Are Hamsters Aggressive Creatures?

Myth: Hamsters are very cruel and aggressive creatures.

Truth: Hamsters are just like any other animal, they just react accordingly to the environment they are in.

What is People's Impression on Hamsters?

Some people may have nightmare childhood memories of hamsters: not only do they often bite people, but they also kill each other and their cage mates, and even mother hamsters eat their babies. 

Some people who do not know think that hamsters are "cruel and evil" creatures, and even use this as a reason to abuse hamsters, which makes people feel very sad. 

But humans should actually reflect on the fact that this is probably because we do not let hamsters get the care they deserve. We can just blame them in a noble way, but simply to point out a basic fact: any animal will react accordingly to the environment it is in. Let's take one phenomenon at a time.

Why Do Hamsters Bite People?

Hamsters bite people, probably because of the poor living conditions of hamsters. Imagine a hamster living in a small space, it is already very nervous. At this point the owner reaches in, and the hamster will feel that someone is invading its small place, so it will make a violent counterattack on the invader, including chewing. This is an aggressive behavior inside the cage and will be improved by placing the hamster outside the cage in an open space. Also, it is a good choice if you prepare large wooden hamster houses for them.

Cruelty to cage mates: Syrian and Chinese hamsters are solitary animals with a strong sense of territoriality. Putting solitary animals in a cage to share space goes against their natural nature and is in itself a very cruel act, so don't blame them for fighting each other very cruelly. 

Let's say we put a snake and a mouse in a cage, and the snake eats the mouse, do we blame the snake for being "vicious"? Of course not, then how can we condemn the solitary hamster? 

And then look at the slightly more gregarious first-line, third-line, and male and female? There is a difference between having a colony and being able to share a cage. In nature, hamsters that live together in groups must be of a uniform species and have been mutually selected. 

Hamsters with incompatible temperaments are discarded to reenter other groups. This is not the case in human conditions, where we are given "group members" and the hamster cannot leave the cage if integration fails. 

Remember to Separate Hamsters 

Some owners are not experienced enough to separate the hamsters in time for a fight, and the living conditions are not right, even if there is a situation where the different species are combined in the cage, then the hamsters will not be able to avoid fighting with each other. 

For example, although we have a social nature, and others to interact with are and then gather, not and then scattered. If we put two people we never knew in the same prison, can we expect them to get along well?

Eating your own pups: A mother hamster does not eat her own pups for no reason. In nature, hamsters that feel uncomfortable, weak, or unable to raise their young may kill them to stop the damage, a naturally evolved form of culling that can also occur in other species. 

In a domestic environment, hamsters retain this natural instinct. A similar situation can occur if the mother is too young to conceive, or if she does not receive adequate care and nutrition.

If humans themselves do not take proper care of hamsters and ignore their basic needs, then we are not in a position to blame hamsters for their behavior. 

It's like saying that a child is not a good student, we have to look at how the parents give the environment and whether the school has sufficient resources first. If the parents' guidance is wrong, the school teacher is not well educated, and the child does not get the proper care, how can we blame the child for not reading well?