17/07/2022
Why hamsters are relatively “wild”
Hamsters, as we probably know, can sometimes be bitey, flighty, and generally very timid and shy. While this does depend on the individual hamster, there are many underlying reasons why hamsters are not nearly as social and friendly as their rodent cousins, rats and mice. The main reason is that hamsters have only been in captivity since the 1930s. Researchers wanted to domesticate hamsters in the early 1930s to use as lab animals. They eventually found some Syrian hamsters and were able to breed them. Since then, hamsters were introduced to the pet trade and our homes. Roborovski dwarfs only entered the pet trade in the 1970s, which is one of the reasons they are often the most difficult hamster species to tame.
Syrian hamsters and the other hamster species have been domesticated for less than a hundred years. Domestication of a species to make them more friendly and better pets can take hundreds, if not thousands of years. For comparison, there is evidence rats were domesticated sometime in the 1600s, and mice may have been domesticated around 15,000 years ago. In this time, we’ve been able to breed more friendly rats and mice that are less scared of humans and see us as friends, not predators. Dogs, man’s best friend, didn’t start out that way. But over thousands of years, they have evolved to love us and be dependent on us. We haven’t really had the time to consistently do that with hamsters. Keep in mind that generally hamsters are solitary species vs. colony animals like rats and mice, so we should expect their social skills will differ.
Another factor affecting hamster temperament, is that hamsters very quickly entered pet breeding mills, which do not work to improve temperament, but breed for profit. For this reason, ethical breeders working to improve hamsters as pets are very important. These ethical breeders are helping to further domesticate hamsters, so that one day, they might become just as or more social and bold as their rodent cousins. Ethical breeders also ensure young hamsters get proper socialization in their formative weeks. When taken from mom and siblings too early, they are in a heightened survival state not making bonding and being friendly a priority. As a prey animal their instinct is to just focus on not being eaten.
In short, hamsters are much closer to their wild relatives than most other domestic species, which is why we have to cut them some slack and adjust our expectations of our furry friends.
