Pockets in its cheeks
Its cheek pouches reach back to its shoulders. It can carry half its own weight in food in them.
Rodents · A little time each day
Syrian hamster
Rodent · from Syria
A round, golden-brown hamster with a white belly, big dark eyes, small ears and hardly any tail.
- Size
- 13 to 18cm long
- Lives for
- 2 to 3 years
- Suits
- Older children and adults who are up in the evening
Bustles after you, cheeks full. Move your pointer and see.
Good to know
Six things about the hamster
It must live alone
Adult Syrian hamsters fight if kept together, sometimes to the death. One hamster to a cage.
Miles every night
A hamster may run five miles or more on its wheel in a single night.
All from one family
Nearly every pet Syrian hamster descends from a mother and her litter found near Aleppo in 1930.
Named for hoarding
The word hamster comes from a German word meaning to hoard.
Awake at night
It sleeps through the day and gets up at dusk.
The real thing
Photos of the hamster
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
Looking after one
Give it a large cage with deep bedding to burrow in, a solid wheel at least 28cm across, a house, and things to chew. Feed a hamster mix with a little fresh vegetable.
Before you get one
A hamster is not ideal for small children, because it sleeps all day and may nip if woken. It suits someone happy to watch it in the evening.
Keep going