Hi! I’m Rachel!

I love animals and have spent countless hours adoring other people’s cute animals on Instagram.

I’m allergic to cats and don’t have the time (or money!) one needs for a dog or bird (I have a busy day job!), so a hamster felt like the perfect choice. They are furry and cute, sweet and cuddly. They sleep during the day so I don’t have to feel badly about leaving for work, and have less expensive medical bills and needs than most other animals (don’t get me wrong, it still costs money if you want to give you hamster a good life, but I would argue, a lot less than a dog or a cat).

At the end of July 2020, I finally took the plunge and bought a hamster (Steven!) from PetCo.

I’ll admit it was a little spur of the moment. I had been thinking about getting a hamster for about a year, and decided to just “see” what was out there. I went to three pet stores, and when I got to PetCo and saw Steven, I knew he was the one.

I honestly didn’t even know what a Roborovski hamster was. I knew I wanted a dwarf hamster and I thought Steven was just a baby dwarf! Little did I know… (although he was still very young).

Should I have done more research? Sure! You know, I don’t even think I knew about hamster research until one was looking at me and asking me for dinner. I like to think I rose to the occasion.

In mid-September, obsessed with Steven and feeling bad about getting him at Petco, I reached out to a local hamster rescue to see if they had any robos looking for a home. I figured I already had all the things for one… why not two? This is how I found my little Sofia. I love how spunky she is and how entirely different she is from Steven.

When Thanksgiving rolled around I figured, in the spirit of giving, maybe I could be a foster mom to a hamster in need. On Black Friday I picked up two lovely ladies looking from a home, Laverne and Shirley.

And so it began.

I spend all of my time washing wheels now, but oh, is it worth it. Nothing makes hard times melt away like holding a soft, sweet hamster and feeding them a seed or two.

It wasn’t until I actually had a hamster that I found this vast wealth of information on the internet. There is also a lot of “fake news” 🗞 when it comes to hamster care, so I quickly realized before purchasing every product I would have to read all of the reviews AND read hamster forums AND watch YouTube videos to know if it’s safe and healthy for my hamster. AND THEN I would have to give it to my little furry friend to see what THEY think!

Yeah, it can be a lot!

That’s why I created this blog and started making videos- to document my learning process in hopes that it might help others… or just be enjoyable to follow my journey :)

I don’t pretend to be a perfect hamster caretaker, but I’m trying my best and hope to continue learning as I go!

Mission:

As I continue to build on this website my goal is to provide as much information as I can while keeping it easy to navigate and user friendly so that even the very beginner hamster owner has an accessible place to start.

I want to encourage people to have compassion for all the creatures in the world, including the small, often misunderstood ones (like hamsters!).

Hamsters can be such incredible little companions, I want to empower everyone with the information they need to build a happy and healthy relationship with their hamster.

Thanks for visiting!

Rachel (and Steven, Sofia, Shirley, Laverne, Oscar, Maurice & Thor)