How To Hold A Hamster

Hi! My name is Marie. I am Deputy Manager of the Small Animal Department of Wood Green Animals in Cambridge here. And I'm going to guide you how to care for hamsters.

Hamsters are nocturnal, they do sleep for most of the day, so when you prepare for a hungry hamster, make sure you gently wake them up and make sure they are prepared for they are going to be waken up. So you wake them by just by moving partly some bedding and just talking to them gently. One of the safest way if it's a new hamster, stick together, to go to the tubes in the house and then you can leave this, then probe them to your lap.

Now when you handle them, let them just walk out of your hand like this one is doing here. The other way is to just slowly cup them up into your hands and hold them gently like that. Never try to pick them up by the shaft or cross them like that or just gently cup them up and then it will be quite happy to move along your hands quite easily.

Make sure you have washed your hands before you first hand to the hamsters. If it smells of food, it might gallop especially if it is a new tiny hamster. If children are handing the hamster first time, please make sure you are sitting on the floor, mostly sitting near yourself in case they do drop it because they do have a habit of walking quite quickly, so be responsible in case if they drop because of the serious injuries that can occur.

Now, that's how to handle a hamster. .