Grooming and bathing are important elements of pet care for a lot of animals, significantly canines. You may additionally assume it’s vital with ones that dwell in cages, similar to hamsters. In spite of everything, you undoubtedly clear out their cage usually, so why not do the identical in your pet’s fur? Within the wild, hamsters could get moist. Nonetheless, bathing will not be vital for a self-grooming animal like this rodent and will even be harmful if not performed accurately.
The Wild Hamster
The Golden or Syrian Hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) lives within the open steppe habitat of Turkey and Syria. The seasonal local weather has sizzling, dry summers and chilly, moist winters. Summers can method 100℉ or greater, with the cooler months getting right down to 50℉ or much less. Precipitation is low, with annual totals of round 13 inches.
These temperature extremes, mixed with moisture, can create difficult situations for wild hamsters. Consequently, these animals developed methods to outlive. In chilly temperatures or when meals is scarce, they’ll go right into a state of torpor (an involuntary state of decreased psychological or motor exercise). This can be a survival approach to be able to preserve assets to deal with these circumstances.
The takeaway message is that these animals survive as a result of they’ll sluggish their metabolism and decrease their physique temperature to attend out antagonistic environmental strain, like chilly and wetness. That reduces their threat of the results of venturing out of their burrows unnecessarily. This isn’t a state that we wish our pet hamsters to enter. So, what would occur if a hamster bought moist?
The Dangers of a Hamster Getting Moist
When you’ve ever been exterior on a cold, wet fall day, you might be keenly conscious of how uncomfortable it’s. It’d even really feel colder to you than a winter day. It’s the mix of moist and chilly that makes you’re feeling that approach. It’s the identical with hamsters, solely they’ve a thick coat of fur that additionally will get moist. So giving your hamster a shower,could set off your hamster to enter torpor. This may be scary for hamster house owners as hamsters in torpor can appear like they’ve handed away.
The opposite issues lie with the animal’s means to manage. It’s value noting that almost all of our pet hamsters descended from three littermates caught in 1930.1 There isn’t a variety of genetic variability in them, though selective breeding for varied colours exists. Wild hamsters developed to escape unfavorable climate situations , leaving animals with little genetic functionality to deal with getting chilly and moist.
A moist hamster isn’t going to “catch a chilly.” As an alternative, the stress can depart the rodent in danger for bacterial infections, together with respiratory illnesses like pneumonia. Do not forget that these animals don’t like change, whether or not it’s their meals or the sudden shock of getting moist. That’s not surprising with a prey species. After all, a confused pet can also be extra prone to chunk and scratch.
Grooming Your Hamster
We talked about that hamsters are self-groomers. They do a wonderful job of keeping themselves clean, not not like a cat. You need to comb long-haired varieties to maintain them mat-free. You might also should trim your pet’s nails sometimes. Nonetheless, baths will not be vital and are doubtlessly harmful in your hamster. Maintaining with routine cage maintenance and making certain water spills or dirty bedding is eliminated each day will assist your hamster stay clear. In case your hamster will get moist accidentally i.e. the water bowl toppled over, dry them totally, give them additional bedding to make a comfy mattress, and hold them in a hotter a part of the home away from draughts. Preserve an in depth eye on them over the approaching days and see a veterinarian for those who discover something untoward.
Remaining Ideas
Pet hamsters are descendants of animals that dwell in a dry, albeit harsh, local weather. These arid situations didn’t present environmental stimuli for these rodents to adapt to moist situations. As an alternative, the chilly and moist encourage them to preserve assets by getting into torpor, and keep away from circumstances that might put them at a better threat of illness and predation. Hamsters shouldn’t get wet or bathed for lots of the identical causes.
Featured Picture Credit score: Vladfotograf, Shutterstock
