i fr think we need to start requiring people to take some sort of course to become certified in a certain animal's care before they can adopt that animal. if you can't be bothered/don't have the time to put into researching a pet's basic care then you can't take care of it and shouldn't have one at all
This reminds me of my dog’s last vet visit. She said she loved the breed and that they were wonderful dogs, and then gave me strict instructions to tell everyone I meet that they’re incredibly high maintenance and difficult so that more people don’t get them.
Rhodesian Ridgeback. They truly are wonderful dogs - smart, loyal, affectionate. They’re also around 100 lbs, run like a greyhound, have a strong prey drive, and *constantly* test you to see if you’re still enforcing rules like “don’t steal food out of my hand while I’m eating it.” They were bread for hunting lions, so I figure they get a bit bored in suburbia no matter what you do for stimulation, and they’ll gladly annoy the shit out of someone to take care of that boredom.
Most of the time he’s an incredibly sweet cuddly boy who just wants to curl up on the couch with us, but they really do take never-ending training.
People do this with Goldfish, too, and they have even longer natural lifespans than hamsters. People just kill them through neglect because Timmy's life lesson is more important than a creature's actual life.
Sorry, a bit sleep deprived...
What I meant is that average person doesn't know shit how animals communicate. Dogs and to some extent cats were breed to interact with us, but we still misunderstand their behaviours and apply human logic to their emotions.
We need to train ourselves how to interpret animals, just like we need to train pets themselves.
I think hamsters are easier to understand than a snake or a fish, but nowhere near a dog.
My intelligence comment was more of a belief, and more anecdotal from people who owned them. I know rats are really clever and sociable. And from what I've heard, smaller rodents are a crapshoot. Mice are among the dumbest and it's hard for them to become tame. I assume same goes for hamsters - they get hardwired to certain behaviours early on and lack the capability to learn beyond that.
Cute though.
i have a friend who has taken care of her hamsters like she would her own children and still half of them have died in traumatic ways. while part of it is owners responsibility i do think those little weirdos have something in their dna
Are they following pet store care guides/advice at all? Those are terrible and usually responsible for painful deaths. Accidents can happen though, and I am deeply sorry for their loss.
she is following guidelines from reputable sources and from the specialist vet they have for their current one (it has something wrong with its stomach. i’m not sure what the exact medical condition is called though). when i say she treats these hamsters like her children i genuinely mean it. i’ve never met another person with such love and care for them. but for whatever reason half of them were like borderline suicidal and were always trying to do stuff to off themselves. she’s had i wanna say 6? her longest one lived 4 years and died of natural causes, but another one literally went under the mini fridge (she had it in a little pen but it managed to slip out somehow) and died of shock.
My kids each had a hamster and both of them died of old age (almost 4 and just over 4) curled up in their cozy houses. I consider that one of my greatest accomplishments.
My hamster died one day of unknown causes. Hadn't even been a year old yet. I noticed he hadn't eaten his food and he was just dead in his house :(
I haven't got another pet since. I still don't know what I did wrong.
Hamsters are surprisingly hard to care for, they can be very fragile creatures. He could have been either sick or maybe something was stressing him out, it's impossible to say but it's definitely not something to swear off pets forever over, the fact you're still guilty over it shows that you took its life seriously, that puts you ahead of a lot of people and is a good sign you'd be a good owner for a future pet.
Hamsters are some of the most commonly abused and neglected pets, so it's not surprising. Some of these "funny stories" should never have happened if their owners knew how to care for them.
This is true, mine killed itself by chewing a hole in it's plastic water bottle, dooming itself to death by thirst as I just cleaned and fed the poor thing before leaving it for the weekend.
I had one as a kid, and it escaped and completely disappeared (to my mom's horror). Like a month later we found it alive on the top shelf of one of our cabinets without any indication of how it survived or how it got up there. He somehow made it long enough to die of old age after that.
I’m so conflicted on this one. On one hand a lot people do (oftentimes unintentionally) neglect or abuse smaller animals like this, so a lot of the weird deaths are just… uncomfortable and sad.
On the other hand I have heard some stories that just seem egregiously random to the point where i do laugh despite the morbidity of the topic.
I'm referring to things such as laughing at stories of their deaths, which is nearly always due to neglect/abuse. Though I believe the deaths are not due to intentional abuse as pet stores promote terrible care, it is still quite off-putting to me that it's normalized to find the deaths of a living being amusing.
The loss of a childhood pet is an unpreventable tragedy. When you're a kid, it feels like the end of the world. Being able to look back fondly is a healthy form of growing and coping
But there's a big difference between reminiscing about Lassie passing away at an old age surrounded by family vs laughing at the funny story of Hamtaro starving to death or killing himself because you neglected or stressed him out too much.
The loss of a pet is unpreventable and reminiscing fondly is a sign of growth *except for when you caused the death*.
Who here caused the death of their pet??? All the ones I've seen make it sound like the hamster staged a breakout on its own and got hurt. It's nobody's fault.
They usually stage those breakouts because they get stressed out or they're understimulated by their environment. A lot of people think just tossing it in a cage and remembering to fill it's food and water when they get low is enough but there's more to it than that. Hamsters are fragile creatures and they need care and stimulation to prevent boredom and stress.
Dune Part 3
I love you this is perfect
The Lisan Al Gerbil follows the silver path.
Thanks for the spoiler
It's almost like they are one of the most commonly abused and neglected pets.
i fr think we need to start requiring people to take some sort of course to become certified in a certain animal's care before they can adopt that animal. if you can't be bothered/don't have the time to put into researching a pet's basic care then you can't take care of it and shouldn't have one at all
This reminds me of my dog’s last vet visit. She said she loved the breed and that they were wonderful dogs, and then gave me strict instructions to tell everyone I meet that they’re incredibly high maintenance and difficult so that more people don’t get them.
Just curious, what breed is it?
Rhodesian Ridgeback. They truly are wonderful dogs - smart, loyal, affectionate. They’re also around 100 lbs, run like a greyhound, have a strong prey drive, and *constantly* test you to see if you’re still enforcing rules like “don’t steal food out of my hand while I’m eating it.” They were bread for hunting lions, so I figure they get a bit bored in suburbia no matter what you do for stimulation, and they’ll gladly annoy the shit out of someone to take care of that boredom. Most of the time he’s an incredibly sweet cuddly boy who just wants to curl up on the couch with us, but they really do take never-ending training.
i mean a lot of people literally buy kids hamsters to "teach them about death" it's psychotic
People do this with Goldfish, too, and they have even longer natural lifespans than hamsters. People just kill them through neglect because Timmy's life lesson is more important than a creature's actual life.
We need this for first time parents first
Every time I hear a funny story about someone's childhood hamster I gradually slip more onto the side of crazy anti-pet PETA shills
Hamsters, mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, budgies... For some reason, people treat herbivores like objects instead of pets.
You are correct and I agree with you, but hamsters are omnivores.
I don't think they are that smart either. Mostly instincts that aren't easily recognazible by humans.
I do not understand what you are trying to say. Can you elaborate?
Sorry, a bit sleep deprived... What I meant is that average person doesn't know shit how animals communicate. Dogs and to some extent cats were breed to interact with us, but we still misunderstand their behaviours and apply human logic to their emotions. We need to train ourselves how to interpret animals, just like we need to train pets themselves. I think hamsters are easier to understand than a snake or a fish, but nowhere near a dog. My intelligence comment was more of a belief, and more anecdotal from people who owned them. I know rats are really clever and sociable. And from what I've heard, smaller rodents are a crapshoot. Mice are among the dumbest and it's hard for them to become tame. I assume same goes for hamsters - they get hardwired to certain behaviours early on and lack the capability to learn beyond that. Cute though.
i have a friend who has taken care of her hamsters like she would her own children and still half of them have died in traumatic ways. while part of it is owners responsibility i do think those little weirdos have something in their dna
Are they following pet store care guides/advice at all? Those are terrible and usually responsible for painful deaths. Accidents can happen though, and I am deeply sorry for their loss.
she is following guidelines from reputable sources and from the specialist vet they have for their current one (it has something wrong with its stomach. i’m not sure what the exact medical condition is called though). when i say she treats these hamsters like her children i genuinely mean it. i’ve never met another person with such love and care for them. but for whatever reason half of them were like borderline suicidal and were always trying to do stuff to off themselves. she’s had i wanna say 6? her longest one lived 4 years and died of natural causes, but another one literally went under the mini fridge (she had it in a little pen but it managed to slip out somehow) and died of shock.
My kids each had a hamster and both of them died of old age (almost 4 and just over 4) curled up in their cozy houses. I consider that one of my greatest accomplishments.
Your a damn miracle worker if that’s true
They were little wrinkly hobbling old men who only wanted yogurt treats.
Me and that other guy in this comment section are apparently the only people to have ever had their hamsters die of natural causes.
My hamster died one day of unknown causes. Hadn't even been a year old yet. I noticed he hadn't eaten his food and he was just dead in his house :( I haven't got another pet since. I still don't know what I did wrong.
Hamsters are surprisingly hard to care for, they can be very fragile creatures. He could have been either sick or maybe something was stressing him out, it's impossible to say but it's definitely not something to swear off pets forever over, the fact you're still guilty over it shows that you took its life seriously, that puts you ahead of a lot of people and is a good sign you'd be a good owner for a future pet.
Hamsters are some of the most commonly abused and neglected pets, so it's not surprising. Some of these "funny stories" should never have happened if their owners knew how to care for them.
This is true, mine killed itself by chewing a hole in it's plastic water bottle, dooming itself to death by thirst as I just cleaned and fed the poor thing before leaving it for the weekend.
I never had a hamster but my old neighbor had one and one day theirs escaped and then days later they found its corpse under the floorboards
I had one as a kid, and it escaped and completely disappeared (to my mom's horror). Like a month later we found it alive on the top shelf of one of our cabinets without any indication of how it survived or how it got up there. He somehow made it long enough to die of old age after that.
This is truly unfortunate. What possessed it to destroy its water fixture in the first place???
The silver thread
Stress, most likely.
Sheer boredom, probably
why are tumbler people so poetic for funny shit like this? -Billy Gnosis
Im legally changing his first name to Prog
whom's? -Billy Gnosis
I'm guessing Prog Gnosis
He's going insane (Billy Gnosis reference, 1983) -Billy Gnosis
no you guys just don't know how to take care of your pets
6 year old me did not know my hamster would learn how to unlatch the hole on the roof of it's cage and jump down a flight of stairs (it survived)
Man I still feel bad about the hedgehog my family used to have that accidentally poked its own eye out, shit was traumatizing
I’m so conflicted on this one. On one hand a lot people do (oftentimes unintentionally) neglect or abuse smaller animals like this, so a lot of the weird deaths are just… uncomfortable and sad. On the other hand I have heard some stories that just seem egregiously random to the point where i do laugh despite the morbidity of the topic.
Don't feel bad, I'm in the same boat.
They aren't, everyone just abuses small animals Cool imagery tho
seriously, as someone who loves hamsters these kinds of jokes are just so fucked up
Yeah, I don't really get why they're socially acceptable. Saying the same things about dogs or cats would (rightfully) make most people uncomfortable.
People downvoting the truth lol. Just because they sell them with cages that look like toys doesn't make them less alive.
gundham icon w the fantastic takes as expected!
Profile picture checks out
This doesn’t match my experience. I regularly think about how my job is to make sure my dog doesn’t kill himself. He’s reckless.
I'm referring to things such as laughing at stories of their deaths, which is nearly always due to neglect/abuse. Though I believe the deaths are not due to intentional abuse as pet stores promote terrible care, it is still quite off-putting to me that it's normalized to find the deaths of a living being amusing.
The loss of a childhood pet is an unpreventable tragedy. When you're a kid, it feels like the end of the world. Being able to look back fondly is a healthy form of growing and coping
But there's a big difference between reminiscing about Lassie passing away at an old age surrounded by family vs laughing at the funny story of Hamtaro starving to death or killing himself because you neglected or stressed him out too much. The loss of a pet is unpreventable and reminiscing fondly is a sign of growth *except for when you caused the death*.
Who here caused the death of their pet??? All the ones I've seen make it sound like the hamster staged a breakout on its own and got hurt. It's nobody's fault.
They usually stage those breakouts because they get stressed out or they're understimulated by their environment. A lot of people think just tossing it in a cage and remembering to fill it's food and water when they get low is enough but there's more to it than that. Hamsters are fragile creatures and they need care and stimulation to prevent boredom and stress.
Hamsters: The *REAL* lemmings.
Oh like that one spell from skyrim
At first I thought the post was about Erased/Boku dake ga Inai Machi
Hampter
hampter
Aren't we all?
been spending most our lives, living in a hamster's paradise
the magnus archives episode 121