# Why do hamsters run on that exercise wheel and other hamster questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2002, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hamsters-run-on-that-exercise-wheel-and-other-hamster-questions/104105 "2002-04-17T07:27:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hamsters-run-on-that-exercise-wheel-and-other-hamster-questions/104105/21 "2002-04-18T17:07:16Z")
1. Obviously, they’re training for the Big League – when they will go to work for **JDavis** at the Reader offices. (See almost any thread in **ATMB** for details.) ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hamsters-run-on-that-exercise-wheel-and-other-hamster-questions/104105/22 "2002-04-18T21:00:48Z")
Dammit **Polycarp**! I know this thread has been up for a while, but as I was reading I was thinking "Alright, I get to be the one to make the comment about how else is the board supposed to function? and just as I’m beginning to write it out in my mind…your post is there, right above the reply box. _grumble_ _grumble_ _grumble_ ---
**Author:** ![Sgt.J](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sgt.J](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sgt.J)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hamsters-run-on-that-exercise-wheel-and-other-hamster-questions/104105/23 "2002-04-18T21:51:16Z")
Not that this answers anything in the OP, but… My wife decided we needed a Hamster. Wife buys said Hamster. Hamster is an asshole who bites and draws blood at any opportunity. Hamster now is “My” pet, wife is getting a Gerbil. Friends don’t let friends pay for rodents. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Bromley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Bromley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bromley)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hamsters-run-on-that-exercise-wheel-and-other-hamster-questions/104105/24 "2002-04-18T21:56:55Z")
Gerbils are great, but in my experience they move faster (a lot faster) and are less willing to be stroked/hand fed etc. We had a winter white hamster. She was nippy, but she was so small and weak that she never drew blood. ---
**Author:** ![Jojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@Jojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jojo)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hamsters-run-on-that-exercise-wheel-and-other-hamster-questions/104105/25 "2002-04-19T00:30:35Z")
Hamsters like to be handled but you have to do it early and often to get them used to it. I love hamsters, they are the weirdest little critters imaginable. Some weird things I’ve known hamsters do: - they are tiny, only about three inches long, yet they aren’t scared of anything. At all. I saw a huge dog (a Rhodesian Ridgeback which are used to hunt lions in Africa) come off second best in a fight with a hamster. The Ridgeback was sniffing at the bars of the cage, the hamster took umbrage at this and nipped the dog on the nose, the dog retired whimpering and giving me a look which said “boo hoo, the nasty hamster just bit me” - they answer to their name. You can call them from across the room and they’ll come scampering over to you. I once had one that managed to get inside the sofa. I cut a small hole in the bottom of the sofa and called it’s name (Bilbo). Straight away it came running out and looked up at me quizzically. - every so often they move house. I had two in a large cage. They had had their home in a hut for ages but then one day they decided to move out so they moved all shavings etc to a different part of the cage and lived there from then on. The best description of a hamster is to think of them as a minature bear. The way they stand up and stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hamsters-run-on-that-exercise-wheel-and-other-hamster-questions/104105/26 "2002-04-19T03:31:15Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. Wierd. Still, they all do different things (or so I’m told). Be careful that the bedding material doesn’t touch the drinking tube (happened to me once). Okay, I gotta ask. What exactly happened to you once? Did your bed touch your drinking tube? Or did your hamster’s drinking tube touch its bedding and what happened? Was it like the movie _Gremlins_ and you suddenly have a cage stuffed with 8 billion hamsters? Or did it melt like the Wicked Witch of the West? ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hamsters-run-on-that-exercise-wheel-and-other-hamster-questions/104105/27 "2002-04-19T04:23:24Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. Syrian (not exclusive to Syria, but it doesn’t specify where else). > 2. Russian (occurs throughout Russia, Mongolia and China). > 3. Chinese (common throughout much of Eurasia from Siberia to Tibet, and westwards into Eastern Europe). Better known as the wheel of evil. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hamsters-run-on-that-exercise-wheel-and-other-hamster-questions/104105/28 "2002-04-19T06:08:46Z")
Our hamster (Ginger is her name, BTW) is not immune to fear. A few days after we got her our Shih-tzu finally noticed her and started hanging around her tank, watching her. Then she jumped on the tank, and scared the poor hamster pretty bad, in fact we thought it was literally scared to death at first. The hamster was laying flat on it’s back in it’s cage, and when my wife picked her up she was stiff. She noticed it was still breathing and put it back in it’s tank, and after a while she came around, though at first she had an expression not unlike mine when I’m awakened early - one eye closed, the other half-open. ---
**Author:** ![partly\_warmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@partly\_warmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partly_warmer)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hamsters-run-on-that-exercise-wheel-and-other-hamster-questions/104105/29 "2002-04-19T06:47:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sgt. J \* > \*\*Not that this answers anything in the OP, but… > > My wife decided we needed a Hamster. Wife buys said Hamster. Hamster is an asshole who bites and draws blood at any opportunity. Hamster now is “My” pet, wife is getting a Gerbil. > > Friends don’t let friends pay for rodents. > > :mad: \*\* Appreciate your problem. I gave a cousin a beautiful iguana which I carefully picked out myself. It was a good sort, liked everyone. Except her. Tried to kill her with its tail. Every feeding. After a year, her mother told me she was miserable. I took it, and sold it back to the pet shop. Everybody was satisfied, including, I suspect, the iguana. Hostile pets aren’t an asset that can be grown into. Get rid of it. If it doesn’t like you, it never will. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hamsters-run-on-that-exercise-wheel-and-other-hamster-questions/104105.md?page=1)