Syrian hamsters come in 40 colors!
Syrians have four toes on the front feet and five on the back feet
Syrian hamsters have been known to give birth to over 20 pups!
A Syrian hamsters heart can beat over 300 beats per minute and up to 500bpm!
Syrian hamsters have the shortest gestation period of any placental mammal at 16 to 18 days
Some dwarf hamsters have lived to be four years old!
Hamsters can remember their relatives
All Syrian hamsters as pets descend from a wild female Syrian hamster who had a litter of 12 in 1930
Syrian hamsters are considered endangered in the wild
Certain dwarf species can delay the birth of their unborn litter if they are already nursing a litter!
In a case where several mothers are housed in the same cage they may share responsibility of the litters and nurse a litter that is not their own. If a mother dies another female may take over nursing the pups!
This actually happened to me. Two females had their litter in the same cage. One litter was a little older than the other. Both mothers cared for the pups from both litters. It was actually amazing to watch.
In a group of Dwarf hamsters if the cage is too crowded the female can produce pheromones which can change hormone production and signal other females to stop mating!
Yuck! My hamster ate his poop!! Why? Hamsters eat their poop to absorb nutrients that were not previously digested!
Hamsters can carry half their body weight in their cheek pouches
If a male Syrian hamster smells a female on your hands he may lick you!