Since a couple of months Gabriël had been asking me to get him a hamster for his birthday, and I told him he could only have one if he’d keep his room tidy. He had to keep it tidy all the way till his birthday to prove he could do it, cause hamsters make enough mess by themselves. Apparently he wanted this hamster bad enough, cause he actually managed to keep his room tidy most of the time for the past three months.
Although his birthday is on Xmas day, we always celebrate it in the last weekend of the holiday, to not force relatives to choose between birthday cake and Xmas dinner, and to avoid clashing decorations in the house.
So.. last Sunday we did the birthday thing, and one of his gifts looked quite large, and out came a hamster cage. Even before it was properly unwrapped, Gabriël complained there wasn’t any hamster in it — as if I’d wrap a live animal in giftwrap and leave it in the closet overnight 
Yesterday we went to the store to let him pick one, and this is the one he chose:
It’s not just any hamster…
It’s a “Campbell’s Russian Dwarf Hamster”!
I wouldn’t have known that name — they’re all ‘dwarf hamsters’ to me, but looking at the colouring and comparing with pictures on this site about hamsters, I’m quite sure it’s a Campbell’s Russian one. A quote from that site: “The temperaments of individual Campbell’s hamsters vary, but they are usually outgoing and friendly if handled confidently.” So far so good
Morning
We’re down to one Hamster now – but soon to be two again I’m reliably informed.
The currently resident little chap is intelligent and strong – two nights ago he ‘escaped’ from his cage four times before I found a reliable locking mechanism.
‘handled confidently’ is right – may be best to get an experienced friend/neighbour to assist with the civilising – the bite from a frightened hamster can be quite painful!
btw: links don’t come through to the rss feed.
In any event – have fun.
The ‘experienced friend/neighbour’ would be me, actually – I’ve had hamsters all my juvenile life, and only got bitten once
I always just grabbed hamsters from their cage, never asked for their permission. Until one day I read that you should just hold your hand in the cage for the hamster to voluntarily climb onto it, so I thought I’d try out that tactic: hamster didn’t climb on, it bit me in my little finger, causing an instant handful of blood.
Ever since that event, I just picked ‘em up against their will, and never got bitten again
‘links/rss feed’: ygm.
I’ve had 3 hamsters in the past years. I’ve had a hamster and 2 Russian Dwarf hamsters!
Nice! Nice info and pics! relly helpful if you need info!
I just got my hamster about a mounth ago and it has bitten me twice. Once because I tryed pickin it up when it was asleep; a pionter NEVER EVER try to pick a hamster up whiel it is asleep it BITES YOU! I LOVE HAMSTER!! WOOO
wow…im getting 2 russian dwarf hamsters on wednesday!
my friend’s dwarf hamster just had 14 babies and she is going to give me one. I have never had a hamster before so she is going to help me set up his home/play area. She tells me if you pick them up every day from the time you are allowed to touch them that they will always be friendly with you. I hope i don’t get bit
Hope your son enjoys!
i love hamsters but i don’t live in england and in america i live in french
Hi, I’m from Chile (Southamerica). I have 4 Campbell’s Russian Dwarf Hamsters in two cages (male+female and male+male). They are almost 2 year old now… but still active like day one. Their names are "Tico and Tuco" and "Flippy and Petunia". Flippy and Petunia weren’t originally mine, but I adopted them since the owner (a friend of mine) wasn’t taking good care of them (Actually, I kind of kidnapped them xD!). I would strongly recommend to all of you: If your gonna buy two hamsters, buy two of the same sex. After a year, the females start to attack the male ones -.-!
eu tenho um hamster desse qero saber mais sobre eles
valeu
xau!!!!!!!!!!!
me mandem informaçoes sobre esse hamster pois tenho um desse!!!!!!!!!!!!!
em portugues
obrigado e valeu xau!
hola soy valeria de buenos aires argentina. tu hamster es igual al mio.como se llama? porque el mio se llama pelito.
i can’t wait i am getting a hamster in to weeks time!!!
hi im getting 2 males soon i hope they dont fight!:)
i had 2 russian dwarfs, one a white one and one a brown and they were fine for a week then i noticed they were having more and more fights and one day my mum saw them have a really bad fight and one made the other one bleed so we had to separate them. i gave my bro the white one and kept the brown one its into summer now and his coat seems to have got a tidgy bit lighter but i thought they turned white in the winter
Hey yeah well ever scence we bought our female dwarf hamsters home Bugsy and Rhino,( Bugsy is really small and Rhino is really fat) Rhino would always chase Bugsy around the whole cage and she squeals like most hamsters but after like having them for about 4 months they still do it now but Rhino apparently is bitting or clawing Bugsy and now her whole but is bleeding but I don’t know if Bugsy it prego or hurt from Rhino PLEASE HELP!!!!!!
Larane, hamster buts don’t bleed from being pregnant. You need to separate them. If she is pregnant (apart from being hurt), she’ll have babies, so that will prove a pregnancy, as well as Rhino not being female. Either way, you really should separate the two. Hamsters aren’t as peaceful as you would like to believe. I once had 10 little young ones, and then one morning I had 9 little young ones and one head. Yes, they ate the rest of him.
i have got two of these hamsters and they take about a week to settle im hope this helps x x
i had a hamster kinda like that but it was a dark gray color and had a pinker nose it died yesterday on march 21 and i only had it for about seven months we think my mom accidentally froze it in the garage because it was to cold and she was in there for to long but there could have been other reasons to like probably dieing of boredom its possible it misaligned her brain maby and it could have been from something else like being dropped to much or traumatized from when my cat got or starvation