You may have wondered from time to time how I got started with hamsters. You have? Well this would be the right place for you then!
Well, I have always loved hamsters. Probably from the first time I ever laid eyes on one I've loved them. I can't remember when exactly that was, but I'm sure it was 'Love at first sight'.
I do remember a childhood friend who bred dwarf hamsters. I really wanted one of her babies, and thought I'd nearly convinced my parents a couple times but they never agreed. Then a couple years later (I don't know if my friend was still breeding hamsters or not) I had 'nearly convinced' my parents again. They'd said maybe after we got back from vacation that year I could get a hamster. That was enough for me. I started deciding on names and had a long list and just decided that when I got my hamster one of those names would fit it. I wanted to be prepared.
Well, I didn't get a hamster after vacation. I continued to be 'obsessed' with hamsters off and on though through out the next years. When I was assigned a writing assignment I would often find some way to work a hamster in. When I had to make a mobil for school I made it in the shape of a hamster. I would look at hamsters when at a pet store, look at cages, everything. But I still didn't get a hamster.
Dad had made a pet limit for us. I had a prairie dog and he may have counted the family dog as part of my 'pet limit'...
When we moved to our new house in Tennessee my youngest brother, Caleb, was upset because he didn't have a pet. I had Flash (my prairie dog) and BJ had Flick (his prairie dog) and we had Holly (the family dog) to share but it wasn't like he had his own pet. So it was decided that if he wanted one he could get a hamster.
You might think that I was in an outrage that he could get a hamster and I never was allowed to, but the way I saw it was that if he had a hamster I'd still get to play with it. So I was probably more excited than he was! (I've always been an animal person... but that's getting off the point).
So plans were made. Caleb loved the name Nichole so he wanted to get a female hamster and name her Nichole but call her Nikki for short. We planned and talked and it was decided that he could get a cage for Christmas and then he could pick his own hamster.
That was the plan and it started that way. He got lots of hamster things that year for Christmas (Christmas '97). His most common phrase that year was 'Another hamster thing!'
But, mom and dad happened to be at the mall a couple days before Christmas and found the most adorable little girl hamster and decided to buy her. She was a real sweetie. She was long haired and just absoutly adorable. (I don't know what colour she was or remember much about her really)
We kept her hidden in my unfinished basement room and I played with her now and then. We had a couple close calls like the time I was holding her and he came in my room (I grabbed her off my shoulder and held her down out of sight) and when she ran in her wheel and he noticed the noise. But in all, I don't think he really suspected...
Caleb wasn't too upset at not getting to pick his own hamster when he saw her. We all fell in love with her.
Sadly, Nikki became ill and died not long after Christmas. Christmas morning I noticed something was wrong (she seemed to have diahreah (how is that word spelled?!)) but we just brushed it off as her being scared with all the excitement.
Then one morning mom came in and said that Nikki had died. I was sad because she had been such a wonderfully friendly hamster and was very pretty.
So we went to the mall and looked at the same store (with Caleb) for another hamster. He didn't like any that he saw so we went to another store and he found one that he wanted to get. Another female which he named Nikki the Second (or Nikki 2 for short). Nikki 2 was golden short haired syrian hamster. I didn't really think she was all that pretty or the best choice, but that's what Caleb chose.
Nikki 2 was a nasty thing. She bit me right off... I bled all the way upstairs... But Caleb saw it happen, so he was scared of her too.
As time wore on I decided that someone needed to tame that thing and I figured it would be me (even though I hadn't become a breeder yet I was already considered the 'animal person' or the 'hamster expert' of the family because we had collected several books and I'd searched the web for hamster information). So I started work on her. I got a fair ammount of work done, but she wasn't nearly tame.
Then one evening about a month later Nikki wasn't doing too well. We think she went into hibernation (we kept her down in the basement) and died in hibernation. I don't think any of us were overly upset when she died.
We went back to the same store and she happened to still be under refund (at least I think she was...) and Caleb decided to get a male this time (I'd done research and found out that males sometimes make better pets than females).
He took a look in the male tank and there was a cute little grey and white one that ran right up dad's arm. Caleb chose that one.
He named him Nikolas. Nikolas was a sable banded short haired syrian hamster.
Nikolas ended up being a great big scardy hamster when we got home. He would scream and cry all the time. He hated to be held and it was just miserable.
As the family 'hamster expert' I took it uppon me to tame him. I was never bitten and really didn't think that I had gotten very far in taming him but in time he was tamed.
Some time down the line my brothers got fish (bettas) which took their pet count up but I still only had my prairie dog. When at the mall one day I wanted to take a look at the pet store (as usual) and there was the most adorable baby hamster there and I really wanted her. But I figured that I wouldn't be allowed to have one. I don't remember if it was my dad or my mom that said that since my brothers each had 2 pets I could go ahead and get a hamster.
I had money at home but wasn't sure what kind of cage I wanted to get. I knew I didn't want the 'tube home' type cage like Caleb had and I knew I did want a wire cage. So on one time when I was having a special 'together time' (we call them 'Daddy Nights') with my dad we went to some big pet stores and I got a big wire 3 'story' hamster cage and some other hamster supplies. The next Thursday (October 22, 1998) I went with mom and my brothers to get a hamster.
I have to admit there really wasn't anything I was really interested in but I went ahead and got one there any way. I happened to get a female (I wasn't really planning on getting a female on purpos it's just a female happened to be what caught my eye). I named her Damsel because she cried out in distress when put in her new cage. She is a mink banded long haired syrian hamster.
I didn't do a good job of taming Damsel. She to this day is not the tamest hamster though she has mellowed with age. She'll allow me to pet her but hates to be picked up.
A couple weeks later I realised that we had a female hamster and a male hamster. I kind of wanted to ask if I could breed them but decided that I would get an emphatic no from my parents. I mean if I wasn't allowed to even have a hamster until I was 14 how did I think I'd be allowed to breed them. So I kept quiet. Though I did have moments where I thought about just sneeking them together and 'Oops!' but I decided that would be a BAD idea. So I didn't.
A couple months before Christmas ('98) BJ expressed the intrest in gerbils. (his prairie dog had already passed away) and since he only had one pet (his fish) he was given the 'ok'. We did some research and I almost switched my desires to gerbils because they sounded so perfect to me. But I decided that I'd come this far and was going to get my hamster and just work on taming it well.
In our research and searching for places that might have gerbils we found a girl who's my age that has a pretty large breeding program with gerbils. This is where he ultimately decided to get them from. (Her website is: The Dani Clan in case you're wondering.)
Now we get to the part where I become a breeder. =^) Mom mentioned to me one evening something about being the same age as the girl who bred the gerbils (or perhaps I mentioned it...) and she also said something about her being surprized that I'd not asked to breed the hamsters. I just about fell and said that I had thought about it but thought she'd say no. She said that she thought it'd be fun and if Dad said that I could I could.
So I asked dad about it and he said as long as I could get rid of the babies. So the next day I started calling pet stores and found some that would take the babies so on December 31, 1998 I tried breeding Damsel to Nikolas. She wasn't receptive so I tried the next night and they bred successfully.
On January 17, 2000 at around 5 PM 12 baby hamsters were born. I went running up stairs yelling 'I have a birth announcement!' =^)
In that litter there were 8 mink banded, 1 black eyed cream banded,and 3 sable banded. I kept 2 of the babies (actually, Caleb kept the runt who he named Katie and I kept the last one that didn't sell. I named him Laddie because he was my little boy.)
As time went on I of course decided I wanted to breed again. I decided April looked like a good time but I could never get Damsel preganant again.
In August I bred Katie to Laddie and Nikolas (someone escaped somewhere but I don't remember now who it was), but sadly, the litter all died before they were a week old.
In October Katie escaped into Nikolas's cage and had a litter of 8 (1 mink, 1 sable, 4 black eyed cream, 2 red eyed cream). They were all very nice looking hamsters and did very well.
Around that time some folks we know had gotten a pregnant hamster from a pet store. Her babies were born just 2 days after Katies so they gave me the 4 remaining babies from that litter. The ones I received were 3 golden banded and one black banded. Needless to say I kept the black one. One of the goldens died before the night was out but the other two did nicely.
I tried to sell all 10 of the babies but was unsuccessful. At the age of 8 weeks I took them to a local pet store (in fact, the one I'd gotten Damsel at and the other people'd gotten their hamster at and the one that Nikki 1 was bought at).
The black banded hamster I at first thought was a girl so I'd named it Chiquita (which according to my baby name book meant 'girl' or something like that) but with time and seeing how it responded to the sister that it was left with until older I decided that Chiquita must be a boy so I went under great trouble finding a new name for him. I finally decided uppon Zakeeus (Yes I know it's not the traditional spelling. I 'created' that spelling to make it more unique. And I chose Zakeeus because he was (and still is) on the small side)
In November I had another escapee, this time it was Laddie. Laddie escaped into Katie's cage and she had a litter of 8 around December 3rd. In that litter there were 7 mink, 1 red eyed cream.
This litter I thought I had homes lined up for them all (6 to a family who was going to keep a couple and take the extras to a pet store near them (it was a long drive) and I was going to ship the other two to someone who was going to trade me a pair of blacks, but the trade didn't work.) So I thought I was going to just have to keep that last pair of minks (I'd named them Hopestill and Colin). But luckily I found someone locally who would take them.
After selling those two, I decided I needed a new female to breed to Zakeeus because I was going to use Hopestill and I knew Damsel was beyond breeding and I figured Katie was nearly there too. So we went to the store (where I'd gotten Damsel) and I picked out an adorable golden banded female who I named Hadassah(I thought the story on how Hadassah got her name was on her page, but it'sn ot so I'll cover it briefly... I was going to name her Esther (meaning 'Star') but decided I liked the name Hadassah more (she was the same person in the Bible) so I decided to look up Hadassah. It means Myrtle so I looked up myrtle on an encylopidia and the picture that came up was a very pretty flower so I decided it was fitting enough for my beautiful long haired golden banded female baby girl. Also, when I found the name Esther, I exclaimed aloud (in my room) 'What about Esther' and she was staring at me... so I thought that a good enough sign...)
Since Hadassah was purchaced to breed to Zakeeus to start a black line I've been working on getting a litter from her. So far no luck... In August I think she'll be bred to Laddie instead because of my dissapointing luck with Zakeeus to her and Katie.
There's one hamster left. Maleah. I recently went 'Out west' for my grandfather's funeral. I've talked with a woman who lives in Colorado about hamsters for over a year and decided that if I was going out that far perhaps I could get to meet up with her. It worked out and we talked and she had a litter that'd just been born and was almost old enough to be separated from their mother. She figured that by the time we were on our way back home (we were driving) the litter would be ready to leave their mom. It was sired by a solid black so they would all carry the black gene. She also explained to me that if I took one home I could keep the genes going and she'd have a 'lifeline' or 'insurance' in me. So Mom said yes and on our way back from Utah we went back through Colorado and I got myself a long haired dark golden banded female that carries black the black gene. I plan on breeding her to Zakeeus mid August.
Well, that brings you up to speed. I currently have 6 hamsters (Nikolas died May 18th, 2000). I'll try to keep my hamstery page up to date on hamsters and litters. When I have babies available I'll have a link up to a 'for sale' page with hamsters I currently have for sale on it.
If you have any other questions about my hamsters, feel free to e-mail me and if it's something I should add to this page I will and either way I'll e-mail you back 'cause I love talking to folks about hamsters!
Thanks, Annaka