Questions: How can i get a hamster?

Question
Hiya, Id really like to get a hamster but my parents wont let me have one. They say they smell. Do you have any advise how i could persuade them to buy me one?

thanks

Alex

Answer
Hi Alex

It is very difficult convincing people that hamsters don't have to smell.  The only time they smell is if they don't get cleaned out weekly or if they are cleaned out too often (I know someone who was so afraid of their hamster smelling they cleaned them out daily - all this did was make the hamster re-scent their cage even more!).

If you get a male Syrian hamster - these are pretty clean (females are clean in their behaviour, but they do give off a scent, which the males don't do).  You can train it to use a hamster toilet.  You use a special hamster litter in this (it's a plastic unit that you put in the corner of the cage).  You could then change this litter on a daily basis, thereby getting rid of any smells. If you make sure that any uneaten fresh food is removed each day so it doesn't go mouldy, that can help too.  The only problem is that sometimes hamsters decide to wee on their food so that no one steals it - if you have a hamster like this it is very difficult to snap them out of this behaviour.

I think your best approach would be to see if you have a local rescue centre that re-homes hamsters.  Sometimes they foster them out for a week or two.  They might be persuaded to let you have a hamster for a couple of weeks to see how you get on and this way you can see how smelly it actually is.  If you like the hamster and your parents are happy, then they may let you keep it. If you don't get on with the hamster then you can always return it to the rescue.  This is a much better option than buying one from a pet shop.  Also, the rescue will know about the personality of the hamster, which is always good information to have.

Hope you get on OK.

Regards