hamster balls let's talk about that
so I finally wanted to make this video because I just get so many questions
asking whether or not I recommend hamster balls or how people should use
them or if you should use them at all so today we are going to be talking about
that the hamster ball seems to be a very very debated topic but in my personal
opinion hamster balls shouldn't be used at all the whole idea of a hamster ball
does sound like a good idea but when you look at it in reality there are just far
too many cons for using a hamster ball one of the first things I do want to
point out is that in Germany the hamster ball is classified by the Veterinary
Association of animal welfare as harmful to your hamster and they do not
recommend using it so that is an entire country and vets who say that you should
not use a hamster ball for the following reasons the first reason is that a
hamster and hamster ball cannot properly break once they start going they cannot
stop therefore if they start running they are going to hit walls furniture if
they're unsupervised they can even fall down stairs so overall it can cause
serious injury to your hamster.
poor ventilation as you can see the hamster
ball has these little slits that go twice around the ball this simply just
isn't enough ventilation for your hamster and once your hamster goes into
here they are going to have a harder time breathing because a hamster that is
stressed is going to have elevated breathing levels and there's not a lot
of ventilation for them to properly get the air they need another issue is that
these ventilation holes are just big enough for hamsters toes to get caught
and stuck which can result in a broken or springed hamster toe and this has
happened before to other people. hamsters are naturally short-sighted they can
only see a couple of inches in front of their
face so putting a hamster into a hamster ball regardless if it's colored or clear
makes it nearly impossible for the hamster to actually see where it's going
essentially if you were put into a hamster ball it would look something
like this pretty hard to see eh? so since hamsters
have such terrible vision they mainly use their sense of smell and hearing to
explore the world but once they're put into a hamster ball like this both of
those senses are very limited due to the fact that this is hard plastic and the
lack of ventilation so without having any of your senses to navigate
throughout the world it can be quite stressful
imagine being basically almost blind and trapped somewhere where there is no exit
not to mention that if you do have other animals roaming around the animal might
be curious like if you have a dog they might be curious they come up there
sniffing the ball or a cat comes up maybe taps the ball that can be very
frightening to a prey animal which a hamster is and they can't go anywhere
there's trapped in this ball and they have to sit there in fear because they
can't go anywhere another thing that happens actually quite a lot is the lids
aren't the most secure things and I have seen hamsters who run and hit the wall
so hard the lid pops off and then your hamster escapes I think a lot of people
tend to think their hamster enjoys running in their hamster ball because
the hamster is running so that should mean they like it right? not exactly
because a panicked animal who is trying to escape something is going to end up
rolling because the ball is round so any which way you try to escape
it's going to end up moving your hamster is going to end up looking like they're
running and enjoying it which they're most likely not another issue we've run
into is a hamster cannot tell you if they would like to leave the
hamster ball or if they even wanted to go in it at all it would be similar to
something like an alien who obviously doesn't speak the same language as you
and they start talking in their language you have no clue what's going on they
grab you they put you in this contraption and you're like where the
heck am i what am I supposed to do you can't exit you have to wait until
they let you out and that is quite terrifying I know a lot of people say
that if they take the hamster ball they put it up to their hamsters cage their
hamster will climb in and that means they clearly like the ball but I
disagree with that because I can put pretty much anything up to my hamsters
cage and they're going to hop in simply because they enjoy coming out of their
enclosure because hamsters are explorers they like to explore things they're
curious they want to run around doesn't necessarily means they want to go in
this circular contraption there are so many other ways you can properly
exercise your hamster like using a hamster safe play pen, free-roaming them
in a hamster safe room you can even use a dry bathtub as a playpen this way you
even get to interact and bond with your hamster unlike using a hamster ball
which you don't get to interact with them because all of their senses are cut
off and they're running around by themselves in conclusion I just don't
see using a hamster ball as worth it because there are so many more cons than
there are pros overall and there's a lots of other ways to bond and get your
hamster to exercise now the reason I have a hamster exercise ball here is not
because I use one but because back in 2009 I also thought hey that's kind of a
good idea to get your hamster to run around
and explore and eventually I learned it's actually not and so this has been
in storage for about 10 years now but I think that's just a good way to show you
guys it's okay to make mistakes it's whether or not you change them once you
learn that they may not be the best thing
so mistakes are okay to make and anybody who makes mistakes shouldn't be shamed
for it as long as they plan on not doing the mistake again I hope this video has
been able to help anybody who has been wondering if they should get a hamster
ball or maybe if you currently use one I hope it's helped you kind of
understand a little bit more into why they really just aren't suitable for a
hamster! So yeah guys thank you for watching bye