Grunting growly hamster?

[rayne89]

Well my daughter’s hamster died and we went out and bought a new one tonight. Very cute, seemed friendly in the store, I picked him up and he seemed fine, didn’t try to bit or anything. On the drive home he started making all these weird pretty loud grunting noises. Never in my life have I heard a hamster make a vocal noise.

After we got home I went to put him in the cage and opened his mouth wide and hissed really loud, I nearly dropped him because he freaked me out. He made the grunting noise for a while but now that he’s settled in he seems fine.

I had hamsters growing up and this my daughter’s third hamster but we’ve never experienced a vocal hamster. It just completely freaks me out. Anyone else have a vocal hamster?

 

[Leopard]

…Anyone else have a vocal hamster?

Not at this time, but I have had many hamsters that made all kinds of squeals and grunts. It never seemed to indicate anything except that the hamster was being a normal hamster, i.e., cranky and antisocial.

 

[bluerose]

Yeah, our son wanted a hamster but my husband refused, said he had friends back in high school who had sociopathic hamsters who made weird noises and more than once bit the hands that fed them. He suggested a gerbil. Our first gerbil died after about a year and a half (I think the pet store sold us an old one), then we bought a pair of brothers from Petsmart. It’s been almost three years now, and Chip is still going strong (Sam died about three months ago, not sure why). I was surprised my husband agreed to ANY kind of rodent since he is “rodent-phobic”.

Gerbils, dogs, cats… I’m surrounded by animals!

 

[blackrobe]

Had a Syrian hamster that occasionally made unpleasant noises and was generally antisocial. She was also an escape artist and eventually disappeared. Also had a couple of dwarf Siberian hamsters, likewise antisocial but silent.

Now I have gerbils and they are the best. Friendly, cute, and very low maintenance. They are arid climate beasties which eat and drink sparingly and produce hardly any waste. I have occasionally heard them making barely audible squeak/chirp sounds to one another.

JSA

 

[rayne89]

The hamster doesn’t seem mean, it just made noise. We’ve had gerbils before also, my daughter just likes hansters better -he’s a teddybear hamster. He’s very cute. We’ll try playing with him tomorrow after he’s more settled.

 

[JohnnyK]

sounds like a male. males are a tad more aggressive & cranky LOL! He’ll be fine, was proably just freaked out by the box & ride home.

 

[rayne89]

Yes this is our first boy hamster. I thought maybe that was it since we’ve never had a male before.

 

[beckers]

Yes this is our first boy hamster. I thought maybe that was it since we’ve never had a male before.

Um i hope you have talked to your kids about the birds and bees.

As i child we had two hamster in different cages. I thought they should be friends and put them together. Needless to say my parents were not happy when a few weeks later they had new little baby hamsters…Also my last male teddy bear hamsters was extermely well endowed and loved to chew. He chewed through the metal bars on top of the cage to escape. We put a book to hold the top down and he started chewing through that too…

 

[cockatoo]

My parents wouldn’t let me get a hamster, I had rats and have guinea pigs. Rats are great if you get them from a show breeder(yes people show rats). Guinea pigs don’t really bite, they kick, but I haven’t been bitten yet.

There is something about training hamsters to be friendly, but you need babies.

 

[rayne89]

Um i hope you have talked to your kids about the birds and bees.

As i child we had two hamster in different cages. I thought they should be friends and put them together. Needless to say my parents were not happy when a few weeks later they had new little baby hamsters…Also my last male teddy bear hamsters was extermely well endowed and loved to chew. He chewed through the metal bars on top of the cage to escape. We put a book to hold the top down and he started chewing through that too…

All the other male hamsters at the store seemed to “well endowed”. This one was curled up so it was harder to tell, now that he’s home we don’t really see much of anything compared to the others that were very obvious -and rather unattractive. I’m hoping they didn’t accidently stick a female in the male cage or we may be getting more hamsters than we bargained for.
We only have this one hamster so we won’t have to worry about mixing boys and girls at home.

We did play with him yesterday and he seems fine. No grunting or growling. We used to take the other hamsters we’ve had on car trips to grandma’s in this travel carrier we have for rodents. I don’t think this one is the travelling kind after he carried on so much with his last car trip.

 

[Jennifer_J]

You may have a female, and she may be pregnant. I’ve had several hamsters and the last one we had years ago got aggressive like that, nested and had a load of babies (which I took back to the pet store!!). That’s the only time I’ve heard any of our hamsters make noise…(she was also an escape artist).

Jennifer

 

[cockatoo]

Do you know how to tell if it is male or female.

My friend and I had to look up rat development because her rat had babies and we needed to seperate them before they were like 60 days old(i think 60) when the female baby rats can get pregnant.

Hamster breeder websites would tell you how to make sure on your hamster.

Also if it is the case of pregnancy(i hope i dont sound mean), when the babies are older keep a baby(or 2) and bring the mom and others back or even better if you can bring them to an SPCA(they are better with small animals then pet shops). Adult hamsters are not always friendly if they aren’t socialized properly.