# Hamsters as pets



## Amy thea (Dec 18, 2021)

Ugh I hate when parents buy hamsters for children as a small easy pet that takes up little space and money.

JUST ME ?


----------



## teddylion (Oct 16, 2019)

Hamsters are, theoretically, a good introductory pet for children, but I'm often horrified by the size of cages sold in pet shops. It's cruel to keep such an active creature in such a confined space. I think those small plastic cages in particular shouldn't even be legal to sell.


----------



## Amy thea (Dec 18, 2021)

Not really hamsters hate being woken from sleep.They Rarley come out during the day.They should never be a introductory pet as they require care still maybe not as hard but till a ton


----------



## Engel98 (Oct 7, 2018)

teddylion said:


> Hamsters are, theoretically, a good introductory pet for children,


I strongly disagree. They're not a good pet for kids, period. There's nothing simple about them. Is a child going to take it to the vet, no. Are they going to pay for vet treatment, no. Will they let it out into a appropriate free roam area every night even if the hamster doesn't get up until 12am, no. Likelihood is the child will get bored after a few months and that's only if it (hamster) doesn't get badly injured/killed before that. Too many die at the hands of children.

Pets and children do not mix. They're not responsible enough. They don't have the time/money to care for ANY animal.

They may help a responsible adult with the care aspect under close supervision, but that's it.


----------



## 1507601 (Jun 26, 2020)

The culture of poor care of rodents as pets is to be blamed on pet shops, I think, and doesn't necessarily mean children can't care for them. Of course children don't have the money to take them to the vets, or the ability, that's the parent's job. It's a joint effort where the parent steps in where the child can't. I do agree that many, many children are too irresponsible to care for an animal and this should be emphasised a lot more - but not all. I know there was a child posting on this forum complaining that their _parent _was waking the hamster up, etc. 
Personally I find it interesting that children were often given dogs of their own in the past to care for, and I think many of them actually did perfectly fine. Maybe we underestimate children a bit, and lump them all into one category.


----------

