moral dilemma

I'm having a moral dilemma about where to get my hamster from....
I REALLY wanted a "panda bear" syrian hamster, and I really want hoping to get one from a breeder, but there are no breeders to be found in my area. So I called the pet store and they have baby panda hamsters, which is exactly what I want, but I feel bad about buying from a pet store...

So then I checked the humane society and they have some younger hamsters, but I'm worried that they're bitey and unsocialized/handled because they're described as "jumpy"...

I feel like I should do the "right" thing and rescue one of the hamsters from the humane society, but I REALLLY want a baby panda bear hamster!!!!!!!!

Ugh...I really do not want a bitey hamster because I know that if I get bitten, I will be more reluctant to practise handling it and I want to feel 100% comfortable letting it crawl all over me. My previous hamster Crumb loved crawling in sweatshirt pockets and up the sleeves.

I feel like I'm trying to justify why not to get the humane society hamster....but there really is no reason I should not get it...

Honestly if I were you, and the babies at the petstore were easier to handle/more tame, I'd get them from the petstore. It's not quite as bad as getting a puppy or kitten from a petstore, because for the most part they get hamsters from private sellers and not "mills". (Unless it's petsmart or petco in which case I don't know, but I don't think petsmart carries syrians anyway, not sure about petco). Also, there's not a real "over population" of hamsters (though some do end up in shelters).

On the other hand it's a possibility that the petstore hamsters will be just as (if not more) untamed as the shelter ones.

It's up to you really, but I don't think anyone would think badly of you if you got your baby from a petstore. I've had several petstore hamsters and they've all lived a very long healthy life.

Will the shelter let you come handle them, and see how jumpy/bitey they are before you decide to adopt?

^^ This. Sometimes shelters workers have no clue how to handle small animals without freaking them out. Sometimes the entire shelter environment is just plain freaky to small rodents (cat and dog urine smells everywhere, howling, barking, meowing, etc.).

Once a chinchilla I bred was caught living feral years after I sold him. He'd moved into someone's garage and they trapped him and brought him to the local HS. I stopped by to visit the dogs and luckily one of the shelter workers was a friend from high school and asked me if I was there to see the chinchilla or I never would have known.

They were going to euthanize poor Dozer because he was "aggressive". He was terrified beyond belief. I have no idea how long he was feral, but he was emaciated, and they were trying to feed him cat food so he was starving. My friend said Dozer had attacked and drawn blood with every employee there. I asked to see him. My poor boy was so terrified. I hauled him out and he leaped into my arms and didn't want to get down. They were flabbergasted that he was acting so docile, and let me take him home that day.

I kept him for the rest of his life, he was a wonderful loving guy and never ever bit anyone.

That being said, I wouldn't feel bad about buying a small rodent from a pet store if you're looking for a baby. They don't have the same overpopulation problems as dogs and cats. Don't know about genetic health concerns, but chances are the shelter hamsters came from a pet store anyway.

Honestly, I would just get them at the petstore..
Its not like you have forever to work with them, hamsters have pretty short lifespans and WOW do their bites HURT

I would make sure the pet store is doing their part care wise, but I would just buy them there. Its really not like they are making BANK... its a $2 hamster.

I used to work at a petstore and the manager always told me hamster sales made them NOTHING as it costs more to care for them then their $2 price tag. all the income comes from the SUPPLIES people buy after they buy their hamster.

So, if you don't wanna support a pet shop. just buy the hamster and buy the supplies online or elsewhere.

At the pet store (PJs Pets) it's $29.99 for the panda bear/"special" hamsters, $10-15 for the "regular" hamsters.

With Mitch's health problems, I think I'm going to put off getting a hamster for a few more months.

Great idea about asking to handle the hamsters at the shelter. If I end up going that route, I will definitely do that! Thanks.

YIKES $30? I think even at petsmart (when they carried them) they were less than that.

Good luck with finding your hamster in the future!

See, I really don't have a problem buying rodents from petstores...even if they do come from a mill situation, I'm assuming hamsters at a "mill" still get the proper amount of living space/exercise/stimulation/etc. as they would in a home setting/lab setting. Hamsters and puppies are not equatable, IMO. Genetic health might be a problem, but all of my petstore hamsters lived long healthy lives. As long as you are comfortable supporting that petstore (no puppy/kitten sales, good living conditions, etc.) then I say go for it!

Ohhh, trust me, not true at all. Think of a puppy mill but with hamsters. Filthy small areas with more animals then can handle, nothing to do, lucky to get fresh food and water and cleaned. Same with alot of the other animals, ferrets - gerbils - rats - etc. A mill is a mill no matter what the animal, they won't get proper anything.

I won't buy from large chains like Petco, Petsmart, and whatever other store I know mills. I only buy from our family friend's petstore as I know how they work, and know they treat their animals good.

If this is the PJ's pets.. I can't even condone buying toys there. Loved the time the one in the Pickering Town Centre was selling Chessie's as the go to breed for apartment living a few years ago. Last year when the one in Yorkville got kicked out of the mall they sold all the bigger animals at a deep discount to whomever and pushed selling them all on credit. Ugh.

I have a bigger issue with buying a small animal from there due to supporting there than I do with buying a small animal from other places.

It's worth a shot to check out the shelter hamsters.

Pet stores are sketchy, hamsters or otherwise.

I've gotten all my rats from pet stores. Is it ideal? Not really. But I don't think it's terrible. 4/6 I got at a small pet store I worked at. I knew the breeder and while I didn't like her personally, at least I got to see the new rats come in and stuff. While I did have to do some delousing, they were well fed, watered, and had a lottttt of handling. My last two I got at PJs in Sherway Gardens - they were very much an impulse buy though. I walked in and lo and behold there was a blue berkshire female, and a dumbo cross on top of that (I'd always wanted a blue dumbo). Apparently they weren't handled much but both her and her sister were very very tame and quiet - not sure if the lady knew what she was talking about or if they were handled by their breeder. Those were some expensive ratties!

See, but not all puppymill petstores are "dogs in horrible, dank, dark, outside pens with no shelter, no vet care, no water, etc.". You can have a very nice, clean, steralized puppymill with well fed, "healthy" animals. (Not genetically healthy, but no open wounds, etc.) That doesn't make that the fact that the dogs are kept in kennels with no socialization/exercise any better and it doesn't make the fact that they just breed dogs over and over and over with no regard to health, conformation, or temperment any better, but the dogs aren't neccessarly living in disgusting (physical) conditions.

I've met three people who run puppymills...none kept their dogs in deplorable physical conditions, and two of them sold to pestores (one actually ran the petstore). I would have run away screaming from any of their setups (I actually saw one of the facilities and I wanted to take all of the dogs and run), but in all honesty, I've seen much worse housing and care conditions with people's pet dogs. The housing conditions for the facility I saw were no different than the neighbor down the road that has two Goldens and a Coonhound in outdoor kennels 24/7, and I say they were better off than the person down the way that has three Mastiffs chained outside to a rickety wooden doghouse with no insulation...in 10*F weather, with a windchill of 3*F.

So, I suppose what I'm saying is just because someone is a commercial breeder/puppymill, that doesn't mean their stock (because that is what they are to these people: livestock) is living in horrible physical conditions. And it is my personal opinion that many of the pocket pets can be kept in typical "stock" conditions and still be okay - unlike the higher maitenence animals (dogs) that need so much more in order to stay sane.

Now, I could be way off base, because I've never seen a "hamster mill" or "mouse mill"...but that is just what I think.

Also to add, the hamster breeder set-ups that I have seen online do not look amazing...a lot of the ones I've seen are WALLS of small bin cages...

When I'm ready, I think I'll look to rescue first and see how that goes...

The rats that I've gotten from pet stores had serious health issues. And Bella had malocclusion.
But odds are the shelter ones are from the pet store, anyway. Either that or an "oops litter" most likely.

Yeah, I was thinking about that too. But I'd rather support the humane society by giving them the $10 for a hamster rather than support a pet store.

The thing with gerbils, rats, hamsters, mice, etc. is they tend to go crazy and cannibalize each other/their own children if conditions aren't pretty ideal. I've seen commercial mouse and rat mills, and dang they were the cleanest, nicest places I'd seen. They barely even had an odor, unlike some people I knew whose rooms reeked of rodent with only one of two small pet rodents. They ate a balanced diet of lab blocks and fresh food. And their lab cages were pretty spacious.

You really can't get away with crowding/neglecting breeder rodents, or you lose all your stock pretty quickly.