Syrian Hamster Care Standards

Habitat

Syrian hamsters should always be housed alone, as they are naturally solitary in the wild. Never keep them together in the same enclosure, as serious fighting and injuries are very likely to occur.

In the US, the minimum enclosure requirement is 600 square inches of unbroken floor space, but we require our adopters to have an enclosure 775 square inches or larger. The larger you can provide, the happier your hamster will be! Small enclosures cause a lot of stress in hamsters, and oftentimes makes bonding/taming a more difficult process. Please see our Enclosure Recommendations page for some ideas!

Bedding depth needs to be a minimum of 8-10 inches so that your hamster is able to create proper burrows. Hamsters in the wild create burrows up to 6 1/2 feet deep, with numerous chambers for storing food, nesting, and even a "bathroom"! They are very tidy little creatures! Deep substrate allows them the opportunity to fulfill their natural instinct to burrow.

A wheel must be provided with a minimum diameter of 11". It's important that the hamster's back is not curved at all while running. Their body should be straight from front to back to prevent spinal injuries and arthritis. Running surface should be solid. A wheel with spokes or mesh can cause "bumblefoot" in hamsters, a painful condition causing redness, sores, and possible infection in their footpads.

Fresh water should be provided at all times via a water bottle or water bowl. Many people keep both in the enclosure so that if the bottle becomes clogged/stuck, the hamster has another water source. It is very important that they always have access to water, as they can become dehydrated in as little as 24 hours if they have no water source. Water bowls should be washed and refilled daily, and bottles should be washed and refilled at least twice per week. Every night when I feed my hamsters, I check their water bottle to make sure it isn't stuck. Just a little tap on the ball at the end of the straw is all it takes.

At least 2 digging substrates should be provided for enrichment. Examples are play sand, coco fiber, cork granules, and corn cob granules.

An enclosure should contain many hides and tunnels, giving your hamster places to hide and feel safe. You should also provide different things to chew on such as wooden chew toys, unshelled nuts, and uncooked pasta.

Nutrition

Hamsters are omnivores and need a varied diet of seeds, legumes, protein sources, vegetables, and fruit. They should be provided a constant supply of high quality lab blocks, along with a high quality seed mix scattered around the enclosure so they can forage like they would in the wild. This provides great enrichment for them, as opposed to just offering the seed mix in a bowl. 1 tablespoon of seed mix should be given every other day, while lab blocks should be in constant supply.

Vegetables (and a small amount of fruit) should be given 2-3 times per week. Not only does this provide great nutrition for your hamster, but it also enriches their lives by providing more flavors and textures for them to enjoy. I highly recommend buying or growing organic fruits & vegetables. Pieces should be no larger than the hamster's ear. This way if your hamster decides to add them to their hoard, the small pieces will dry out quicker and not turn moldy. The Ontario Hamster Club has a great list of safe & unsafe foods, and a downloadable PDF version. I recommend saving it to your phone so when you're grocery shopping, it's easy to access!

Sprays are another great source of food and enrichment. Some sprays that Syrian hamsters tend to enjoy are flax, sorghum, wheat, oats, and millet. What are sprays, you ask? I'll let Victoria Raechel explain!

Enrichment

It's important to have lots of enrichment in the enclosure because hamsters are very curious, intelligent, active little creatures and will thrive when given things to chew and explore.

Sprinkling their seed mix around the enclosure is one way to provide enrichment and encourage foraging behaviors. Herbs and dried flowers are great for foraging as well.

Sprays provide mental stimulation and an additional source of food, while encouraging your hamster to work for their food like they would in the wild. They can also provide additional cover in the enclosure, which makes them feel safe. Hamsters are prey animals, so having lots of clutter and places to hide will make them feel much safer.

Wooden chew toys and unsalted nuts in their shell are great sources of enrichment. Poke a small hole in thicker shells like walnuts and pecans to help give your hamster a head start. Whimzees made for dogs are also great for chewing. Do not get the puppy kind; they contain calcium. And do not get the sausage ones, as they contain clove bud oil, which is not safe for hamsters. The safe Whimzees are the toothbrush, alligator, hedgehog, brushzees and stix. Just be sure that whatever shape you buy, it has no white area at the end, as this is added calcium and can be potentially dangerous to hamsters' kidneys.

Dig boxes are a fun place to hide treats, and they provide a great opportunity for your hamster to exercise their natural desire to dig. Examples would be play sand (or reptile sand), cork granules and coco fiber.

Syrian hamster poking his head out of a 3-chamber hide

Cleaning

You should never completely clean out your hamster's enclosure at once. It can stress them out when they no longer smell their scent in their home. Instead if you need to replace the bedding, only remove 1/3 at a time at most (unless there's been an infestation of mites or other pests that would require a complete clean out of the enclosure). Don't worry about wrecking burrows. They can rebuild them quickly. It's more important that they aren't sleeping in urinated bedding, as this can cause ammonia burns on their skin. If there's a stash of food in the burrow, put back what's salvageable because they can become stressed if they realize their entire hoard is gone. I throw out anything that's been peed on, and put the rest back (except fresh foods).

Spot cleaning should be done on a regular basis. This includes washing their water bottle at least twice a week (water bowls should be done daily), removing any bedding that has been peed on, wiping down their wheel if they've peed on it, and cleaning out their sandbox if they use it for a toilet. Some hamsters will naturally urinate in a sandbox, but if yours does not, you can try and entice them to do so by taking some pieces of bedding they've urinated on, and placing it in the sandbox. It does make cleaning so much easier, but not all hamsters will take to it. If they do urinate in the sandbox, that should be cleaned twice a week, and you can provide a second sandbox for digging. I've done this with all of my hamsters, and it's worked out great! Dig boxes can also be refreshed on an as-needed basis. Fresh food from the night before should be thrown away so that it doesn't turn moldy.