Thoughts??

[katiekay]

Hi all!

I just had a couple questions that I would be interested in hearing everybody's thoughts and opinions on! I'm divided on this subject so I would like to hear what everybody else thinks.

My first question is, how many of you let your hamster free roam around your room or your house? If you do why and if you don't why not?

My second question is, have any of you taken your hammy outside and let it roam around in a playpen or something along those lines?

Would love to hear from people!

[AprilPearl]

I have always allowed my hamsters free run of a large hamster proofed room. (Not all the time of course, just once a day). Why? They love it! They just love it! They can't wait to be taken out for it, waiting at their cage door to climb out. They love sniffing all the corners and exploring. It's more natural than a ball or even a playpen. And they can really truly run over a big area as they would in the wild. They can go at their own pace, deciding when to sit and groom and when to sniff and when to run. It is not only good exercise, but good mental stimulation. I think roaming time enhances their quality of life. It is also good bonding time for getting them to come and fetch treats and allowing them to climb on/under/around you.

Plus, whenever you put them in a playpen they will chew the sides or try to get out, which shows they are bored or unhappy in there. You should have seen my current hamster's behaviour when he was still using his playpen (we didn't want to put him straight onto the floor to roam free as a little un) as opposed to when we first let him onto the floor. He was the happiest I have ever seen him!

I would never allow my hamster to be outside, though. Too many harmful things they might eat, too much risk of an escape and probably too many overwhelming smells. Plus, there are always going to be cats and such out there.

[katiekay]

Originally Posted by AprilPearl

I have always allowed my hamsters free run of a large hamster proofed room. (Not all the time of course, just once a day). Why? They love it! They just love it! They can't wait to be taken out for it, waiting at their cage door to climb out. They love sniffing all the corners and exploring. It's more natural than a ball or even a playpen. And they can really truly run over a big area as they would in the wild. They can go at their own pace, deciding when to sit and groom and when to sniff and when to run. It is not only good exercise, but good mental stimulation. I think roaming time enhances their quality of life. It is also good bonding time for getting them to come and fetch treats and allowing them to climb on/under/around you.

Plus, whenever you put them in a playpen they will chew the sides or try to get out, which shows they are bored or unhappy in there. You should have seen my current hamster's behaviour when he was still using his playpen (we didn't want to put him straight onto the floor to roam free as a little un) as opposed to when we first let him onto the floor. He was the happiest I have ever seen him!

I would never allow my hamster to be outside, though. Too many harmful things they might eat, too much risk of an escape and probably too many overwhelming smells. Plus, there are always going to be cats and such out there.

Thanks for the reply! Yes, I mean as just for a little while not all the time. I'd hope people wouldn't let their hamsters live in their people houses, roaming about I used to set up my hammy in my room but covered the underside of the bed and such so she couldn't get in there, and letting her roam around was her favorite thing to do as well! Tonight for the first time I let her roam around under the bed as well and other places she hadn't been able to before and she was in heaven!

Good point about the being outside. I'm sure there's a lot of pesticides as well that would be very harmful.

[AprilPearl]

No worries. I think so long as you ensure than the area is clean and escape-proof, it is healthy for both the mind and body for a hamster to get roaming time. I’m glad she enjoyed it re outside: a friend of mine used to let her hamster on her lawn and she never escaped or became ill, but I simply do not feel it is worth the risk personally.

No doubt opinion on free roaming will be divided, but I feel that it benefits a hamster. And I have never had a hamster escape except once and that was by opening his cage door! It was a good thing then that the room we kept his cage in was escape proofed, otherwise god knows if we would ever have found him.

[AmityvilleHams]

With going outside it's going to be the same as anything else,in that if someone never sees obvious problems from doing something they may not think it's really a problem There are massive risks for any animal going outside including hamsters,rabbits,and guinea pigs.This is especially true in the US where you'll never truly get away from annoying pests including flies,mosquitoes,many different types of ants,sand fleas(sometimes referred to as noseeums,but either way they are horrible and painful),etc and that's only a tiny amount of the risks!

I think free roaming can be beneficial if done right.This would mean not using any chemical cleaners in the area,among other things that would be common sense

[Fluffagrams]

Originally Posted by katiekay

Hi all!

I just had a couple questions that I would be interested in hearing everybody's thoughts and opinions on! I'm divided on this subject so I would like to hear what everybody else thinks.

My first question is, how many of you let your hamster free roam around your room or your house? If you do why and if you don't why not?

My second question is, have any of you taken your hammy outside and let it roam around in a playpen or something along those lines?

Would love to hear from people!

I've never let my hamsters free roam in a room simply because as Chinese, it would be very easy for them to get lost. I also find that the majority of my Chinese have actually found too much space overwhelming and consequently feel more secure in their playbins.

In answer to your second question, I've not taken my hamsters outside in the last couple of years as a lot of people in our area have cats who would love the opportunity to play with a creature that very much resembles a mouse. I took my first Chinese outside in their exercise balls once and put them on the grass but they just sat there all confused. I don't use exercise balls anymore so there literally would be no safe was for me to take them outside to play.

[SKB_Hamsters]

I used to allow my Sherbet free roam playtimes as she throughly enjoyed exploring the room. However free-roam playtimes can be quite risky with a hamster, even though you might have throughly checked everything to make sure that they are Hamster proof - they tend to find something to try to squeeze behind and beneath as they are very determined beings. An event happen to me when my Syrian, Sherbet managed to squeeze herself through the tiniest gap to get beneath a wardrobe (still to this day I don't know how she manage to squeeze through the gap) - it was one of the scariest and upsetting moment when she manage to get back out realised that she had injured herself when her top teeth had broken - she needed emergency out of hours vet treatment. This is why now I wouldn't recommend letting a hamster free roam even whilst supervised as thing can happen so suddenly. I now only ever use a playpen - I've made one like this - Stylish playpen - as you can make a really big play area which you can fill out with safe toys, and I also made it big enough so I can sit inside with Pumpkin so she can climb over me and get cuddles whenever she wants to! Pumpkin really enjoys herself in the playpen, and I feel relaxed that she is safe and can't escape or injure herself.


I also used to take my hamsters outside occasionally fully supervised always keep my hand near them so I could pick them up quickly and only let the roam in a secure playpen but in recent year I've got a lot of big birds which come into and fly above my garden as well as a neighbours who have recently got cats so I wouldn't risk taking them outside now. Also you would have to make sure that no chemicals like pesticides or weed killers have been sprayed on the grass to.

[AprilPearl]

That must have been so scary SKB! I’m so sorry that it happened to Sherbert.

Thankfully, I am lucky enough to have a room with no holes or furniture to climb around/under. This is my hall, which also runs over half the length of my house, so provides a wonderful running area. However, if I did not have this utterly water tight (so to speak) area, I too woud use a playpen. And I would not reccommend letting a hamster run free anywhere that was any less secure. I realise most people aren’t lucky enough to have such a perfect place, and playpens are obviously a wonderful substitute which a hamster will be very happy in. I don’t want to give the impression that you need to let your hamster roam, no matter what. There needs to be a bit of risk assessment first!

[Drago]

I personally have allowed all my hamsters to free roam in the room their cages are kept in. However, this was only doable since they're Syrians and couldn't get through random holes easily. If you had a smaller hamster though like a robo or Chinese I wouldn't ever recommend letting them out and about, you'd never find them! Free roaming is very beneficial and I have found that most of my hamsters have enjoyed it, with my females seeming to like it a bit more than the males.

I haven't taken my hamsters outside simply because I doubt they'd enjoy it! Plus, where I live, the temperatures are consistently over 95° Fahrenheit which is just way too hot for a hamster. However, I don't see too much harm in it if you live in a temperate area. I also think my hamsters wouldn't enjoy the sun or all the sounds so I limit their exploration to the indoor world

[Hamsterita]

No, and No. Unfortunately I don't have a room that I can hamproof... too many furnitures with gaps, or wires hanging around. The only area that would be safe is the main corridor, but it's open to my house stairs and they aren't solid (they also have gaps between steps) so... It's a nono. But I use a playpen or I let him roam free in my bed

And I live in the city, I don't have backyard or anything like that. So no outside time for him either