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hamsters in 1900s were mand for food  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mlg360420 (talk • contribs) 02:31, 16 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hamster is cute — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jiamin hamster (talk • contribs) 11:13, 26 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

Both statements have sources. Interesting.

That ,hamster' derives from Russian is unlikely as well, given its occurrence in spanish, portugese and even basque. So where does it really come from? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 171.67.128.21 (talk) 23:45, 26 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

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[reply]

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)[reply]

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, D. E.; Reeder, D. M., eds. (2005). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.; also [1]). Richard New Forest (talk) 22:26, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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

Crepuscular or nocturnal or both?

This topic is in need of attention from an expert on the subject.

The section or sections that need attention may be noted in a message below.

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

Pictures of Hamster Species????????

I clicked on the links and many of the Hamster species lacks pictures of the amimal. It would be nice if people would supply pictures of these different species. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.81.134.236 (talk) 02:45, 7 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Please can I add to the page Hamsters (Vineheart (talk) 16:31, 18 June 2012 (UTC))[reply]

Winter white hamster Jiamin hamster (talk) 11:02, 26 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Please place

Dwarf hamsters running

Anna Frodesiak (talk) 10:39, 6 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

i agree! it's too cute to resist! Valehd (talk) 15:18, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Section "Depictions in the Media" should be removed

The section "Depictions in the Media" consists of the following sentence:

A television-obsessed character "Rhino" who is inspired by the main character Bolt in the movie of the same name was played by a hamster.

It should be removed because

It has no place in an encyclopedic article about hamsters.
I have no idea what it's even trying to say.

217.230.12.172 (talk) 02:47, 13 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I strongly agree that it should be removed. I think it's talking about a fictional hamster from a movie who looked up to the movie's main character. Not only does it not have a place in this factual article, but there are many more hamsters in the media and to list them all would be listcruft. --Le Solace (talk) 14:57, 15 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I added a link. Apparently there is hamster with an article named Super Rhino. There are probably other bits of popular culture about hamsters. Maybe the section should be named just that, and people will add content. Hampster Dance is another example of what could go into such a section.

Intro

The intro states that "Hamsters [...] may be irritating to some people because of their cage-biting and wheel-running." To someone who was learning about hamsters for the first time, this would sound like a complete non-sequitur; the idea of the hamster as a pet is introduced in a later paragraph. (And in fact, that particular paragraph otherwise discusses hamsters in the wild.)

Since hamsters are probably most generally notable in their role as a pet, that should be mentioned in the first or second sentence of the article. --74.138.127.52 (talk) 20:58, 28 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Good suggestions. How is it now? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 00:13, 29 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hamsters as Food

In the 1900's hamsters were bread for food for dogs,cats,snakes,and other animals.

Discrepancy in numbers

The lead claims 25 species of hamster, but the text claims 19 species of hamster. Mattximus (talk) 02:37, 29 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 6 April 2016

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Please add a comma before the reference in the third section, so it says "They have become established as popular small house pets,[2]" 66.213.111.239 (talk) 17:41, 6 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]