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Ruth Edwards · 07-07-2017, 01:20 AM

I'm curious about why pet owners, myself included, behave the way they do. I started thinking about this from reading all the threads about people wanting to breed their hamsters and putting males and females together even when they hadnt thought much about the consequences.
No judgement in this thread at all, but just interested to know why people want to have extra pets taking over their homes, reducing the amount of individual attention each pet gets.
When Dylan and I had our first hamster, Ivy, I thought it would be nice if she had babies. I thought she was such a lovely pet it would be nice to perpetuate her. And I thought it would be interesting for my son, but I'd be taking the responsibility myself. As it was Ivy never met any other hamsters .
When we got a second hamster I loved his long fur and friendly nature and again thought it would be good to have more ( dont worry, not going to happen) and I started to look around for a suitable partner for Cotton . I was looking on gumtree and found all the ads for unwanted hamsters quite depressing. They put me off baby hamsters for a long time.
I understand why people want to be proper hamster breeders and keep records of which genes they carry etc and I would like to get one one day. But what puzzles me is this strong urge a lot of people get, especially as children, to bred their pets.
Any psychologists out there?

07-07-2017, 01:20 AM
Ruth Edwards Senior Hamster Join Date: Feb 2017 Location: Petersfield Hampshire England Posts: 499	Psychology of pet owners I'm curious about why pet owners, myself included, behave the way they do. I started thinking about this from reading all the threads about people wanting to breed their hamsters and putting males and females together even when they hadnt thought much about the consequences. No judgement in this thread at all, but just interested to know why people want to have extra pets taking over their homes, reducing the amount of individual attention each pet gets. When Dylan and I had our first hamster, Ivy, I thought it would be nice if she had babies. I thought she was such a lovely pet it would be nice to perpetuate her. And I thought it would be interesting for my son, but I'd be taking the responsibility myself. As it was Ivy never met any other hamsters . When we got a second hamster I loved his long fur and friendly nature and again thought it would be good to have more ( dont worry, not going to happen) and I started to look around for a suitable partner for Cotton . I was looking on gumtree and found all the ads for unwanted hamsters quite depressing. They put me off baby hamsters for a long time. I understand why people want to be proper hamster breeders and keep records of which genes they carry etc and I would like to get one one day. But what puzzles me is this strong urge a lot of people get, especially as children, to bred their pets. Any psychologists out there?