Talk:Hamster

Hamster does not derive from German, apparently

According to the article on Golden Hamster, hamster to not derive from German. Rather has the German word been derived from the animal's name.

"Golden hamsters originate from Syria and were found in 1839 by British zoologist George Robert Waterhouse. Their natural condition is a dry, hot desert climate. The widespread notion that the name 'Hamster' derives from the German for 'hoarding (food)' is wrong: rather, the German verb hamstern derives from the name of the animal, owing to their respective behavior. 'Hamster' probably derives from the proto-slavic chomẽstar (compare also with Russian 'хомячок', 'hohmyachok' or Polish 'chomik').[2]" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.48.35.29 (talk) 05:10, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Both statements have sources. Interesting.

Prehensile

Prehensile tails are used for grasping. Not the same as simply having a long tail. If this word is used to describe hamster tails it needs to be sourced. 24.21.10.30 (talk) 20:22, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Cannibalize

From the article, it said It should also be noted that if a captive hamster is left for extended periods (3–4 weeks and more) with her litter, there is a high possibility that she will cannibalize the litter. It is therefore imperative that the litter be split up by the time the young can collect their own food and water.Dont think this is true or for my winter white(normal) at least. For my litter when it give birth, I noticed the young hamster are still chasing around the mother for nipples when it was 2 months old(male) and larger than the mother.. until I separate them that time. The mother does nothing aggressive except appearing to be in discomfort and tries to runs away. Dsdsasds (talk) 09:35, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

In the wild?

If they were domesticated only 80 years ago, what is their range? natural habitat... --Chris (クリス • フィッチュ) (talk) 18:05, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

hamsters

I believe the fact that hamsters have small pockets in theic cheekcs to store food should also be added by someone. Someone should add this because it is important to their biological nature and it is their classic "noticability" and people recignize "hamster" by it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.255.10.26 (talk) 15:15, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

That fact is already there - in the second paragraph. – jaksmata 20:30, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

It doesn't actually mention that the German word "hamstern" means "hoarder", and that this is one of their most notable features. BTW, they also use them as flotation devices when swimming, at which they are quite adept. They inflate these with air. (I found this out when I had to routinely wash a three legged, deformed, incontinent hamster in a plastic basin.) 85.158.139.99 (talk) 08:28, 30 June 2010 (UTC)Lance Tyrell

cricetus nehringi

In the taxo-list, the species Cricetus nehringi is added as the second species of the genus Cricetus. However, scholar.google and google itself seem hardly to mention it. What's more, the original articles (1901, 1934) seem to designate it as a subspecies (Cricetus cricetus nehringi). I see nowhere any evidence of this now being regarded as separate species (or ever having been a species) and am tempted to remove it. But I am certainly no expert on the subject, so feel free to show what the present morphological status is of the taxon! L.tak (talk) 19:20, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

We normally follow MSW3, which lists C nehringi, Matschie, 1901, as a synonym of C cricetus, and states that there is only one living species in the genus, with no subspecies (Wilson, Don E.; Reeder, DeeAnn M., eds. (2005). Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols. (2142 pp.). ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3/browse.asp?id=13000362. ; also [1]). Richard New Forest (talk) 22:26, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

thanks for clarifying that. I will remove it! L.tak (talk) 22:48, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Crepuscular or nocturnal or both?

The intro here claims that (all) hamsters are crepuscular. If I understand correctly — though I do not have a source on hand to confirm this — hamsters are only crepuscular in the wild; they are nocturnal when kept in captivity. If someone can confirm this, then I would highly suggest that a note of this be made in the article, because it is a source of confusion. For one, just about every pet store lists them as nocturnal. It is certainly possible that this is because the general public does not know the term "crepuscular", but anecdotally, my hamsters are definitely not crepuscular; they run constantly all night long. Perhaps, some species (I own Robos.) are nocturnal while the most are crepuscular. Even if this is so, since this is an article on hamsters in general, the line needs to read "most hamsters are crepuscular."

This problem is not unique to this article. I have browsed the pages of a large number of hamster species articles, and there seems to be a mix of claims: some articles say a given hamster genus or species is crepuscular; others say they are nocturnal.

Thoughts?

Lhynard (talk) 17:07, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

hamters are not harmful they love to eat play and are a good pet for your famiy — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.88.148.14 (talk) 15:42, 14 January 2012 (UTC)