Hamster Care for Beginners: Everything New Owners Need to Know

So you’ve decided to get a hamster. Maybe your kid wore you down, or maybe you’re secretly excited too (no judgment — hamsters are pretty great). Either way, you want to do this right from the start.

This guide covers everything you need to know as a brand-new hamster owner. I’ve organized it in the order you’ll actually need the information: setup first, then daily care, then the stuff that comes up later. Bookmark this page — you’ll probably come back to it.

Choosing Your Hamster

Species Overview

There are five common pet hamster species, and they’re more different than you’d think:

For a first hamster, I almost always recommend a Syrian hamster. They’re the biggest, the easiest to handle, and generally the friendliest. They also MUST be kept alone — Syrians are strictly solitary and will fight (sometimes to the death) if housed together.

Dwarf species are cute but they’re tiny, fast, and harder for kids to hold safely. If one squirms out of small hands and falls from waist height, that can be a serious injury for a 2-inch hamster.

Where to Get Your Hamster

You have three main options:

• Pet stores — convenient but you don’t know the hamster’s history. Animals are often stressed from transport and housing conditions. Look for a hamster that’s alert, has clear eyes, and a clean rear end (wet or dirty rear = possible wet tail).
• Breeders — best option for a well-socialized hamster with known genetics. Ethical breeders handle pups from a young age. Search local hamster groups on Facebook or Reddit.
• Rescues/shelters — great choice. You’re giving an animal a second chance, and adoption fees are usually low. The hamster’s personality is often already known.

Setting Up the Cage

Set up the cage before you bring the hamster home. Don’t buy the hamster first and scramble to assemble everything while a stressed animal sits in a cardboard box. Give yourself a day to get everything ready.

Cage Size

Minimum 775 square inches of unbroken floor space. This is the most important number in hamster keeping. A cage that’s too small leads to stress behaviors — bar chewing, obsessive running, biting, lethargy. If your hamster is doing any of these, the cage is probably the first thing to evaluate.

Good options include the Niteangel Bigger World, a 75-gallon aquarium, an IKEA Detolf laid on its back, or a large DIY bin cage. Check our cage buying guide for specific recommendations and prices.

Bedding

Fill the cage with at least 6 inches of bedding on one side, sloping to 10+ inches on the other. This gives your hamster areas to burrow at different depths. Paper-based bedding (like Carefresh or Kaytee Clean & Cozy) is the most popular choice. Aspen shavings also work.

Never use:

• Cedar or pine shavings (toxic phenols)
• Scented bedding (respiratory irritation)
• Fluffy cotton/”hamster fluff” bedding (entanglement risk, can cause blockages if swallowed)

For deep bedding tips and how to calculate how much you need, see our bedding depth guide.

The Wheel

Syrian hamsters: 10-12 inch wheel minimum. Dwarf hamsters: 8 inch minimum. The hamster’s back should be straight while running — if it curves upward, the wheel is too small and will cause spinal problems over time.

Get a solid-surface wheel (no wire rungs or mesh). Silent spinner wheels are worth the extra cost if the cage is near bedrooms.

Water and Food

A water bottle attached to the cage wall, plus a small ceramic food dish. Ceramic is better than plastic because hamsters chew through plastic. Fill the food dish each evening (hamsters are active at night) with about a tablespoon of quality hamster mix.

Hideout

At least one enclosed hiding spot for sleeping. Multi-chamber hideouts are popular because hamsters naturally create separate rooms for sleeping, food storage, and toileting. A wooden or ceramic hideout works well.

Sand Bath

Place a small dish of chinchilla sand (not dust) in the cage. Hamsters roll in it to clean their fur — it’s how they bathe. Replace the sand when it gets soiled.

Enrichment

Add chew toys (wooden blocks, timothy hay sticks), tunnels, and things to explore. Hamsters are curious and intelligent — a bare cage with just a wheel is boring. Rotate toys every week or two to keep things interesting. Our enrichment toy guide has tested recommendations.

The First Week: Let Them Settle

This is the hardest part for excited kids (and adults). When you bring your hamster home, put them in the cage and then leave them alone for 3-5 days.

No picking up. No reaching in to pet them. No hovering over the cage making noises. Just provide food, water, and quiet.

Your hamster just got transported to an entirely new environment with new smells, new sounds, and zero familiar territory. They need time to explore, claim their space, build burrows, and feel safe. Rushing this process leads to a stressed, bitey hamster.

During this settling period:

• Talk quietly near the cage so they learn your voice
• Don’t rearrange anything in the cage
• Don’t worry if they seem to sleep all day (they’re nocturnal — they’re active when you’re asleep)
• Don’t worry if they hoard all the food. That’s normal hamster behavior

Taming Your Hamster

After the settling period, you can start the taming process. This takes patience — expect 1-4 weeks before your hamster is comfortable being handled, depending on the individual.

The basic progression:

1. Hand in the cage — Rest your hand flat in the cage, palm up, without moving. Let the hamster sniff and climb on you at their pace. Do this for 10-15 minutes daily.
2. Treats from your hand — Place a sunflower seed or small treat on your open palm. Let them take it. Don’t grab at them.
3. Scooping — Once they’re comfortable sitting on your hand for treats, gently scoop them up with both hands cupped. Stay low to the ground (sit on the floor) in case they jump.
4. Supervised out-of-cage time — Let them explore a hamster-proofed area (bathtub works well for starters) while you sit with them.

We’ve got a detailed, step-by-step walkthrough in our hamster taming guide — it covers what to do when things don’t go smoothly, too.

Tips for taming:

• Always approach during their awake time (evening/night). Never wake a sleeping hamster to handle them.
• Wash your hands before handling — food smells on your fingers can lead to exploratory bites.
• If they bite, don’t yank your hand away suddenly. Gently blow on their face (they don’t like it but it doesn’t hurt them) and set them down. Reacting with a big flinch teaches them that biting makes the scary hand go away.
• Be consistent. Short daily sessions work better than occasional long ones.

Diet: What to Feed Your Hamster

The Base Diet

A quality seed mix or pellet food should make up about 80% of your hamster’s diet. Look for mixes with a good protein content (around 17-19% for Syrians, 18-20% for dwarfs) and avoid anything with lots of colored pieces, dried corn, or sugar.

Offer about 1-2 tablespoons per day. Your hamster will hoard the rest — that’s completely normal. Don’t take away their food stash during cage cleaning; it stresses them out significantly.

Fresh Foods

A few times per week, offer small amounts of fresh vegetables and occasional fruit:

Safe vegetables: broccoli, cucumber, carrot (small amounts), bell pepper, cauliflower, zucchini

Safe fruits (sparingly — high in sugar): apple (no seeds), blueberry, strawberry, banana (tiny piece)

Good protein sources: plain cooked chicken, hard-boiled egg, mealworms

Keep portions tiny. A piece of broccoli the size of your thumbnail is plenty. Hamsters are small — what looks like a snack to you is a feast to them. For the full breakdown, read our articles on safe fruits and safe vegetables for hamsters.

Foods to Avoid

• Citrus fruits (too acidic)
• Onion, garlic, leek (toxic)
• Raw potatoes or potato leaves
• Chocolate, candy, processed human food
• Almonds (contain cyanide compounds)
• Apple seeds, cherry pits

Cage Cleaning Schedule

Hamsters are actually pretty clean animals. They designate a toilet corner (usually the one farthest from their nest) and keep the rest of their cage tidy. Work with this, not against it.

Do not do full cage cleans too often. This is a common beginner mistake. Hamsters rely on their scent to feel secure. If you strip the cage bare and replace all the bedding every week, your hamster basically comes home to a strange place every time. Keep some of the old bedding mixed in with fresh to maintain their scent.

For a full cleaning walkthrough, check our cage cleaning guide.

Health: What to Watch For

Hamsters are prey animals, which means they hide illness until they can’t anymore. By the time you notice something is obviously wrong, the problem may have been developing for days. Learn to spot the subtle signs early.

Signs of a Healthy Hamster

• Clear, bright eyes (no discharge or cloudiness)
• Clean, dry rear end
• Smooth, full coat (no bald patches or rough spots)
• Active during evening/night hours
• Eating and drinking regularly
• Curious and alert when awake

Warning Signs That Need Attention

• Wet tail (watery diarrhea) — This is an emergency. Wet tail can kill a hamster within 48-72 hours. If your hamster’s rear is wet or dirty, get to a vet immediately. Don’t wait and see.
• Labored breathing or clicking sounds — possible respiratory infection
• Lumps or bumps — could be abscesses or tumors (common in older hamsters)
• Not eating or drinking — almost always means something is wrong
• Overgrown teeth — teeth that curve or prevent eating need veterinary attention
• Excessive scratching or hair loss — could be mites or fungal infection
• Tilted head — possible ear infection

Find an exotic vet in your area before you need one. Not every veterinarian treats hamsters, and searching for one during an emergency wastes time your hamster might not have.

Common Beginner Mistakes

After reading hundreds of messages from new hamster owners, these are the mistakes I see over and over:

1. Cage Too Small

I’ve said it multiple times in this guide because it’s THAT common. Those colorful plastic tube cages marketed for hamsters are too small. Period. If you take away one thing from this article, let it be: buy a big enough cage from the start.

2. Waking the Hamster During the Day

Hamsters are nocturnal. Waking them up because your kid wants to play is like someone shaking you awake at 3 AM. It causes chronic stress and makes the hamster afraid of hands. Plan interaction for evening hours.

3. Handling Too Soon

Give them 3-5 days minimum before trying to handle. Picking up a hamster on day one is a guaranteed way to get bitten and start the relationship on the wrong foot.

4. Not Enough Bedding

A thin layer of bedding isn’t enough. Hamsters are burrowing animals. Without deep bedding, they can’t perform a basic natural behavior, and they get stressed. Aim for 6-10 inches.

5. Cleaning the Cage Too Often

Weekly full cleans destroy the hamster’s scent markers and create constant stress. Spot-clean the toilet corner regularly, and do partial bedding changes every 2-3 weeks.

6. Putting Two Hamsters Together

Syrian hamsters are solitary. Always. Two Syrians in one cage will fight, sometimes fatally. Even dwarf species that can theoretically cohabitate often end up fighting. Unless you’re very experienced, one hamster per cage.

7. Using the Wrong Bedding

Cedar and pine shavings release toxic phenols. Scented bedding irritates their respiratory system. “Fluffy” cotton bedding can wrap around limbs and cut off circulation. Stick to paper-based or plain aspen.

Temperature and Environment

Hamsters are comfortable between 65-75°F (18-24°C). Below 60°F, they can enter a dangerous state called torpor — it looks like death but the hamster is alive and essentially hibernating. This is a medical emergency for pet hamsters.

Keep the cage:

• Away from direct sunlight and windows
• Away from radiators and heating vents
• Out of drafty areas
• In a room that stays a consistent temperature
• In a quiet area during the day (remember, they’re sleeping)

What Your Daily Routine Looks Like

Once everything is set up and your hamster is settled, daily care takes about 15-20 minutes:

1. Evening: Check food dish, add fresh food if needed (~2 min)
2. Evening: Check and refill water bottle (~1 min)
3. Evening: Spot-check the cage — clean toilet corner if needed (~3-5 min)
4. Evening: Interaction time — handling, free-roaming, or just watching them (~10-15 min)
5. Quick morning check: Make sure water bottle is working, hamster is settled in their nest (~1 min)

That’s it. Hamsters are relatively low-maintenance once the cage is set up correctly. The setup is the big investment of time and money — after that, it becomes routine.

You’ve Got This

Hamster care isn’t complicated, but it does require doing things properly from the start. A good cage, deep bedding, quality food, patience during taming, and a watchful eye for health issues — that’s the formula. Get those basics right and you’ll have a happy, healthy hamster that actually enjoys interacting with your family.

Welcome to hamster ownership. It’s more rewarding than you’d expect from something that weighs five ounces.

If you think your pet is ill, call a vet immediately. All health-related questions should be referred to your veterinarian. They can examine your pet, understand its health history, and make well informed recommendations for your pet.

903pets.com Staff