple times but she almost always would immediately try to go back to sleep.  I was trying my best to give her some space for 2-3 days so that she could adjust to her new home.  On Monday night, I was worried because she didn't appear to have eaten any food since the morning we brought her home.  I decided I had to wake her and make sure she actually got up to eat.  It took a while, but she finally came out of her box.  She looked sick, weak, and dirty.  I was very upset because I realized that she probably wasn't going to live much longer.  I quickly did some more research on illnesses to try to figure out what to do.  The reading was very discouraging.  I found conflicting articles, but one point seemed to be consistent: hamsters showing the all signs I saw in Tauriel, generally didn't live for more than 24 - 48 hours.  I knew that she was already too far gone.  And I realized that I had missed all the initial signs of sickness when I had first opened her box at home and probably even before that at the store, since she was the most active out of the three at the store.  I went to bed that night hoping for a miracle, but the next morning, I found her dead.  I was really upset at myself and I tried to figure out if there was anything I could have done sooner.  But I realized that she was most likely already sick at the store.  I returned her body and got a refund.  I threw out everything from her cage that I could and sterilized the rest.  And after everything was clean again, I set the cage up again, being hopeful for another chance at having a pet hamster.

I called the other PetSmarts in town to find out if they currently had any long-haired syrian hamsters and to ask some questions.  After doing some inquiry, I decided that I wanted to wait for a new shipment of hamsters to come in and be ready to be sold.  And so I waited until today!  Called the stores again to find out how many new hamsters they had and as some other questions about them.  I was very excited about the description of one of the hamsters at the north store and so my husband and I headed there so I could see this hamster in person.  The salesperson hadn't actually moved the new hamsters from the back into the cages on the floor, but he said that the hamsters were ready and I could buy one of the new ones if I wanted.  He took me to the back to show me the one I had been interested in on the phone.  It was love at first sight when I saw this hamster.  After my bad experience with the last hamster, I knew what to look for in this one.  I was very pleased at how friendly and active he was!  And he was about twice the size of the last hamster I had.  I decided he looked very healthy and told the guy I wanted to buy this hamster.  He gently picked up the hamster and talked to him as he put him in the box.  I couldn't believe how well the hamster handled being picked up!  I knew I made a good choice.  The box was taken to the register while I signed the paperwork.  The lady who checked me out couldn't believe how much the hamster was shaking and moving the box he was in.  I was also very surprised at how determined the hamster seemed to be at escaping the box.  The whole car ride home, this hamster scratched and chewed at the box.  I kept seeing a paw or a nose stick out through one of the holes as he fought to escape.  When we got home, we opened the box and let him into his new home.  He ate some food and then began to explore every inch of his cage while borrowing through all the bedding.  He popped his head out and cleaned his face off.  Then he climbed up on top of his tree trunk bed.  He finally found the hole in his tree trunk bed and curled up inside, falling asleep.

I checked on him every hour the rest of the day and he was still sleeping until around 10, when my husband and I were about to go to bed, I saw that he was awake.  I watched him for a bit as he explored some more and found his way back to the food bowl to eat more.  I went to bed that night with a smile on my face knowing that this guy would be okay.  :)