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Who will care for your hamster if going on holiday?
Much of this depends on the circumstances – how long the holiday is, how far away you’re travelling, how old the hamster is, are just a few considerations.
Petsitter coming to your home
Generally, the best option is for the hamster to stay in their familiar environment and to have a pet sitter, or other trusted person, come to your home once a day. Ideally early evening. To put out food and water for the hamster and check everything is ok.
Ideally have the person come round before you go away, to meet the hamster, show them where everything is kept, or where you will leave everything out for them. As a reminder, you can leave a sheet of notes out before going with what to do re food and water, where things can be found, your contact number, and a contact number for an emergency vet.
This is the least stressful arrangement for the hamster in most circumstances. They do need to know someone is around even if just once a day, as well as being fed. They may hide away the entire time, with a different person, but that’s ok and it also means they can easily cope without being let out of the cage while you’re away. In fact it’s probably better if they don’t have out of cage time to avoid accidents or the hamster escaping – unless the person pet sitting is very experienced with hamsters and knows the hamster.
In particular make sure the person knows how to check a water bottle is letting water out and checks the water level every day.
Ask the petsitter to talk to the hamster a bit while they’re there as this can be reassuring for the hamster.
Hamsters seem to adapt to this well – they have familiar surroundings and smells and no upheaval. It is not unusual for them when you return as it's home.
Your hamster will be pleased to see you when you get back.
Taking a Hamster to be boarded
The first option above is preferable. However there are places that board hamsters when people go on holiday. They can be experienced with hamsters and this may give a sense of security knowing they are left with someone who knows what they’re doing.
The downsides are the hamster may feel stressed by noises and smells or other hamsters around but generally they are in safe hands and can adapt - it could be interesting for them.
Things to check before doing this:
Leaving a hamster with a friend or relative
This option is similar to the option of taking them to a pet boarder except that you know the person looking after the hamster and there aren’t other hamsters around usually. You need to be sure the person taking the hamster in is comfortable about it.
Preparation includes a combination of both the above options. In terms of taking the cage with you ready to set up at the other end. And also preparing the friend or relative in the same way as you would the pet sitter in the first option above, with all the information and supplies needed and an emergency vet number looked up for the location.
Providing the person is trusted with the hamster, this can be better than a boarding place as you can spend time with the friend or relative and the hamster before you go away so the hamster settles in and things don’t feel too strange. They can sense the relationship between you and the other person so accept them easier.
A downside is that someone familiar may be less professional about things and be a bit too relaxed and decide to let the hamster out and not be able to get them back again (or the hamster escape or get lost or injured). Careful instructions need to be given about whether or not you want the hamster left in the cage or allowed out of cage time. It could be an idea to take a pop up ball pit or similar playpen just in case the person needs to get the hamster out for some reason. And also show them how to get the hamster out safely – eg let the hamster walk into a tube or ball and carry them that way – and demonstrate it. And instruct them not to just pick the hamster up and lift it out of the cage.
If travelling by train and you can’t take a large hamster cage with you, then ideally organise for another cage to be provided at the friend or relative’s house – but still bag up and take the cage contents with you so things smell familiar.
Again it would be better to get a pet sitter if at all possible, as the logistics start to stack up – the journey, the cost of getting another cage bought or sourcing another suitable cage big enough.
Much of this depends on the circumstances – how long the holiday is, how far away you’re travelling, how old the hamster is, are just a few considerations.
Petsitter coming to your home
Generally, the best option is for the hamster to stay in their familiar environment and to have a pet sitter, or other trusted person, come to your home once a day. Ideally early evening. To put out food and water for the hamster and check everything is ok.
Ideally have the person come round before you go away, to meet the hamster, show them where everything is kept, or where you will leave everything out for them. As a reminder, you can leave a sheet of notes out before going with what to do re food and water, where things can be found, your contact number, and a contact number for an emergency vet.
This is the least stressful arrangement for the hamster in most circumstances. They do need to know someone is around even if just once a day, as well as being fed. They may hide away the entire time, with a different person, but that’s ok and it also means they can easily cope without being let out of the cage while you’re away. In fact it’s probably better if they don’t have out of cage time to avoid accidents or the hamster escaping – unless the person pet sitting is very experienced with hamsters and knows the hamster.
In particular make sure the person knows how to check a water bottle is letting water out and checks the water level every day.
Ask the petsitter to talk to the hamster a bit while they’re there as this can be reassuring for the hamster.
Hamsters seem to adapt to this well – they have familiar surroundings and smells and no upheaval. It is not unusual for them when you return as it's home.
Your hamster will be pleased to see you when you get back.
Taking a Hamster to be boarded
The first option above is preferable. However there are places that board hamsters when people go on holiday. They can be experienced with hamsters and this may give a sense of security knowing they are left with someone who knows what they’re doing.
The downsides are the hamster may feel stressed by noises and smells or other hamsters around but generally they are in safe hands and can adapt - it could be interesting for them.
Things to check before doing this:
- Check reviews of the boarding place
- Go and have a look and see what you think of the place
- Check if the hamster can be in its own familiar cage while there or if it will need to be in a different cage (better if they can be in their own cage).
- Get a good, guinea pig sized, pet carrier for taking the Hamster there – the cage needs to be taken separately with the cage contents and some substrate from the cage, bagged up, and the cage set up again at the other end, as it’s not safe for a hamster to be in a cage while travelling. The hamster could get thrown across the cage when braking, and injured. The food and water could spill or something could fall over and land on them. So they need to travel in a pet carrier with some bedding, food a little house and access to liquid (a piece of cucumber is fine for a short journey). The pet carrier needs to be secured so it can’t get thrown or fall over – eg wedged into the floorwell. Don’t clean cage items before bagging them up, and take some of their substratre and their nest, so everything in the cage still smells familiar to them.
- Take some of the hamster’s usual food mix so they don’t have a sudden change of diet.
- If you’ve been away for 10 days or more, a hamster may think it has moved to a new place, with different people, and have adapted to the new surroundings and could actually get stressed when they come back to your home. If the hamster exhibits stress behaviours (bar chewing, repetitive behaviour, circling or generally seems stressed then allow them 2 or 3 days to settle down. If they still seem very stressed or bar chewing a lot, it might be necessary to do a cage clean (ie clean the bars and base and replace most of the substrate). Normally a full cage clean isn’t recommended as it can be stressful in itself, but in this situation it is to remove the scents the cage has picked up from the boarding place to reduce some stress. You may need to be patient with the hamster for up to a week or two, and give them extra out of cage time.
- Taming may be set back a bit because the hamster has adapted to new surroundings and different routines and smells etc. They may think you’ve gone. The taming and familiarity can come back again fairly quickly with a bit of time and patience.
Leaving a hamster with a friend or relative
This option is similar to the option of taking them to a pet boarder except that you know the person looking after the hamster and there aren’t other hamsters around usually. You need to be sure the person taking the hamster in is comfortable about it.
Preparation includes a combination of both the above options. In terms of taking the cage with you ready to set up at the other end. And also preparing the friend or relative in the same way as you would the pet sitter in the first option above, with all the information and supplies needed and an emergency vet number looked up for the location.
Providing the person is trusted with the hamster, this can be better than a boarding place as you can spend time with the friend or relative and the hamster before you go away so the hamster settles in and things don’t feel too strange. They can sense the relationship between you and the other person so accept them easier.
A downside is that someone familiar may be less professional about things and be a bit too relaxed and decide to let the hamster out and not be able to get them back again (or the hamster escape or get lost or injured). Careful instructions need to be given about whether or not you want the hamster left in the cage or allowed out of cage time. It could be an idea to take a pop up ball pit or similar playpen just in case the person needs to get the hamster out for some reason. And also show them how to get the hamster out safely – eg let the hamster walk into a tube or ball and carry them that way – and demonstrate it. And instruct them not to just pick the hamster up and lift it out of the cage.
- Make sure they know how to close the cage securely and suggest a routine of checking the cage is closed after feeding every night.
- In particular make sure the person knows how to check a water bottle is letting water out and checks the water level every day.
If travelling by train and you can’t take a large hamster cage with you, then ideally organise for another cage to be provided at the friend or relative’s house – but still bag up and take the cage contents with you so things smell familiar.
Again it would be better to get a pet sitter if at all possible, as the logistics start to stack up – the journey, the cost of getting another cage bought or sourcing another suitable cage big enough.
I've tried three of those options - the first time our Syrian was taken to a lady who had quite a few hamsters and knew about hamsters. We did have quite a few problems after he came home but I'm still not sure if it was that he had adapted to being somewhere else (we were away for 10 days) or that a hamster had died in the room he was in the night before we picked him up - or a combination of both maybe. He bar chewed incessantly for about two weeks and was very stressed and didn't seem to know us any more. It did settle down after a cage clean and some extra taming sessions. He was able to stay in the same cage and the bar chewing stopped.