I always loved hamsters. And i want to get one for my boyfriends nephew for his birthday in june. But i want to get one thats friendly, and its been awhile since i been to a pet store and looked at a hamster, so i dont know how to tell. Do i just ask someone who works there? i just want a nice one so i dont have to worry about the hamster biting him. im going to take care of the hamster too.
any suggestions?

One that’s not nervous looking is probably the friendliest, if a hamster looks stressed or if it’s first instinct is to bury itself when someone gets close it’s probably not friendly, get the one on the wheel, since he’d be more open and active there’s a good chance he’s in a good condition, therefore friendly.

I have a year and a half teddy bear hamster named Fiesty. I have had Fiesty since she was a baby. In Fiesty’s life she has had three cages. One I just got her on Auguast 1st and I got her the Crittertrail 2. Fiesty LOVES her new cage. Fiesty is a very active hamster, who always escapes from her cage or her ball.She’ll chew on her cage bars until she is let free. Fiesty has always gotten into trouble. She’s escapesd around 11 times out of her cages, escaped 4 times from her new ball I bought her last month, been lost under the couch, been in the pomeranians mouth and live to tell her tell, had her other cage before the new one I just got her knocked over by the cat and the cat chased her (thats why I had to get the new cage), and just 2 days ago Fiesty escaped from her ball and the cat grabbed her and had her on her back when my mom grabbed her. My mom wouldn’t have known if Fiesty wasen’t squeaking from being terrified. I’ve heard hamsters do this when they’re scared. When I heard my mom yelling at the cat I ran into the living room and my mom handed me my poor hamster. I took her in the bathroom and saw that Fiesty must had been in the cats mouth because her back was wet from the slobber I guess. I grabbed some toilet paper and saw that my hamster was bleeding.This made me bust in tears because I love my hamster and thought that she was going to die. We didn’t have the money to take her to the vet so we just put some neosporin and peroxcide on her untill it cleared up. And now Fiesty’s spot is just a little red but she doesn’t have any scabbs or open wounds.Although her hair is a little spiky from the neosporin (evan though I have tried to take a little water and scrubb it out) but other than that she’s back to her old self.I take care of my hamster as best as I can.I give her fresh food and water each day. And every day when I go balck berry picking, ( we have a black berry bush in our backyard), I always give her the biggest one I can find.I brush Fiesty’s hair with a brush that I got her from the pet store. I clean her cage in every two weeks. I usually take Fiesy under my trampoline to let her play (with me cloesly watching and always by her side), and to eat some grass.I put Fiesty in her ball to run around in the house for about two hours each day.Always bringing her water bottle to her every thirty minutes encase she is thirsty.Then putting her in her cage to see if she has to go to the bathroom, then putting her in her ball again.I give her treats that are good for hamsters, and to make sure it’s ok I put a list of foods on the fridge that I got from a website on the internet that tells you what fopds are good and what there’re good for and what foods are bad. So if you answer this I want to know Do you think my hamsters happy? And how can I bond more with my hamster?Please help!!

I read the whole thing. It seems like you are being a great hamster mommy. I can only suggest a couple things.

1) to help cure her escaping I suggest getting extensions for her cage. It will give them more room to explore and they won’t feel so trapped. One of my hamsters, Bubba [a teddy bear too], also loved to escape. We had a critter trail 3 for him. For Christmas I got him a Crittertrail Z [i think that was it] and attatched it to the cage. Now he chews less and has not escaped since.

2) to bond with your hamster, pet it often. and hand feed it when ever you can. I recently got a new hamster, Lorelei, who had a lot of social problems when it came to being with people. (she was never held for the first 3 months of her life ), the day I brought her home she was hissing and showing her teeth, I was not able to hold her, and not even pet her. Since I feed Lorelei her favorite foods by hand. She still has a lot of problems but there is a HUGE improvment. I can pick her up and she doesn’t mind it for a while. Since your hamster seems like a sociable hamster this should strengthen a bond you already have. Also handle it as much as possible. You develop a lot of trust this way between you and your hamster. The day it falls asleep in your arms is when you have an unbreakable bond. I have had only one hamster do that out of my experience with 6 hamsters. Unfortunetaly she passed away on June 13th. And the day she fell asleep in my arms was in April. It will take a very long time to develop a trust like that. Just keep what you are doing and your hamster will remain happy and with these pointers your bond should grow.

I hope this helps!