Hamster Addic on
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Yes this is a well-known 21st century phenomenon. It’s a nice addic on – it can take over your life, your house, and your bank balance. But unlike other addic ons it is good for you! And also good for hamsters.
How the addic on starts. It starts with – ‘Shall we get a hamster?’ You go in the pet shop, see a cute li le hamster, buy a cage, some bedding, hamster food and water bo le, and take it home.
It is shy and nervous and terribly sweet and walks on your hand when you offer it a treat. Then it looks up at you with big eyes and a cheeky expression. Then it does something funny. Very shortly you are hooked and find yourself staying up late at night just to see your Hammy’s an cs.
Then you want to find out more about Hamsters and what they like and what is good for them, so you start googling and then the whole Hamster world opens up before your very eyes and you see pictures of enormous Hamster habitats reaching across half a room made from Ikea hacked furniture, you hear stories of people who have their Hamsters si ng on them on the sofa. You find all kinds of fun toys for your Hamster. Then you think – what kind of food does he really like and google some more.
The signs of addic on are when you are buying lots of healthy veg in the Supermarket and none of it is for you or your family! The signs of addic on are when you are always planning the next bigger and be er cage and drawing up plans to rearrange the house or build an extension! The signs of addic on are when you set your alarm clock in the middle of the night to go down and see your Hamsters nightly an cs. Or buying a video camera to record them. Then you get a bigger cage and put very deep substrate bedding in it so your Hamster can dig their own tunnels.
Suddenly you get broody – you want MORE Hamsters! They all have different personali es, like Children. They all come in different colours and sizes, like Children. Unlike children, they don’t talk and they sleep all day so make your life easier. But if you have children the Hamster is a wonderful educa on for them and they love watching Hammy pouch the food and doing the odd somersault, or si ng on his back legs and ‘meerka ng’.
Suddenly the whole family is addicted! And then you find out that the RSPCA has rescue Hamsters that need homes.
The final stage of addic on is when you sell the TV (why bother watching it any more) and give over a whole room of your house to your Hamsters, with a built in play area, with an adventure playground inside it, and when you start wri ng ar cles like this one!