Here are the 11 best types of pet hamsters. People like to keep these tiny animals as their pets because of their friendly nature.
Best Types of Pet Hamsters
Several species of hamsters exist globally, but few are used to keep pets because of their excellent and friendly behavior. Their features and appearance are almost similar, but they are classified due to minor changes.
| Hamster’s name | Scientific name | Year discovered |
| Dwarf hamster | PhodopusCricetulus | 1817 |
| Winter white dwarf hamster | Phodopussungorus | 1933 |
| Dwarf Campbell Russian hamster | Phodopuscampbelli | 1902 |
| Chinese hamster | Cricetulusgriseus | 1919 |
| European Hamster | Cricetuscricetus | 1995 |
| Turkish hamster | Mesocricetusbrandti | 1878 |
| Korean Hamster | Tscherskia triton | 1949 |
| Eversmann’s hamster | Allocricetuluseversmanni | 1939 |
| Romanian hamster | Mesocricetusnewtoni | 1898 |
| Mouse like hamster | Calomyscus | 1905 |
| Chinese striped hamster | Cricetulusbarabensis | 1773 |
Dwarf hamster
In the past, you can buy dwarf hamsters only from professional breeders. But now you can find them from local pet stores. They are smaller as compare to Syrian hamsters. They are friendly and social pets, and you should keep them as a pair.
There are various kinds of dwarf hamsters, but four types are common: Chinese, Campbell’s, Roborvoskis, and winter white dwarf hamster.
Their basic needs are similar to each other species, but you should keep them with their species because they have very different personalities.
They are not acceptable for children to have as a pet because of their rapid movement and smaller size.
Unlike other hamsters, they remain active and sharp at dawn or dusk. Dwarf hamsters can live about 2 to 3 years under good care. Their diet consists of Timothy hay, grains, fresh, clean water, vegetable, and fruits.
Winter white dwarf hamsters
They are nocturnal pets but might play during the day for a very short time. They have a small round body. Unlike other hamster’s types, they allow the handling or holding and do not nip or bite.
They may live for 1.5 to 2 years, and their size is 3.5 to 4 inches. They are too active, sharp, and calm. It is difficult for children to handle them. You can offer them fresh food, pasta, vegetable, clean water, whole-grain cereal and should not give them onions, raw beans, garlic, raw potatoes, citrus food, and almonds.
They are like Campbell hamsters. Their cost is about $15 to $25. They are mostly dark gray color on the back along the dorsal stripe. Their belly fur is white. In the winter season, their back color may change into white to different degrees.
Dwarf Campbell Russian hamster
Their life span is about 2 years. Adult hamster’s size is 2 inches, the length is 9.1cm, and the mass is 27 g. They have sleek and lean bodies with a tinier face, and they are smaller pets and the quickest hamster.
They need nipping to get socializing. They show their threatened feeling by nipping or biting. You can keep them in one tank of same-sex pairs.
Give them fresh vegetables, fruits, hamster treats, and grains, and avoid raw beans, honey, avocado, high sugar foods, and almonds because these are harmful and toxic. Their purchasing amount is about $15 to $25.
Chinese hamster
Chinese hamsters are also another dwarf hamster kind. They are not genuinely dwarf hamsters, but they get the name because of their small size compared to other dwarf hamsters.
They are brown with a black stripe and a lighter belly. They have a long tail and easy to tame or kept as a pet. Their housing or habitat does not need much space. They live for 2 to 3 years, and adult mass is 30 to 45 g.
The adult Chinese hamster length is 8.2 to 14 cm, and the adult tail length is 2 to 3.3 cm. They are also nocturnal; during the day, they sleep and awake and active at night. They are comfortable to hold or tame because of their good nature.
Usually, they are quiet pets. Their housing should 1 foot high, two feet long, and should 1 foot wide.
They are legal to keep, but in most areas, you might need an exotic animal permit. You can give them insects, carrots, seeds, vegetation, apple, nuts, oats, and commercial hamster food.
European hamsters
They are also pet hamsters, and they are families of dwarf or golden hamster. They have white patches on brown dorsal fur, their belly and chest are black. Their tail is furred and short.
Their weight is about 220 to 460 g. Their price is about $10 to $25. Their length is 22 to 32 cm, and their lifespan is up to 8 years. Their color is brown instead of grey-brown like other hamsters.
They are also nocturnal and eat insects, food chambers, seeds, storage chambers, tunnels, grasses, legumes, nesting chamber, and root vegetables. They have cheek pouches and transfer their meal to the storage chamber.
They can store a large amount of meal, about 65 grams meal, in their food chamber. European hamsters are crepuscular and solitary, lonely creatures. They get aggressive and violent quickly towards other hamsters or humans when taming or handling.
They hibernate themselves in the months between October to march. They mostly breed from march to august. Female hamsters give birth to 2 baby hamsters once a year. The size of litter hamsters about 3 to 15 young.
Turkish hamster
Turkish hamsters are also pet animals, and they are considered the most aggressive or hostile hamster by nature. They are lonely and nocturnal, and their fur color is sandy brown, tan ad dark black.
They are related to golden or Syrian hamster. They discovered in the barren throughout Asia and Europe. Their diet is relatively different from other hamsters. They like to eat herbs, occasional insects, human crops, leaves, and store roots, but they like to consume crops.
They also store the meal in their burrows. They mostly live across the scrublands, dunes, desert steppes, and farmland. These hamster’s lengths are often short, and adult mass is 170 g, and their expectancy life is about two years. Their cost is around $10 to $20. Turkish hamsters are restless.
Therefore they are often used in laboratories for research. By keeping them as a pet at your home, you may require glass or wooden cages. They hibernate themselves for a continuous period of about 10 months long, but mostly they do for 5 to 6 months. Turkish hamster’s gestation period is up to 15 days.
Korean hamster
Korean hamster size is about 3 to 5 inches, and its price is around $10 to $20. Their color is grey or pale brown. They are a member of Tscherskia. They also called with another name of a greater long-tailed hamster.
They usually originate in northern china. They are the rodents who love to eat the crop. They are the only pet hamster who can stand on their legs and can shout. Their nutrition consists of freshwater, insects, seeds, grains, and vegetables.
Eversmann’s hamster
Eversmann’s hamster origin is Kazakhstan, and their cost is about $10 to $20. Their size is up to 3.5 inches. They are grey-brown. They are the only member of the Allicricetulus genus besides with Mongolian hamster.
They are aggressive, lonely, and nocturnal by nature. They are mostly live in the wild. The less used to keep as a pet hamster because they nip or bite when handling. They eat hamsters treat, insects, crops, and grains.
Romanian hamster
They are similar to the golden or Syrian hamster. They were discovered in Romania and Bulgaria. Their fur is brown dorsal in color and white from underneath and has black cheek flashes.
They have pointed faces in contrast to other hamster species. The head top has a dark line that spread to the neck. The dark hoop encompasses to the shoulder back. Their length is up to 7 inches, and their weight around 80 to 115 g.
Their average weight is 20.4 g. They live in an entirely lonely burrow system. Their food consists of vegetables, insects, seeds, rooted fruits, legumes a d grasses.
They also transfer their meal to cheek pouches and collect food in chambers. Their gestation period is up to 15 days. They use to keep at home as a pet animal. They are also used in laboratories for studies.
Mouse-like hamsters
They are small pets found in Pakistan, Syria, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Iran. They are not actual hamsters; they are considered as hamsters due to the shape of their molars.
They have not to cheek pouches. As their name, long-tail represent the meaning that they have a short body with a high tail. Their fur has a grey color at a young age but, with growing age, it turns into sandy color and has white feet and belly.
Their body length ranges from 7 to 8 cm but, their tail length is approximately 8 to 10 cm. Their diet includes seeds, grains, fruit, hamster treat, rooted vegetables but, they prefer seeds most. Their breed from March to June, and female pets give birth to 3 to 4 litter each year.
Chinese striped hamster
They are also called striped dwarf hamsters. Their approximate length is 7.4 to 10 cm, and the tail length is about 2.1 to 3.6 cm. Chinese striped hamster mass is from 17 to 31 g. Chinese striped hamster is the subtype of the Chinese hamster.
Their color is pale greyish-brown with a black dorsal stripe expands to the spine. The underneath is grey, and their hair has white tops. These hamsters remain active and sharp in the beginning hours of the night.
They get food in their cheek pouches and collect the remaining food in the burrows. They hibernate themselves in the winter season and evolve in the months from February or March.
They seem like a mouse with a shorter prehensile tail, have tulip ears, and have large gloomy eyes. Their fur color is white with scattered light grey patches.
