Owning a pet hamster is something that can bring you a lot of joy in life, but you might still be getting used to taking care of it. If you’re still relatively new to owning hamsters, then there are likely things that you don’t know.
Some people get a bit worried when they notice that their hamsters appear to be more hyper than usual. If you’ve had your hamster for a little bit and then start noticing that it seems way too hyper, then something might be off.
Why is your hamster acting so hyper and do you need to worry about it? Keep reading to get all of the information about why hamsters might be hyper as well as what you should be doing.
1 – It Might Just Be Normal
It’s good to start things out by acknowledging that you likely have nothing to worry about when your hamster is a bit hyper. There are some reasons why hamsters might be more hyper than usual, and you’ll be able to get into that in just a bit.
However, it’s not unusual for hamsters to have boisterous personalities. Sometimes you’ll buy a hamster that is calmer than normal, but you might also get a hamster that seems to be a ball of energy.
Hamsters can even become hyper due to little circumstances such as dealing with stress. If you notice your hamster being more hyper than it usually is, then you probably don’t need to be concerned.
This should help to set your mind at ease, and you now know that there shouldn’t be anything medically wrong with your hamster. Read on to explore reasons why hamsters will get hyper and what can be done to help them expend pent-up energy.
2 – Boredom
Boredom is something that can make your hamster act way more hyper than it usually is. Hamsters are playful little creatures, and if they haven’t been able to do anything in a while, then they might get hyper.
When hamsters are bored, they might not do a lot of the normal things that hamsters do. For example, you might notice that your hamster hasn’t been playing normally for a bit, and this is causing it to build up too much energy.
All of that energy needs an outlet, and it might come out by causing your hamster to act super hyper. The way to fix this is to give your hamster more to do.
You should try to play with your hamster a bit so that it will be fulfilled and happy. Spending a bit more time with your hamster might help it to feel a lot better, and you’ll learn about more ways to help hamsters expend energy later on.
3 – Stress
Stress also causes hamsters to act hyper sometimes, and stress can even make some hamsters aggressive. It’s not always easy to say what causes a hamster to become stressed, but it could be due to a change in the hamster’s environment.
If you can determine the source of stress, then you can turn things around so that your hamster will feel more normal again. Loud noises will cause some hamsters to feel stressed, but others might get stressed due to other pets in the home.
For example, if you have a cat that is curious about your hamster, it could be scaring the hamster by standing outside the cage when you aren’t around. This could make the hamster fearful for its life, and that’s causing the hamster to be overly stressed.
Try to think about whether anything has changed or if something else is going on that could be causing the hamster stress. Some hamsters aren’t used to being picked up, and this means that even the simple act of handling a hamster will cause some of them to feel stress.
Thankfully, it isn’t usually too difficult to alleviate hamster stress levels. If you eliminate sources of stress and take care of your hamster well, then things should turn around over time.
Even if your hamster is a bit aggressive, it doesn’t mean that things will stay that way. Some hamsters might be a bit more aggressive by nature, though.
4 – Youth
Young hamsters are generally going to be more hyper than older hamsters. They have more energy and this causes them to act more hyper than hamsters that have aged a bit.
As a hamster gets a bit older, it’s going to get a lot less jumpy and fidgety. If you’re hoping that your hamster will settle down some, then you might just need to wait for it to get a bit older.
Being hyper isn’t always that unusual when it comes to hamsters. It could just be the youth of the hamster coming out.
Playing with the hamster and giving it an outlet to use up energy should make a difference. Even older hamsters need to play, but it’s especially important for young hamsters who have too much excess energy.
Special Tips to Help Your Hamster Expend Energy
Overly hyper hamsters are often going to have a lot of pent-up energy that needs to be expended. If your hamster is just bored, then you can help it to calm down by giving it more to do.
Below, you’re going to be able to find various special tips to help your hamster expend energy. This should help you to solve your hamster’s issues and it’ll be much calmer moving forward.
Get New Toys for Your Hamster
Getting new toys for your hamster can help it to have more fun and stay interested in its environment. Sometimes hamsters will get bored with their cages and the toys that they have, but you can change things up over time.
Try to buy some new toys for your hamster and switch it up so that they will have new things to do. The hamster might show a lot of interest in the new toys, and that’ll make it want to play with them.
Keep an eye on your hamster to see what it does with the new toys. If it’s playing more than it has been, then that’s a good thing.
You can try to switch the toys in and out every so often to keep your hamster interested. That way, it’ll keep certain activities from becoming stale.
If you don’t have the ability to buy a bunch of new toys right now, then rearranging things in your hamster’s cage could be a good idea. Sometimes just moving things around a bit is enough to get your hamster interested in things again.
Spending a bit of time doing this could get your hamster to start doing activities that will help it to expend energy. It’s good for your hamster to run on its wheel and roll little toys around the cage.
Hide Treats in the Hamster’s Cage
Another good idea is to encourage your hamster to dig and search around its cage. You can do this by hiding treats in the cage at various points that it will want to dig to get to.
Get some of your hamster’s favorite treats and take the time to position them at certain points in the cage. Hamsters like foraging around for food because that is something that they would normally do in the wild.
You can set it up so that your hamster will have to dig around to find the treats, and it’ll make your hamster use up a lot of energy. This should help a hyper hamster to feel significantly more content.
Try to do this for your hamster every so often so that it can use up some of its extra energy. You don’t necessarily need to do this all the time, but it can be a semi-regular thing that helps your hamster out.
Try Different Hamster Wheels
You already know that switching out hamster toys is a good idea, but you might not have thought about switching out the hamster wheel. The hamster wheel is certainly a staple of a hamster’s cage that should always be there, but did you know that there are different wheel types?
Most hamster owners wind up buying a standard hamster wheel to go in the hamster cage. However, you can also choose to buy a saucer wheel that will allow the hamster to use the wheel in a slightly different way.
It might be a good idea to try to switch out the hamster wheel from time to time. This can keep your hamster from getting bored with the wheel because a saucer wheel is going to provide a slightly different stimulus compared to a standard wheel.
Even if this seems like a hassle, it’s probably going to be worth trying out. If you’re worried about your hamster being hyper, then you should utilize this method and see if it makes a difference.
Spend More Time with Your Hamster
Since boredom is something that can cause hamsters to become hyper, it’s possible that you haven’t been paying enough attention to your hamster. Are you giving your hamster toys to play with without spending a lot of time watching them?
Some hamsters might enjoy the connection that they have with their owners a bit more than others. If you have been busy lately and haven’t been paying attention to your hamster as much, then that could be contributing to its hyper nature.
Try to spend a little more time playing with the hamster yourself if you’re able to do so. It’ll show your hamster that you care about it, and it might help to encourage the hamster to use up some more energy.
Just remember that you can cause a hamster stress if you try to handle it too much. Some hamsters don’t like being picked up because it sets off their natural instincts about predators.
If your hamster seems to like being picked up and running around on your arms, then let it do what it wants to do. Just know that you can play with your hamster and have fun, but you have to be careful about not causing it to feel stressed, too.
Ensure That Your Hamster Is Eating Properly
It won’t hurt to do your best to ensure that your hamster is eating properly as well. As mentioned above, a hamster being hyper isn’t typically something to worry about, but a well-balanced diet can help hamsters out.
If you’re worried that a hamster is underweight due to being hyper and using up too much energy, then you might need to make some changes to its diet. Generally, it’s best to follow a veterinarian’s advice about diet issues.
You can always choose to consult your veterinarian if you’re worried that anything is amiss. If your hamster is losing weight, then you can work with the veterinarian to come up with a solid diet that can help it to maintain a healthy weight.
Diet issues aren’t usually the cause of hamsters being hyper, but it’s worth mentioning to pay attention to your hamster’s diet. You want your hamster to have a good diet so that it can remain healthy for a long time.
It’s also a good idea to allow your veterinarian to check your hamster out if you’re at all worried about its behavior. Sometimes a veterinarian might be able to give you good advice that you hadn’t considered.
Making an appointment with your veterinarian isn’t going to be difficult, and it could assuage your fears. If you are still worried even after following the tips above, then this is the best thing that you can do.
Final Thoughts
You know everything that there is to know about why hamsters are hyper now. In all likelihood, you aren’t going to need to worry at all, but you can still help your hamster to calm down a bit with certain actions.
Enjoy spending time with your hamster, ensure that it has toys to play with, and hide treats in its cage that it can find. It’ll help your hamster to have fun, and a lot of its unused energy will be expended.
So long as you’re paying attention to your hamster, it shouldn’t be hard to keep it healthy. Even if a hamster is a bit hyper, it’s not going to be a big issue.
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.