Fun Holidays - World Hamster Day

April 12 is World Hamster Day, a fun holiday for lovers and admirers of these cute rodents What do we know about hamsters? Besides the fact that these animals are great companions for both children and adults? According to the biological classification, hamsters are a subfamily of rodents from the hamster family, in which they coexist with voles and muskrats The animals have a dense body, small ears, a short tail, small paws and beady eyes Such a sweet appearance turned them from wild animals that spend most of their lives in minks into pets They love to have hamsters not only in Russia, but also in the USA and a number of Western European countries Hamsters have very poor eyesight They are nearsighted and also color blind They compensate for poor vision with acute hearing and a good sense of smell Hamsters are crepuscular animals that emerge from their burrows between the end of the day and the onset of night They don’t need good vision in such conditions There are more than 15 species in this subfamily, but the most popular among them is the Syrian or golden hamster, which often becomes a pet It has a very narrow habitat He lives only in western Syria All those hamsters that live in homes and laboratories today come from just one litter of 12 individuals Professor Aharoni managed to obtain it back in 1930 The animals raised at home have multiplied Some of them were taken to Great Britain and it was from here that hamsters began their conquest of the world In the wild, they are most often found in steppes and forest-steppes, although they never disdain to settle next to humans, because then the animals have a constant source of food A distinctive feature of these animals is the cheek pouches in which they store food Why do hamsters need supplies? The fact is that hamsters do not hibernate When cold weather sets in, it is very difficult to get food, but you need to eat something That's when the golden time for stocks comes There are legends that one small animal can “hammer” tens of kilograms of food for the winter Although he can't eat it all In this, hamsters are similar to squirrels, which also store up for future use, and then do not eat even half of them during the winter The largest among the subfamily is the common hamster The weight of an adult can reach 400 grams The smallest is Roborovsky's hamster Its weight is only 10 grams, and its body length is 4-5 cm Females are usually larger than males They raise their offspring alone In the wild, hamsters dig burrows with one "room", several corridors and sometimes a storage room The complex architecture of hamster housing is a common myth Domestic hamsters, like wild ones, are very shy Stories that an animal died of fright are not myths, but a harsh reality A hamster can actually die from cardiac arrest, for example, due to a very loud sound In the wild, these animals can behave aggressively if they are threatened Some will not even be afraid to attack a person In fact, a hamster can bite through the skin The animals feed mainly on plant foods They prefer root vegetables, berries, legumes and cereals, fruits, and vegetables In rare cases, rodents can prey on small lizards and frogs, and large insects In this way, they add variety to their diet and make up for the lack of protein To get to the grain, wild hamsters bend tall stems to the ground They love corn, oats and wheat Sometimes hamsters eat peas and sunflower seeds These animals are excellent swimmers Before jumping into the water, they draw air into their cheek pouches and use them as a float In the wild, hamsters have many enemies They are hunted by foxes, badgers and stoats Quite often large birds of prey start hunting animals