Meet Shadow, our family’s new hamster

Yes, after Ashar did the “hamster cost” math, we did go along for the ride and decide to purchase our thrilling new rodential family member. She’s paying some of the cost from her savings (her choice), and the rest is part of our birthday gift to her

New hamster in box from PetSmart

We could not possibly have had a happier kid at PetSmart this afternoon. Many thanks to Tyler, the associate who took Ashar’s interest very seriously and didn’t roll his eyes at this kid saying, “This is THE EXACTLY RIGHT hamster for our family.”

Ashar with hamster box from PetSmart

It was sort of like any other birthday present… in that he came in a box and, when we got home, Ashar got to open it up and have fun… while Mom dealt with the parts that were “some assembly required.”

Putting a hamster habitat together

After we got the cage assembled and filled, we put it in the place of honor – the top of one piece of our entertainment center. In a house with five cats, finding a safe home for a hamster cage is no small feat. This was a good spot because Ashar can see it, it’s not in some out-of-the-way corner, and it’s still as close to cat-proof as we’re going to get.

Putting the hamster into the cage

Ashar was VERY excited to watch Shadow settle in. He kind of amazed us – he was very interested in exploring his new home, even climbing (most hamster species, dwarf ones especially, don’t explore at that level for a couple of days when put in a new place.)

He also made “angry hamster noise” when we tried to wake him up to go back in his ball… if you’ve never heard it, it has a cricket-like quality, almost a clicking and squeaking together. I told Ashar we’d need to let him acclimate before we did much more. But watching him was totally OK – and she tuned in to “hamstervision” for about an hour.

Looking into our new hamster's cage

Wish us luck! We’ve had several hamsters in the past, and most if not all had some interesting quirks, to say the least. Let’s just hope this one doesn’t surprise us with babies, like one of our “male” hamsters did in the past.

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2 thoughts on “Meet Shadow, our family’s new hamster

  1. She looks so happy! I hope the hamster is working out well for you now. It sounds like she is going to be a good hamster caretaker.

    Amber asked for gerbils for her birthday last year, and they were her and my first pets ever. Then last summer after about 6 months with 2 gerbils (sisters) we got a cat. It’s fun times. The cat loves to watch the gerbils and they love to taunt the poor kitty.

    • Ha, it’s still working out pretty well. (Thank goodness; I had a friend who bought a dwarf hamster for her daughter for Christmas and it has since expired!!) One of our cats REALLY loves it when the hamster goes running in the hamster ball – he goes nuts!

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