Can hamsters bond with two people?

[mailsa]

Hello! My husband and I are gearing up to get our first hamster, and we're very excited. Have been doing a lot of research, and I'm curious about the likelihood of the hamster bonding with both of us.
Also, I'm located in the States and am only familiar with getting pets such as this from the pet stores. I've heard there are sometimes ways to adopt or get from a breeder... Does anyone have any suggestions for us to find information around this?
Thank you!

[InkyPen]

How very exciting!

Yes, it is possible for a ham to bond with two people - our Syrian is quite happy with both me and my partner!

As for rescue hams, there are two options
- local rescue organisations e.g. ASPCA
- gumtree / craigslist rescues - not ones where they're advertising a list of baby hams (clearly a backyard breeder) but ones where "my child got bored" - they are invariably in need of a cage, food and owner upgrade!

There are also some breeders, but they can be few and far between. If you can, avold pet stores as they get their animals from rodent mills, which are the rodent equivalent of puppy mills.

As you're still at the research stage, but I'm not sure how far you've got, do be aware of the minimum cage size - depending on who you listen to, it's a minimum of 80 x 50cm, or 450 sq inches, and tall enough to accommodate a 28cm wheel plus stand. That can be hard to find amongst commercial cages in the US, so most people go for home made bin cages like this Photo Guide to Making a Bin Cage

[AprilPearl]

I'm afraid I don't really know how things work in the states, so I can't answer that one, though I expect you could find a breeder online.

As for bonding, I have always been the primary care taker of all my hamsters. But, once tame, none of them have ever showed any aversion to receiving homage from all and any humans, provided said human handled them correctly. Hamsters aren't like dogs who sometimes only tolerate one person. You shouldn't have any problems with both becoming friends with your ham.

[JLPrairie]

Petfinder and Craigslist are good tools to use in the US if you want to find adoptable hamsters near you.
Here is a good list of hamster breeders in the US:
Hamster Breeders (North America - Canada, USA)

[BoredHamsters]

Sure a hamster can bond with two people, when I was 12 at my old school we rescued hamsters in our class and had about 4 hamsters at one point, for 6 of us.
All the hamsters except one bonded with all of us pretty well, but the other one just had aggression issues so we couldn't.
As for your other question, possible try craigslist like others have said, and I've heard that petco and petsmart often have hamsters up for adoption in the back so if you call them up and just ask quickly then you could see. Not sure about the breeders though because I'm British.