Individuals of the hamster order are essentially mobile and active animals, however, it is sometimes found that they accumulate extra pounds. A fat hamster, whose photo is posted on the page, may suffer from impaired functioning of the digestive tract, its metabolism may be disrupted, which, in turn, will lead to the rapid death of the pet. Obesity, which occurs in hamsters, can lead to irreparable health problems, and therefore it is important to know how to deal with it and what preventative measures to take to prevent it.
Appearance of the largest animal
Nowadays, many breeds of hamsters have been developed. They differ from each other in color, fluffiness, and size. Some of them lead an active lifestyle, others are more passive. Therefore, choosing any breed is quite difficult.
The breed of the largest hamster in the world is called Karbysh, or common hamster. Body length is 32-35 cm. There are specimens with completely black fur, and only white spots may be located on the paws. The muzzle of this breed is slightly elongated. The ears are small. The fingers have fairly sharp claws.
Representatives of the Syrian breed are considered large, their size reaches 35 cm. Unlike capybaras, they get along well with people. These pets have a beautiful color; few animals have this color in nature. It is golden, reddish and peachy. Syrian hamsters are considered the most beautiful.
Through selection, animals of almost any color, as well as multicolored ones, were obtained. They are most in demand among pets.
Representatives of the Radde breed are considered the fattest of all existing representatives of the genus. Their weight can reach up to 600 g. Height is about 30 cm. Outwardly, they are a little reminiscent of the Syrian species. Not recommended for keeping at home.
The skin is brown in color; darker areas may be present. The cheeks are plump. There are light spots on the paws and sides. Vision is weak, but it is compensated by a good sense of smell and hearing.
How much does an Angora hamster cost?
You can buy a baby secondhand at bird markets and pet stores. A hamster with long hair costs on average 200-300 rubles. If you search well, look through the advertisements, perhaps they will give you a pet, because hamsters are very fertile. An Angora hamster is inexpensive, but to provide it with the proper conditions, you will have to spend money.
Hamsters live on average 1.5-4 years, during which time he must buy food and, if desired, vitamins and accessories.
A cage is the first thing you buy for a pet; you’re not going to keep it in a jar, are you? The fluffy hamster is not a participant in the reality show “Behind the Glass”. It will be uncomfortable for the baby there. The can is cramped, you can’t put a wheel and a cozy house for sleeping in it. The cage is well ventilated and easy to clean. The average price of a cage for an Angora is 600 rubles. If it is larger, then the price is correspondingly higher.
Deception or truth
Among all this diversity, the capybara stands out, which many classify as hamsters. It is mistakenly considered the largest representative of this species. But it belongs to the capybara genus. The animal only vaguely resembles a hamster, which causes errors. Capybaras are quite trainable. They are often kept at home by residents of South America. A very large hamster is an animal from the category of myths.
Capybara with a cat
Habitat
The common hamster lives mainly in the steppe and forest-steppe zones of Eurasia. Its distribution area is quite wide. Animals of this species are found in the northwestern part of China, in the east and south of Siberia, in Kazakhstan and the northern part of Mongolia.
The large Radde hamster prefers to settle on already developed lands in the steppes, which are rich in perennial grasses. Representatives of this species are found in the Caucasus, Stavropol region, Ciscaucasia, and also in Georgia.
Reference. The number of common hamsters has decreased significantly over the past 20 years, so programs have been developed in different European countries to protect these animals.
Features of behavior
The habits of the largest hamsters have their own characteristics. Such rodents are difficult to tame. The remaining, smaller specimens can live next to humans, creating almost no problems.
If there is a choice, it is best to choose males for home keeping: they are less aggressive than females. If there are several animals, then they should be kept separately. In nature, individuals do not live in pairs or flocks. Together, the female and male unite only for the duration of mating. After this period ends, conflicts often arise between them, which can result in injuries on both sides.
The optimal cage size for a hamster is 40x60 cm, and the wheel should be 16 cm in diameter. In this case, the pet will sit comfortably in the cage. The animal must have a house in which it will stay during the day.
How to deal with obesity in hamsters?
Obesity is the result of a sedentary lifestyle and poor nutrition. First of all, you need to review your pet’s diet and change the amount of food it consumes per day. It is worth knowing that the animal should eat two heaped tablespoons of food per day. This amount of food is enough for him not to feel hungry. If you notice that your pet is constantly eating excessively, you should adhere to the following recommendations:
- reduce the amount of grain consumed by animals;
- diversify your diet;
- reduce the number of nuts in the feed;
- give more vegetables and greens.
In addition to reducing the amount of food, it is necessary to provide the animal with an active lifestyle, make sure that it sits in one place less and gets bored. To do this you can:
- Buy a running wheel.
- Buy a running ball.
- Let the animal run around in the evenings, for example, on the sofa, since at this time of day the animal is most active.
It is worth remembering that the animal must be constantly supervised outside the cage, since even while walking on the sofa, the hamster can fall and get injured, or simply run away and die.
If you provide the animal with proper nutrition, your fat hamster will lose weight after a while, and the condition of his body will improve significantly.
During the daytime, it is better not to disturb your pet and you should not wake him up in order to make him run. This is due to the fact that hamsters are nocturnal animals and are accustomed to sleeping during daylight hours.
Large specimens for home keeping
Djungarian and Syrian hamsters are most suitable for living at home. They, like other breeds of this species, are clean. They wait out the entire daylight period in the hole and only come out at nightfall. Large hamsters of the Karbysh and Radde breeds remain wild, meaning they can bite. And given that this animal’s teeth are quite sharp, the consequences for the owner can be disastrous.
The Karbysh breed, settling next to humans, creates many problems. Summer residents really do not like these animals, despite their cute appearance. Just a couple of individuals can completely deprive the owner of hope for a good harvest. All the grains that are attractive to the animal will migrate from the garden to the personal pantry. The proximity of this species does not cause delight among gardeners, despite the fact that wild hamsters can feed on insects and destroy them in their summer cottage.
Rodents store large reserves of food in their burrows. The problem with keeping large breeds of hamsters is that they create winter reserves weighing from 15 to 20 kg. In an apartment it is quite difficult to provide such an opportunity.
It is necessary to care for large individuals belonging to the Syrian breed, taking into account their characteristics. The cage for them must be chosen in a large size. This also applies to the wheel in which the pet will run. For such animals, it is necessary to purchase a cage with bars, not a plastic one. The distance between the bars should be such that the animal does not stick parts of its body through the bars.
Most hamsters lead an active lifestyle, but only at night. The animal must run up to 12 km per day. It is quite difficult to provide such loads in a cage. That's why the wheel was invented. Special balls are also used. While in them, the animal is able to move around the apartment quite quickly.
In nature, in addition to grains, hamsters can eat worms and snakes. We are talking about wild breeds. In urban conditions, it is quite difficult to provide such a diet. Store-bought hamster food does not meet these needs. Domesticated breeds do well on plant-based foods.
These can be beets, lettuce, tomatoes, pumpkin, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, dandelion grass. Caring for a hamster, which is a wild species, is quite complicated.
How to determine if you are overweight?
To find out if your hamster is obese, you need to do the following:
- Take the animal in your hands and gently lay it on its back.
- Feel the ribs from the abdominal side.
If during the examination you notice that the ribs protrude and can be felt too clearly, this indicates that the animal is underweight and needs to be fed better. The inability to feel the ribs indicates that the pet has problems with excess weight. If each of the animal's ribs can be felt individually, but they do not protrude, we can say with confidence that the pet's weight is normal.
Guard! What to do if you are overweight?
No need to panic, take action. If you have asked a veterinarian for help, he will help you create the right diet and daily routine. Or take care of it yourself.
So: good mood, diet and exercise. First of all, solve the issue with training. In nature, rodents travel several kilometers a day, so they need exercise. Buy a quality wheel and a special ball for walking around the room. Pay attention to playing with your hamster, but do not forget to watch closely so as not to lose him.
Now it's time to reconsider your diet. How often do you feed your hamster fatty nuts and seeds? It is not necessary to exclude them, just cross out junk food from the daily menu and use it as a rare treat.
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Add as many vegetables and fruits as possible. Carrots, cabbage, celery and apples are great. Never offer your pet oranges - sour citrus fruits harm digestion and cause stomach diseases.
Finally, make the fat guy work hard for food! There is no need to carefully put it in the feeder every day. Move it to another part of the cage so that the hamster has to run around in search of a hearty dinner. Don't worry, he will benefit from burning some calories.
Djungarian hamster: contagious diseases
When kept in isolation and kept clean, infections in hamsters are extremely rare. The animal can become infected with food, bedding, or from humans - which is why it is so important to wash fruits, vegetables and hands before contacting the rodent. treatment for viral diseases , and if the doctor determines a bacterial infection , antibiotics are used.
Not everyone has the opportunity to see a specialist about their rodent. Therefore, the owner can resort to antibiotic therapy at his own discretion in some situations:
- the hamster has a cold and the nasal discharge is not clear, but greenish-yellow (pneumonia);
- the wound has become inflamed, or a lump with pus has swelled (abscess);
- profuse diarrhea “out of the blue” (intestinal infection).
Hamsters are sensitive to medications, so human antibiotics cannot be used - do not calculate the dose. The veterinary drug “Baytril 2.5%” is used at a dose of 10 mg/kg (0.4 ml per 1 kg). Dzungarik weighs about 40-50 g, the dosage for such a baby is 0.02 ml. Injected subcutaneously, pulling back the skin in the area of the shoulder blades. Injections once a day, as prescribed by a doctor, 2 times a day, course 1-2 weeks.
Guard! What to do if you are overweight?
No need to panic, take action. If you have asked a veterinarian for help, he will help you create the right diet and daily routine. Or take care of it yourself.
So: good mood, diet and exercise. First of all, solve the issue with training. In nature, rodents travel several kilometers a day, so they need exercise. Buy a quality wheel and a special ball for walking around the room. Pay attention to playing with your hamster, but do not forget to watch closely so as not to lose him.
Now it's time to reconsider your diet. How often do you feed your hamster fatty nuts and seeds? It is not necessary to exclude them, just cross out junk food from the daily menu and use it as a rare treat.
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Add as many vegetables and fruits as possible. Carrots, cabbage, celery and apples are great. Never offer your pet oranges - sour citrus fruits harm digestion and cause stomach diseases.
Finally, make the fat guy work hard for food! There is no need to carefully put it in the feeder every day. Move it to another part of the cage so that the hamster has to run around in search of a hearty dinner. Don't worry, he will benefit from burning some calories.
Character and training
Angora hamsters have a gentle character, this is their main advantage. Fluffy hamsters are friendly towards people and get along with children. If you believe the reviews of the owners of cute creatures, they can follow the voice of the owner if he often communicates with the baby. To tame an Angora hamster, do not hesitate to talk to him. After he is no longer afraid of you, carefully pick him up.
If you buy a baby at the age of 1.5-2 months and immediately begin training, he will very quickly get used to the tray and also master other skills.
The Angora hamster is a very gentle and vulnerable creature, so try not to scream in his presence, but behave calmly. Despite this, Angora rodents are very brave, so from the first meetings they are not afraid of humans. They are funny: to cheer yourself up, watch your baby’s behavior during the period of his activity.
In which zone does a hamster most often live?
The first ancestor of the animal was discovered by the scientist Waterhouse in 1839, who subsequently made an accurate scientific description of this family. The homeland of the animals is Syria.
Today it is known that the animals live in the countries of Europe, Asia, Siberia, Iran, Syria, America and Africa. Zoologists continue to study this amazing subfamily, and have told the world many interesting facts. Here are some of them:
- hamsters prefer dry climates, steppe and forest-steppe zones;
- found in desert, semi-desert, dense forests;
- some species have adapted to the altitude and create families on rocky terrain up to 3.5 thousand meters above sea level;
- Agricultural fields and summer cottages have become the animals’ favorite places;
- the harsh and cold climate of Siberia, the Far East, and Northern China is not a hindrance to these animals;
- hamsters densely populated the arid and hot deserts and semi-deserts of southern Africa.
What if it's not really fat?
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If your beloved beautiful hamster suddenly gets fat, and neither exercise nor a healthy diet helps her, think about it! What if it’s not a matter of obesity at all, it’s just that a charming addition of 10-12 babies will soon appear in your cozy hamster house?
And most importantly: try not to overdo it in trying to make your pet's life better. You shouldn’t hide food so that he can’t find it, feed him nothing but cucumbers, or torment him with daily five-hour training sessions! After all, a little swelling never hurt anyone, right?
Living in the owner's cage, the hamster does not need to constantly search for food and, therefore, has no motivation for permanent movements. Only innate mobility still forces the animals to climb into the running wheel and rack up kilometers there. If the abundance of food when keeping hamsters in cages is combined with the absence of any devices that stimulate motor reactions, then this is a direct path to obesity in the animals, which will be discussed further.
Head, eyes, teeth and ears
The head is large, wide with a well-filled, blunt and relatively short muzzle, with developed jaws. The head profile is slightly curved (convex). The head is set tightly on the shoulders, with no visible neck.
The eyes of the Djungarian hamster are large, convex, rounded when viewed from the front, but slightly almond-shaped when viewed from the side, and set wide apart.
The ears are of medium size, larger than the eyes, set quite wide, vertical, rounded at the tips, without folds, when viewed from the side, the outer edge of the ear has a slight bend in the middle, the ears are not pressed to the body, clearly visible above the coat.
Flaws
Minor deviations from the correct type. Slightly small eyes, slightly deep-set, slightly irregular in shape. The ears are slightly irregular in shape, small, flattened. Narrow and/or unfilled muzzle, narrow and long head, straight head profile. Slightly damaged ears.
Vices
Absence of an ear or ears, any damage to the eyes. Very strong deviations from type. Any deformities.
Cover
Includes a description of the hamster's fur. The coat is soft, short and very thick. Gives the animal volume and smooth lines of the body and head. The legs including feet, tail and ears are covered with shorter and sparse hair.
Flaws
Sparse, uneven, wrinkled coat. The ears, tail and paws are not covered with hair.
Vices
Large areas of the body without hair.
Large hamsters that can be kept at home
Although the common hamster has a rather attractive appearance, even an animal raised in captivity usually remains wild and does not particularly like contact with its owner. Due to its size, it requires a lot of living space. So, if you want to get the world's largest hamster, you need to think carefully about it. However, there is an alternative for those who want to keep a hamster of considerable size at home.
The Syrian hamster can reach 13 cm in length. Among its relatives, it stands out in size. This is a hamster that is easy to tame and care for. The minimum cage size for this species is 40 x 60 cm. A running wheel is required: the minimum diameter is 18 cm. Syrian hamsters are attractive with a variety of colors, and there are also long-haired varieties. You can buy them in pet stores, and in ideal conditions they can live up to 3 years.
Thus, the largest hamster in the world is the common hamster. This is a fairly large rodent with a complex character. Despite its unpretentiousness, it is not very popular as a pet. The capybara, which many call “the largest hamster in the world,” does not belong to this family, although due to its easy-going nature it may well become a good pet.
About the content
How picky is the little inhabitant? In fact, hamsters from China are easier to keep than their counterparts. To keep a Chinese hamster you need:
A cage with sparse vertical bars. This is a prerequisite for a pet’s comfortable and safe life. Hamsters are nimble and agile companions; thanks to their size, they are able to crawl through wide bars and go explore the owner’s apartment. At best, such a trip will end with the researcher being discovered and placed in a cage. At worst, after a certain amount of time a dried corpse will be found behind the furniture. Therefore, it is advisable to take the choice of cage seriously if the owner wants the little pet to live longer in this world. Be sure to purchase rodent litter. Pet stores offer a huge selection of different fillers, ranging from cheap sawdust to corn product. The main fillers that are popular among rodent owners are sawdust, wood and corn filler. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. Sawdust is cheap, but quickly becomes dirty and practically does not retain the smell. Wood filler can cause calluses on hamsters' paws; corn filler is expensive. However, corn litter is the best of the bunch. The product does not cause allergies, the hamster can taste it, but there will be no harm. Corn litter absorbs odors perfectly; changing dirty to clean is done once a week. Drinker and feeder. It is recommended to choose a heavy ceramic or metal feeder so that the hamster cannot turn it over. Plastic bowls look more elegant, but the pet is able to launch such a feeder to the other end of the cage and spill food
As for the drinking bowl, it is worth paying attention to the fixative. At a pet store, you can ask for a drinking bowl for a hamster with a fixative; they will offer several options to choose from. Are toys and houses necessary? A Chinese hamster needs a house, the photo of which can be seen above
This is a shelter for a rodent, where you can sleep peacefully, hiding from prying eyes. As for toys, numerous tunnels and loopholes will be very useful. Hamsters are active and love to run for miles. This is not a joke, the baby is able to run up to 20 km per night, because he is very energetic. Make sure you have a wheel so that your pet can get rid of excess energy by actively running around in it. Just pay attention to the material from which the wheel is made. Preference is given to metal mesh wheels, which are the safest. Avoid wheels with wide bars. Hamsters have small paws that easily fall between the bars. This will lead to their fracture.
How to contact?
Gaining trust will take patience and time. All the efforts expended will subsequently be more than repaid, since the pet will soon begin to show affection and boundless trust. So, what not to do:
- make rough and sudden movements with your hands close to your pet;
- pick up a sleeping or recently awakened animal;
- cover with your palms, trying to catch;
- make loud noises near the cage;
- leave the rodent on high ground;
- grab the scruff of the neck with your fingers;
- Trying to introduce a furry cat to a cat would be a fatal mistake.
It is recommended to constantly talk to the animal, give treats from your hands and treat it affectionately.
It is important to handle your small pet with care and caution. You should take care of a comfortable living environment: do not leave the cage in a hot or cold place, clean it in a timely manner, change the water, add food
