Berry

It’s not surprising that my old book about pets doesn’t mention hamsters. The man who wrote it would have thought of them as pests, enemies of the farmer in countries like Germany, where they stole his grain; indeed, a plague of them could ruin a whole field by chopping off every cornstalk at ground level.

It was not until 1930 that a much smaller kind of hamster was brought to Britain from countries like Syria, and people began to realize what super pets they made.

Take Berry, for example, whose name would do for a male or a female, I suppose – though actually his round behind tells you he’s a boy (the girls have more pointed bottoms and you can see their little tails sticking out). Berry lives all by himself and is perfectly happy – hamsters like to be on their own. Lots of other pets, like George and Georgina, and Milly and Mollie, enjoy company and are miserable alone. Goliath would be much happier with a friend too. And a rabbit and a guinea pig, like Frank and Chiquita, usually get on well together. But hamsters don’t like other hamsters. If a strange one was put in Berry’s cage, there’d be a terrible fight. So if you want one small, interesting, easy-to-manage pet, a hamster is ideal.

Berry might bite one of his own kind, but with people he’s very well-behaved, and anyone can handle him and carry him around. He doesn’t smell, and he even keeps his cage clean by using his lavatory, which is a jam jar turned on its side.

One thing to remember about hamsters is that they are nocturnal animals; they sleep through a lot of the day. Berry starts to become lively in the evening, and that’s the best time to feed him.

Now this is where hamsters are quite different from an animal like Chiquita the guinea pig. Berry doesn’t take long to finish off his bowl of food, but when it’s empty, he still hasn’t swallowed a mouthful! He’s done what hamsters do in the wild. They don’t want to hang about in a cornfield, where they are in danger from enemies like stoats and owls; they want to eat in the safety of their burrows, and they manage this in a very clever way. Each of Berry’s cheeks is really a kind of pouch or purse which can hold a lot of food. So he quickly stuffs his cheeks – they bulge so much he looks as though he’s got mumps – and then off he goes to his nest and empties them out. Now he can take his time and have a nice leisurely supper in bed.

Make sure your hamster has a drinking bottle. It doesn’t need to be big, but whatever size your pet’s water bottle is – a large one like Frank’s, a middle-sized one like Chiquita’s, or a small one like George and Georgina’s or Milly and Mollie’s – clean it regularly with a wire brush. You wouldn’t like to drink out of a glass that was green and slimy.

Any pet shop will sell you a good mixture of grains and cereals for hamsters, but you may find that yours has particular likes. Berry is mad about almonds. You wouldn’t believe how quickly he can cram them into his pouches. I don’t know if this is peculiar to Berry. Perhaps all hamsters love almonds. Try them. Yours may be a nutcase too.