How much do they understand

[Lynternette]

I always talk to mine like a person. I sing to him as well, poor soul. He usually gets Sandman at bed time. [Sorry Dusty if you like opera].

[Erin Loves Dwarf Hamsters]

Most animals can be taught to 'understand' words and I know some of my hammies respond to their names but they don't realise that it is their name. Most pet owners call their animal when they have food for them so they associate the sound made (their name) as the call for when food is available. Basically my Thistle believes that the word "Thistle" means I have something for you to eat come see.

Unlike dogs hammies will only learn a certain number of 'commands' as long as their is something in it for them like a treat, cuddle or time out of the cage. For example, if you link each different treat with a different command theoretically you could teach a hamster tricks because it knows that performing them will lead to it being rewarded with food. I could teach my hammie that if it uses its wheel it gets a yoghurt drop and then link the action with the word 'wheel' then when the word is used the hamster will use the wheel because they believe doing so will result in a yoghurt drop. (This is all theory remember, it would take a lot of time and patience to train a ham)

Dogs however need leadership in order to live a happy life and so although you may teach it the command originally by giving treats when it has performed them, once it has learned the command the dog will perform it even if it is no longer given treats because doing as it's told is all a dog knows in life, it just wants to please its leader. A hamster would soon ignore you when it realised that it wasn't getting treats for it any more

So yes, I think hamsters do 'understand' what we say but the meaning behind it is different. They are shallow creatures at heart

[Hammymad]

Hahah bless their "little shallow hearts" xx

[Vicki S]

I firmly believe that they do understand more than we would like to think


As i did an animal mangement course in biology theory apparently they have more cells and atoms to make them up than us which makes them more advance than us

when you think about it are we smart enough to get someone else to bring us food put a roof over are heads and pay all the bills????

and knowing how to get away from predators etc.



Vicki

[Erin Loves Dwarf Hamsters]

when you think about it are we smart enough to get someone else to bring us food put a roof over are heads and pay all the bills????

To be fair to them they don't ask us to do this, we do it out of choice They are definitely smarter than us in some aspects though. After all we would have to be taught to build tunnel systems, they know it by nature. Although I suppose one could argue that it is because in our natural environments humans would live in caves and trees rather than underground so we don't need to know how to build tunnel systems

[Vicki S]

Originally Posted by Erin Loves Dwarf Hamsters

To be fair to them they don't ask us to do this, we do it out of choice They are definitely smarter than us in some aspects though. After all we would have to be taught to build tunnel systems, they know it by nature. Although I suppose one could argue that it is because in our natural environments humans would live in caves and trees rather than underground so we don't need to know how to build tunnel systems

but they are smarter in that sense they don't even need to ask we just do it for them

although in the world wars we did need to build tunnels etc.



Vicki