Adopting a hamster is one of the most rewarding experiences for animal lovers looking for a small companion. These tiny creatures are not only adorable and fun to watch, but they also thrive when given the right care, habitat, and love. Whether you’re new to the idea of hamster adoption or you're preparing for your new furry friend, this complete guide will help you every step of the way.
Why Adopt a Hamster?
Adopting a hamster is one of the most compassionate choices you can make as a pet parent. While many people immediately think of pet shops when considering a new hamster, thousands of small animals—including Syrian, Roborovski, and dwarf hamsters—end up in shelters, rescue centres, or even posted online by owners who can no longer care for them.
Unfortunately, hamsters are often misunderstood and mistakenly thought of as “starter pets.” This leads to impulsive purchases without proper research into their needs, space requirements, or behavior. As a result, many hamsters are surrendered after just a few weeks or months—through no fault of their own.
By choosing to adopt rather than buy, you're giving a second chance to a small creature who may have faced neglect, stress, or abandonment. Adopted hamsters are just as lovable, curious, and fun as any others, and many rescues provide helpful background information to match you with a pet that suits your lifestyle.
Not only are you helping an animal in need, but you’re also supporting the mission of rescue organizations and discouraging unethical breeding practices. Many pet stores get their animals from mass-breeding mills where welfare is often compromised. Adoption helps break that cycle.
At Moony Paw, we actively support ethical care and rescue efforts. If you're considering adding a hamster to your family, check out our UK Small Animal Rescue List. This comprehensive list includes trusted shelters that rescue not just hamsters, but also guinea pigs, rats, degus, gerbils, rabbits and chinchillas. Adopting from one of these organizations can be your first step in offering a forever home to a small pet in need—while making room for another rescue in their place.
Getting Ready: Preparing the Perfect Home
Before your new hamster arrives, it's essential to create a safe, enriching, and species-appropriate environment. Hamsters are highly active, instinct-driven animals that require more than just a cage and wheel—they thrive in setups that replicate their natural habitat, allowing for digging, climbing, foraging, and nesting.
Creating the right home from the start sets the foundation for a happy, healthy life. It reduces stress, prevents boredom-related behaviors like bar-biting, and makes your hamster more confident and relaxed in your presence.
🏡 Cage Setup Essentials
When it comes to hamster cages, bigger is always better. A suitable enclosure should be well-ventilated, escape-proof, and spacious enough to accommodate natural behaviors like burrowing, foraging, and nesting. The bare minimum floor space recommended by experts is 100x50 cm, but larger is better.
Avoid brightly colored plastic cages with multiple levels or cramped tubes—these are often marketed for hamsters but fail to meet their basic welfare needs. Instead, opt for a low, wide habitat with plenty of horizontal floor space and the ability to hold deep bedding (at least 20cm deep).
Here’s what every hamster setup should include:
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Deep substrate: Allow at least 20–30cm of unscented paper-based or aspen, spruce, hemp bedding for digging tunnels.
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Solid exercise wheel: A minimum of 28cm in diameter to prevent back arching.
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Hideouts: At least 4 enclosed shelters for sleeping and stress relief.
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Chews and Dried Sprays: Encourage natural gnawing and play.
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Sand bath: A must-have for grooming and maintaining healthy skin and fur.
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Water source: A bottle or a sturdy ceramic bowl.
🛒 Moony Paw Picks for a Perfect Setup
At Moony Paw, we’ve curated a beautiful collection of accessories that meet both your hamster’s needs and your aesthetic tastes. Our products focus on natural materials, functionality, and enrichment.
Here are a few standout essentials to start with:
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🌿 Banana Leaf Basket: This versatile basket is perfect for holding forage, creating a cozy rest area, or offering a soft item for gnawing. Made from natural banana leaves, it's safe, biodegradable, and chewable.
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🍽️ Amethyst Bowl: Perfect to use as a water bowl.
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🥄 Floral Serving Spoon: Perfect for scatter-feeding or offering healthy treats.
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🧹 Mini Dustpan Set: Handy for spot-cleaning and keeping your hamster’s space tidy without disturbing their tunnels.
These products are not only beautiful but also tailored to promote your hamster’s well-being. You can explore our entire hamsters collection for more habitat-friendly accessories that align with a natural lifestyle.
🌿 Natural Design = Natural Behaviors
One of the best things you can do for your hamster is to design their enclosure with their wild instincts in mind. Wild hamsters live in complex burrow systems underground. Replicating that in captivity with deep bedding, tunnels, and nesting zones supports mental health and reduces stress.
You can take this a step further by rotating enrichment items weekly. Swapping out chews, changing the location of their sand bath, or hiding treats around the cage are small adjustments that provide variety and stimulation.
Your hamster’s home isn’t just a cage—it’s their entire world. Make it one filled with comfort, stimulation, and natural materials that let them be the happy little explorer they were born to be.
🥗 Nutrition: Fueling Tiny Bodies the Right Way
Feeding your hamster the right way is one of the most important parts of ensuring a long, healthy, and enriched life. Sadly, many commercial mixes found in pet stores are overloaded with fillers, pellets, and sugary treats that don’t reflect a hamster’s natural diet. In the wild, hamsters forage for a wide range of foods—grains, seeds, herbs, insects, flowers, and roots—and this diversity should be mirrored in their diet at home.
At Moony Paw, we believe in offering nutrition that’s both species-appropriate and exciting. That means variety, natural ingredients, and textures that promote physical and mental health.
🌾 The Power of Foraging
Hamsters are natural foragers, and they thrive when they’re given opportunities to dig, sniff, and seek out their food. Scatter-feeding or hiding treats around their enclosure mimics wild behavior and prevents boredom.
That’s why our forage collection is made with only the finest dried botanicals and flowers—no artificial colors, no added sugar, just wholesome, nature-inspired blends.
Try these Moony Paw favorites:
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🌸 Flower Mix – Premium: A beautiful, fragrant blend of dried blooms including rose petals, cornflowers, and marigolds. Perfect for scattering around the enclosure to add both flavor and scent.
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🌿 Botanical Bloom Blend: Handcrafted to support digestion and promote foraging, this mix includes chamomile, calendula, and a variety of calming herbs.
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🌻 Sunflower Half Head:
A half sunflower head, dried to perfection, allowing your hamster to nibble, forage, and extract seeds at their own pace. We recommend breaking it into a few pieces before offering it to your hamster.
You can explore all our forage options here to find the perfect blend for your little one.
🌾 Sprays: Nature’s Enrichment Tool
In addition to forage, dried seed sprays are a must-have for any hamster diet. Not only do they provide valuable nutrients and fiber, but they also encourage your pet to nibble, gnaw, and work for their food—just like they would in the wild.
Sprays are especially helpful for dental health, reducing overgrown teeth, and providing an outlet for natural chewing instincts.
Some of our most-loved options include:
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🧡 Panicum Grass: A fine-textured seed spray that's ideal for all hamsters. Easy to nibble, great for tiny paws.
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🍂 Autumn Sprays Mix: A seasonal variety bundle that includes red sorghum, broom millet, and flax sprays—perfect for adding visual and textural interest to the habitat.
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🌾 Red Sorghum Stems: These hearty sprays offer long-lasting foraging fun and are packed with seeds that keep your hamster engaged.
Browse the full sprays collection to customize your hamster’s enrichment rotation.
🍬 What About Pellets and Mixes?
While some pellets can offer balanced nutrition, most hamster experts recommend avoiding pellet-only diets. They can be overly processed and don’t allow for natural food selection or enrichment. Instead, opt for a variety-driven, whole-food approach.
Moony Paw is currently in the process of developing our own ultra-premium, pellet-free complete hamster food made from over 50 nutritionally balanced ingredients. Stay tuned by subscribing to our newsletter for product updates!
🧁 Healthy Treats in Moderation
Treats can be a powerful bonding tool, especially during taming. However, it’s crucial to keep them healthy and species-appropriate.
Try these Moony Paw treats that hamsters love:
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🍓 Freeze-Dried Strawberries: A vibrant, natural treat with no added sugar—just one ingredient: strawberries.
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🥜 Peanuts: Rich in healthy fats and perfect in small quantities. Serve shelled or unshelled for added engagement.
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🌽 Mini Corn Cobs: A classic for foraging fun and natural chewing.
Explore our treats collection to reward your hamster the healthy way.
🔄 Rotate, Mix, and Match
To keep your hamster engaged and excited about their food, change things up regularly. One week, offer a botanical blend with sprays. The next, scatter a handful of flower forage and hide treats in a Banana Leaf Basket.
You can also mix sprays like Oat Spray, Sudan Grass, and Broom Millet for variety.
This not only supports mental health but also introduces different nutrients that contribute to overall wellness.
🦷 Chewing & Dental Health: Keeping Tiny Teeth in Check
Hamsters have open-rooted teeth that never stop growing throughout their lives. While this may sound surprising, it’s a crucial biological adaptation that helps them grind down hard seeds and fibrous plants in the wild. In captivity, however, if they’re not provided with appropriate items to chew, their teeth can quickly become overgrown—leading to serious health problems like abscesses, eating difficulties, or even starvation.
That’s why maintaining your hamster’s dental health isn’t optional—it’s essential.
🐹 Why Chewing Matters
In the wild, hamsters spend much of their day gnawing on roots, bark, stems, and seeds. This constant chewing naturally wears down their teeth, keeping them at a manageable length. But in domestic settings, many hamster habitats lack the variety of textures and resistance needed to replicate this behavior.
Providing safe, natural chews helps:
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✅ Prevent overgrown incisors
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✅ Encourage natural foraging and gnawing behavior
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✅ Reduce stress and boredom
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✅ Support jaw muscle health
Moony Paw’s Safe & Natural Chews
At Moony Paw, we’ve carefully selected our chew collection to include only hamster-safe materials—free from pesticides, artificial dyes, or added sugars. Each product is chosen to promote natural behavior, dental wear, and enrichment.
Here are some of our top-rated chew options:
🐾 Jerusalem Chew Sticks
Sustainably harvested from Jerusalem artichoke stems, these sticks offer a unique texture and taste that hamsters find irresistible. They’re ideal for chewing and can be tucked into bedding.
A classic chew option for a reason. Apple wood is one of the safest and most effective types of wood for small animals. Naturally sweet and perfectly sized for tiny paws, these sticks help keep teeth in top shape while offering hours of gnawing fun.
🍠 Burdock Roots
Chewing meets nutrition. Burdock roots are packed with natural fiber and offer a chewy texture that also supports digestion. Great for mixing into a foraging tray or using as a boredom-busting chew.
🐾 More Chewable Fun
Looking for something a bit different? Try these playful options that combine chewing with sensory engagement:
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🎸 Chew-a-Tune Guitar: A fun-shaped chew that adds a musical twist to dental care.
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🧸 Beloved Bear Chews: Adorable and effective, these shaped chews add personality to any enclosure.
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🌽 Mini Corn Cobs: Tasty, enriching, and fantastic for healthy teeth.
Browse the complete chews collection to find natural, enriching options that your hamster will love.
🔁 Rotate for Best Results
Just like humans get bored eating the same snacks every day, hamsters thrive on variety. Rotating different types of chews—wood, root, stalk, and shapes—ensures consistent dental wear while preventing your pet from losing interest.
Try mixing and matching options like:
Place them in different zones of the cage, or hide them inside a Banana Leaf Basket for extra fun!
🚫 Avoid Unsafe Chews
Not all chews sold in pet stores are safe. Avoid anything with:
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Artificial coloring or flavoring
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Glued wood pieces
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Plastic or soft rubber
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Sugary coatings
At Moony Paw, we’re committed to only offering products that are 100% safe, natural, and hamster-approved.
🧼 Hygiene & Maintenance: A Clean Habitat Is a Healthy Habitat
A clean environment isn’t just about aesthetics—it directly affects your hamster’s health, happiness, and behavior. As hamsters are naturally clean animals that prefer to designate separate areas for sleeping, eating, and toileting, a tidy enclosure supports their instincts and prevents stress-related issues.
Whether you’ve adopted a Syrian, Roborovski, or Dwarf hamster, maintaining proper hygiene in their enclosure is essential to prevent ammonia build-up, respiratory issues, and bacterial growth.
🧹 Spot Cleaning: The Daily Essential
Spot-cleaning means removing soiled bedding, uneaten fresh food, or damp patches from the enclosure without disrupting your hamster’s entire setup. This quick daily task is especially important if your hamster has a favorite bathroom corner or burrow area.
Keeping up with spot-cleaning helps:
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✅ Prevent unpleasant odors
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✅ Extend the life of your full bedding layer
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✅ Maintain tunnels and nests
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✅ Reduce stress for your hamster
✨ Pro tip: Use gentle, quiet movements to avoid disturbing your hamster during the cleaning process—especially during the day when they’re likely to be sleeping.
🧽 Deep Cleaning: Every 1–2 Weeks
Every one to two weeks (depending on the size of the enclosure and the hamster’s habits), it’s time for a full clean. However, unlike outdated advice, you should never replace 100% of the bedding at once unless medically necessary. Doing so removes all familiar smells and markings, which can cause disorientation and stress.
Here’s how to deep clean the right way:
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Gently move your hamster to a safe carrier or playpen.
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Remove old bedding, but keep a handful of used material to mix into the fresh layer. This retains familiar scents.
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Wipe surfaces using warm water or a pet-safe cleaning spray. Avoid harsh chemicals or scented cleaners.
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Clean food and water dishes, hideouts, and sand bath trays thoroughly.
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Add fresh bedding and replace accessories.
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Return your hamster and monitor for stress or excessive digging (which may indicate disorientation).
🛁 Sand Baths: Hamster Hygiene 101
Unlike many pets, hamsters clean themselves through sand bathing rather than water. Bathing in fine sand helps them remove oils, debris, and loose fur while keeping their coat healthy.
Make sure your hamster always has access to a clean sand bath, especially for Syrian and dwarf hamsters. Use a shallow ceramic or glass dish filled with hamster-safe sand—avoid dust or powdery products that can irritate their respiratory system.
🛒 Try pairing your sand bath with our Clover Plate or a shallow Bowl from our accessories collection for a natural, aesthetic touch.
Conclusion: Adopt, Don’t Shop – and Do It Right
Hamsters may be small, but the impact of giving one a loving home is huge. By choosing adoption and providing a rich, natural environment, you become part of the solution to small animal welfare.
Moony Paw is here to support you with ethically sourced, hamster-approved products. From enriching sprays to safe chews, we’ve got everything you need to make your new family member feel at home.
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