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Let’s say you are lying in your bed, right on the verge of sleep when rattle rattle, tap tap, crunch crunch, your roommate, the hamster, decides to begin its day. That’s a problem with nocturnal critters—they can interrupt your beauty sleep! Especially if you give them a wheel to exercise on, or some carrots to munch.

Actually, giving your hamster something to chew on is a very good idea since their incisor teeth do not stop growing! They need to keep them trim with constant chewing. Some experts recommend providing them with a dog biscuit or a piece of wood for this purpose. Hamsters like to eat nuts, seeds, some small insects, and certain fresh vegetables. Do not feed hamsters tomatoes, garlic, raw beans, potato eyes or chocolate! You don’t want to poison your little friend.

Hamsters are a member of the rodent family who were discovered in Syria by British zoologist George Waterhouse in 1839. He named the creature “cricetus auratus,” which means “the golden hamster.” Later, in 1930, a Professor of Zoology from the University of Jerusalem discovered a burrow of hamsters in the Syrian desert, and since they were larger than Waterhouse’s hamster, they were termed “mesocricetus auratus,” even though they were probably the same species.

The word hamster is derived from the German word “hamstern,” which means “to hoard.” You can imagine where that comes from—if you’ve ever watched one eat, you’d notice that a hamster’s cheeks can hold a lot of food! What might not be so obvious, is that farmers in the Middle East have found it profitable to explore the hamsters’ underground burrows. There, one can find that the hamsters have hoarded 30-60 pounds of grain per burrow!

Hamsters gained popularity as pets and as laboratory animals after the 1930’s. It is said that almost all of the Golden Hamsters are descendants of the hamsters that were brought to the University of Jerusalem in 1930. Because of their gentle nature, people enjoy them as pets. Because of their ability to breed rapidly without spreading disease, scientists have used them as research animals. And though animal testing is a controversial topic, scientists use hamsters particularly when researching cardio-vascular treatments for humans because the hamster’s heart bears similarities to the human heart.

If you bring a hamster into your own home, allow it plenty of space in its environment. Provide proper bedding and a wheel with paper woven through the rungs so that it can get exercise. Also, when you handle a hamster, be careful not to disturb it when it is sleeping, as you might frighten it, and could cause it to bite! Remember that hamsters are active at night—so, don’t put the cage right next to your bed if you plan on getting a good night’s sleep! Crunch crunch, tap tap, rattle rattle!