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Emanon · 01-21-2013, 07:26 AM

Hello all,

As many of you know, there are still plenty of people out there who have disinformation about hamster care or continue to pass along harmful, wrong ideas about diet, cage specifics, etc. Having kept hamsters for almost the entirety of 35 years, I've always been interested in the factual side of our little furred friends, often talking shop with pet shop owners, picking up new books at the pet/book store on them and chatting with other hamster enthusiasts.

Out of curiosity, I went to my local library to see what they had and looked up and checked out every book on hamsters they had. Unfortunately, the results were pretty horrible. Every book (five total) was horribly out of date, ranging from the 60s to the 80s. Most of these books were filled with outdated, harmful information ranging from terrible diet advice (citrus, lettuce, potatoes) to outright dangerous practices that could harm or kill our furred friends (using cotton, newspaper, metal wire wheels).

These books are probably where most dangerous, outdated ideas come from and responsible for killing hamsters of new owners. I returned to the library and donated several modern books of my own on the condition I keep the outdated ones and thankfully the librarian agreed to my deal when I explained my reasons.

If any of you have books of your own you no longer need, I'd encourage you to go to your local library and see if they are in need of more up to date knowledge. If you can get old, dangerous books out of circulation, great. Even if you don't have books to donate, you could perhaps explain your concerns to the library and perhaps convince them to update themselves. Even if that doesn't work, you could simply slip an index card warning any would-be readers this book is terribly out of date and dangerous with the web address of this forum and the wiki to help them out. (I do not advocate writing on or destroying library property of course!)

Some of these old books are pretty scary and certainly do much more harm than good.

01-21-2013, 07:26 AM
Emanon Newborn Pup Join Date: Nov 2012 Posts: 37	Your Local Library and You Hello all, As many of you know, there are still plenty of people out there who have disinformation about hamster care or continue to pass along harmful, wrong ideas about diet, cage specifics, etc. Having kept hamsters for almost the entirety of 35 years, I've always been interested in the factual side of our little furred friends, often talking shop with pet shop owners, picking up new books at the pet/book store on them and chatting with other hamster enthusiasts. Out of curiosity, I went to my local library to see what they had and looked up and checked out every book on hamsters they had. Unfortunately, the results were pretty horrible. Every book (five total) was horribly out of date, ranging from the 60s to the 80s. Most of these books were filled with outdated, harmful information ranging from terrible diet advice (citrus, lettuce, potatoes) to outright dangerous practices that could harm or kill our furred friends (using cotton, newspaper, metal wire wheels). These books are probably where most dangerous, outdated ideas come from and responsible for killing hamsters of new owners. I returned to the library and donated several modern books of my own on the condition I keep the outdated ones and thankfully the librarian agreed to my deal when I explained my reasons. If any of you have books of your own you no longer need, I'd encourage you to go to your local library and see if they are in need of more up to date knowledge. If you can get old, dangerous books out of circulation, great. Even if you don't have books to donate, you could perhaps explain your concerns to the library and perhaps convince them to update themselves. Even if that doesn't work, you could simply slip an index card warning any would-be readers this book is terribly out of date and dangerous with the web address of this forum and the wiki to help them out. (I do not advocate writing on or destroying library property of course!) Some of these old books are pretty scary and certainly do much more harm than good.