Hamsters are commonly kept as pets. Many people find these cute little animals to be among the most convenient pets to own.
They don’t require too much work on your part, and they don’t take up much space. You might want to consider getting a hamster if you don’t have room for a dog or a cat.
If you don’t know much about hamsters, you might be trying to learn about them. Are hamsters smart animals?
Continue reading to learn more about hamsters. You’ll learn about their intelligence, and this might help you to decide if these pets are right for you.
How Big Is a Hamster’s Brain?
A hamster’s brain isn’t very big at all. It’s not going to be able to be that big, considering that hamsters are rather tiny animals.
It’s said that a hamster’s brain is smaller than your pinky nail and weighs around the same amount as a mint. Despite having such small brains, hamsters are fairly smart overall.
While hamsters can’t match human intelligence, it’s interesting to know that hamsters have brains that look very similar to those of humans. Their brains even function in similar ways to human brains.
As such, they’re capable of certain things that easily make them smart animals. Just how smart are these hamsters?
Below, you’ll learn a lot about hamsters and what they’re capable of. It should give you a greater appreciation of these little pets.
Do Hamsters Know Their Owners?
It takes time, but hamsters can learn to recognize their owners. In the beginning of the relationship, you’ll simply be another person to the hamster.
As time passes, the hamster will come to know you, and it can even bond with you. To make this happen, it’s important to handle the hamster every so often.
Handling the hamster and interacting with it will allow it to bond with you. You shouldn’t try to get the hamster to bond with everyone that you know, though.
It’s easiest to have the hamster bond with just one or two people. The hamster will recognize you and will come to enjoy your interactions as long as you’re handling the little pet properly.
Do They Recognize Their Names?
You might be surprised to hear that hamsters can recognize their own names. Of course, it’s going to take time for a hamster to learn its name.
Teaching a hamster to recognize its name involves repetition. The hamster gets used to recognizing certain sounds and responding to them.
So if you say the hamster’s name enough, the hamster will learn to respond accordingly. It just takes time and a little bit of patience.
That doesn’t mean that the hamster actually knows that it has a name. It just learns the sound of the name and that there is an expected response every time the hamster hears the name being called.
How Good Is a Hamster’s Memory?
Hamsters have very good memories as far as animals go. They can remember lots of things, such as where objects have been placed in their cages.
Exactly how good the memory of a hamster is might be hard to say. You see, scientists are still researching this topic, and not everything is known about it right now.
What is known is that hamsters have the ability to remember certain things. They can remember their little environments and where things are positioned.
Hamsters can learn to recognize their own names after receiving training. They’ll also learn to remember their owners.
It’s speculated that the good memory of a hamster is used for survival purposes. Further information isn’t available, but there might be new studies that will shed light on the true memory capabilities of these little pets.
Can Hamsters Remember You?
At first, hamsters won’t remember you. As time passes, hamsters will learn to recognize their owners.
This is something that comes with time. You’ll bond with your hamster as you handle it, feed it, play with it, and do other things.
Many people say that hamsters can be quite affectionate and fun to interact with. You have to put in a bit of effort, but hamsters learn to remember their owners.
The hamster will even enjoy spending time with you if you do things right. So you can have a satisfying time keeping these little animals as pets if you’re interested.
Can They Learn Tricks?
Teaching tricks to hamsters can be a lot of fun. These pets are pretty good at learning how to do tricks, but it requires a bit of effort.
Before trying to teach the hamster tricks, it’s important to ensure that your hamster is bonded to you. This means spending time with the hamster and handling it.
Once you’ve established that you have a bond, you can work on teaching it to do things. Hamsters have been taught to stand, jump, run around in circles, and more.
The best place to start is to teach your hamster simple commands. You can teach it to stand by giving it treats when it does the desired action.
This simple training method is the same one that you’ll be using to teach the hamster to do many things. Eventually, you’ll be able to get the hamster to jump through little hoops and run obstacle courses.
It all depends on how much time you wish to dedicate to training the hamster. Getting the hamster to do more complex tricks will require more training and time.
Do Hamsters Like Music?
There are differing opinions about whether hamsters like music. Some people say that hamsters like music, while others say that they don’t show any signs of enjoying it.
What is known is that hamsters can become frightened by loud noises. So any music that is played too loud has the potential to scare the hamster and make it feel stressed.
You want to avoid putting your hamster in situations like this. So playing music might not always be the most practical thing to do.
Of course, there are those who say that hamsters seem to enjoy music. Most of these people say that hamsters like peaceful music the most.
Classical tunes and other calm instrumental pieces might be better than noisier types of music that become too frantic. Since there hasn’t been much research done on this topic, all of this information should be taken with a grain of salt.
Hamsters Have Problem Solving Abilities
It’s interesting to note that hamsters have problem-solving abilities. They can solve problems better than many other types of animals.
Earlier, you learned that hamsters are capable of learning tricks. It was mentioned that hamsters can learn to run obstacle courses.
They can also learn to navigate mazes and solve simple puzzles. You can use food to get them to cooperate and solve the puzzles.
Many people enjoy setting up little mazes or puzzles for the hamsters to solve. While they might not have complex problem-solving skills, they are able to figure out how to navigate mazes and solve some basic puzzles.
It shows that hamsters are pretty smart little pets. If you’re looking for a smart pet, it’ll be fun to bring a hamster into your home.
Do Hamsters Miss Their Owners?
Hamsters are pretty much solitary animals in the wild. They don’t live with other hamsters and only meet up with other hamsters when it’s time to breed.
So hamsters are going to be just fine living alone. They don’t need social activity to thrive and stay healthy.
They don’t need to interact with their owners to stay happy, either. This doesn’t mean that you should ignore your hamster, though.
Earlier, you learned that hamsters can learn to remember their owners. They can become bonded with them, and they’ll learn to enjoy interacting.
If you stop interacting with the hamster, it’ll eventually forget you. It might take a long time for this to occur, but it’s still something you should be aware of.
Hamsters don’t necessarily miss their owners in the same way that dogs do. Even so, hamsters can bond with their owners and come to appreciate the time that they spend with them.
Is Caring for Hamsters Easy?
For the most part, caring for hamsters is easy. These pets are relatively low-maintenance options that work well for beginners.
Children can learn to take care of hamsters so long as they’re old enough to understand responsibility. You do need to keep the hamster cage clean to keep the hamster in good health, though.
Cleaning, keeping the hamster fed, and handling the hamster the right way will be important. It’s wise to look up information on hamster care if you need help.
Once you’re confident that you can handle the responsibility, it’ll be good to move forward. They’re great pets that shouldn’t be hard to learn how to care for as long as you’re ready to handle the basics.
Final Thoughts
You’ve learned that hamsters are very smart overall. They’re rather smart when compared to other similar types of animals.
They can learn to do tricks, and you can teach them to do all sorts of things. It does take a bit of effort to do this, but it might be worth it if you find that it’s fun.
Hamsters have good memories and learn to recognize people, their names, and the position of objects in the cage. If you move things around in the cage, the hamster is certainly going to take notice.
These little pets might not have huge brains, but they do have problem-solving skills. People have made hamsters solve simple puzzles and run through mazes.
You might be surprised by just how smart hamsters are. If you think that hamsters are interesting, don’t hesitate to buy one as a pet.
They make great pets because of how small they are. It doesn’t take much room to house a hamster, and they aren’t very expensive either.
Depending on what you’re looking for, a hamster might be an ideal pet. You’ll enjoy bonding with your hamster and learning to appreciate how smart it is.
I have a bachelor’s degree in Film/Video/Media Studies, as well as an associates degree in Communications. I began producing videos and musical recordings nearly 15 years ago. I am a guitarist and bassist in Southwest MI and have been in a few different bands since 2009, and in 2012 I began building custom guitars and basses in my home workshop as well. When I’m home, I love spending time with my three pets (a dog, cat, and snake) and gardening in my backyard. I also like photographing wild birds, especially birds of prey.