Don't you ever wonder what hamsters think?
I mean, for Willow I assume she is thinking about food, escape, and running, because that is what she does... but how do you actually know anything about what hamsters think?
For example, Willow seems desperate to escape no matter how many toys and new things I put in her cage. Does she want to escape to get away from me, to get away from her cage, to go out into the wild, or all of those things? I will never know...
I have always disliked caging animals - I even feel bad about putting Willow in a cage, even though I put loads of things for her to do in there, and constantly try to keep her entertained...
But I think there is one big difference with hamsters: they would die in the wild.
If Willow was born in her native country of Syria, then I would not say that.
However, she was born in England.
When you go to the pet shop all these hamsters are already there and will be bought at some time or another, so by buying them you are only going to give them a happier life than they might have had if put in a smaller cage and bought by someone who doesn't love their hamster as much as you do.
It's not exactly like you can just release a hamster into the wild in England. Unfortunately it would not live for long, as it would either get eaten by a fox or a bird, get too cold, run out of food, get a disease... the list goes on and on.
[ lost in thought ]
Anyway- so that is how I comfort myself when I wish I didn't have to put Willow in a cage....
Sorry, I went off on a complete tangent there! Hope you don't mind hearing about my insane hamster ramblings! Will try to stick to the point next post!
yeah, i wonder what wally is thinking when he's chewing on his bars, don't know if he's trying to get out or just likes to chew on bars. :D
ReplyDeleteI've owned many hamsters when I was a kid, and I swear that almost all of them seemed to escape at one point. My parents would find them in the middle of the night a day or two later though. Maybe they just want to explore.
ReplyDeleteWe have nine hamsters in the house- three of which are mine! (5 Syrians, 2 Russian dwarfs and 2 robo dwarfs). They will all quite happily make a run for it if we let them, quite often they escape out of their exercise balls and we've so far had to sweep one gently out from under the sofa and take all the skirting boards out from under the kitchen cupboards to get another one back!! If you don't like cages how about you make one of your own? All you need is a few large plastic storage boxes (mine are in ones from Wilkinsons), drills lots of holes in the top and there you go!! If you are careful with the placement of the holes (in the side rather than the lid) you could stack lots of boxes, drill larger holes in the sides and fit plastic tubes to connect the boxes together- you could just keep going up! Imagine how many toys Willow could have! =D
ReplyDelete