Homeless Hamsters

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Socks Mum

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How do you prevent small children from losing interest in their pet hamsters? I think in their recommendations, rescues should address this issue, tactfully of course. Children are often too young to have the self discipline to keep to a schedule of care for their pet without adult involvement. Nagging and criticising the child for failures risks putting them off their fragile little pet. It may be too much to face the enormity of potentially being the cause of the pet hamster becoming ill or dying. In fact, throughout the hamster's life, to sustain the child's interest, the adult must be a good role model and take the initiative, providing a lot of the care themselves. The child can assist with this as far as he or she is able, but it is the parent who has to do a lot of the feeding, spot cleaning, health checking and play penning until the child is mature enough for the hamster to depend on for care. It is a thorny issue and potentially conflict laden. The adult has the task of explaining why the hamster appreciates being well cared for, comfortable and at ease, and that this is a source of pride and achievement to be able to do. Words can't really achieve all of this by themselves, but it does need a lot of communication.
 
I think rescues vet prospective adopters very carefully - the issue is pet shops will sell hamsters to anyone - along with unsuitable cages sometimes. So it does come down to the parents really. Our first one was for a child (for all of us but a child's pet) and I realised very quickly that this was my responsibility for the life of the hamster. As it happened I fell in love with the little hamster! Even if children don't lose interest, they can't do some of the jobs that need doing on their own as they're not mature enough to understand some of the risks. So need constant supervision.

I think a lot of parents buy their child a hamster on a whim and have no idea what they're doing and then don't want to look after it themselves. So they blame the "child has lost interest" thing. There are some genuine cases where someone is allergic.

So as with everything, it comes down to pet shops needing to be responsible - but they are commercial places. Sadly it's not just hamsters - it's dogs and other pets as well.
 
The rescues do vet carefully, I agree, their standards and experience are high. They could address the issue of "who cares for the hamster?" in their guidelines though because these set the standards for pet shops (eventually filtering through) and a lot of people refer to charity web sites for guidance when Googling hamster care. I think conflict over this is often a cause for a hamster losing his or her home 😔 and can be anticipated and resolved with guidance. But as you say, for instsnce, the pet shops won't find it easy to refuse to sell a hamster that is intended to be a present for a small child.
 
No rescue would rehome a hamster to a child. You need to be over 16 or 18 to adopt so please do not worry about that.

Some people do have the idea that a hamster is a child's pet and I do not think they are the kind of people to go to a rescue anyway.

I would not say rescues set the standards of pet shops because pets shops are there to make money. They are a business and their priority is to make money so they will sell tiny cages, balls and other unsuitable items simply because it makes money.
 
Happy Hamsters do ask questions like that in their applications - how many children in the house, what ages, who would be looking after the hamster etc. They also want to see a photograph of the cage set up before allowing a hamster to go there.

Pet shops won't sell hamsters to children but they will sell them to parents who have a child with them and sadly they probably don't vet the parents or ask questions.
 
The staff at the Pets at Home branch where I met Socks are genuinely fond of the animals in their care and do make a point of striking up a rapport. They remember Socks and really enjoy seeing photos and videos of him and ask after him, and me. I think they try to model good care, and are concerned about having a caring reputation. They do offer advice on care and information. It's a tricky field. P@H also offer assistance if the owner is struggling and have animals for rehoming.
 
Yet they sell unsuitable hamster things. I am sure some of the staff are nice people but the business is not thinking of animal welfare, sadly.

It is rare they have correct hamster advice especially as the cages they sell are under minimum standards.

It is very sweet you show pictures of Socks to them and they ask after him.😊
 
Maz said:
I think rescues vet prospective adopters very carefully - the issue is pet shops will sell hamsters to anyone - along with unsuitable cages sometimes. So it does come down to the parents really. Our first one was for a child (for all of us but a child's pet) and I realised very quickly that this was my responsibility for the life of the hamster. As it happened I fell in love with the little hamster! Even if children don't lose interest, they can't do some of the jobs that need doing on their own as they're not mature enough to understand some of the risks. So need constant supervision.

I think a lot of parents buy their child a hamster on a whim and have no idea what they're doing and then don't want to look after it themselves. So they blame the "child has lost interest" thing. There are some genuine cases where someone is allergic.

So as with everything, it comes down to pet shops needing to be responsible - but they are commercial places. Sadly it's not just hamsters - it's dogs and other pets as well.
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Sadly this is so true I don't believe in pets for children they should all be family pets and the adult teaching the children responsibility if the child becomes uninterested then the care should automatically come from the adult
 
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