hamster videos on tik tok just got us they just gotta stop
because i'm gonna end up with a series
so after i did my last video talking about if hamsters learn to scream or not after a week of
that video being up i got a bunch of comments asking can hamsters hibernate and i was like
that's weird
that's suspicious
and then i found out there was a tik tok going around that said hamsters go into hibernation
so this is the tik tok that essentially got popular
and it does say in the caption "well found out
hamsters go into hibernation i thought that beep was dead"
so this made me want to talk about hamsters and hibernation
and before i get started on talking about it i do want to clarify that
hibernation and torpor are a very confusing and complicated topic and i'm just going to
talk about the basics that i've learned there are actually different types of hibernation
so i can get if somebody just uses the word hibernation in general and then people get
confused about it because when you hear the word hibernation you automatically think about the
animals who during warm months they eat a bunch and they get like all fat and then throughout all
the winter months they just sleep through it and that is what you assume when you hear hibernation
so when somebody says hamsters go into hibernation i think that is what a lot of people think
so there are different types of hibernation there is true hibernation and this involves the animal's
body temperature being lowered its heart rate being lowered
and its breathing levels being lowered
this allows the animal to conserve energy when there is food shortages during winter
because it's a lot harder for animals to find food in the winter than it is summer
and this allows the animal to eat a lot in warm months and then when cool months come
they go into hibernation and they actually don't have to eat at all
because they have all that energy saved up that can get them through the long cold winter months
groundhogs are actually a really good example of a true hibernator
and then there is brumation and this is a hibernation-like state except for reptiles and
amphibians and you'll often hear bearded dragon owners talking about brumation
brumation for reptiles and amphibians happens when there is cooler temperatures
as well as shortened daylight hours and they can still get up
to get drinks of water but then they go right back into that state
and then there's torpor
torpor also involves the animal to have a lowered body temperature but not quite as low
as a true hibernator and this allows the animal to survive any unfavorable environmental conditions
torpor lasts for very short periods of time and this allows the animal to still be able to forage
for food and eat unlike a true hibernator who doesn't eat it all through the really cold months
so when we're talking about hamsters and hibernation we
are talking about hamsters going into torpor
keep in mind hamsters will go into torpor in order to survive
unfavorable conditions which can not only include colder temperatures but it can also
occur if there is a shortage in food and water as well as shortened daylight hours
that being said it would have to be very very cold in your home for
your hamster to actually go through torpor and most of the time most homes stay above
60 degrees fahrenheit unless you just don't have heating or maybe your heating possibly broke but
the optimal temperatures for a hamster should stay between 65 and 75 degrees
a hamster who is in torpor can honestly look like a hamster who just died in their nest
when that's not the case
a hamster in torpor you can often see their whiskers twitch if you look at them
for a really long period of time you can also sometimes see them very very slowly breathing
they are going to be cold and limp which is why a lot of people think they've died
but also keep in mind a hamster who has died is going to go through a process called rigamortis
now rigamortis happens when the cells in the muscle fibers die because the animal has died
and then that causes the body to stiffen up and this on average takes about two to four hours
so a hamster who has gone stiff is a hamster who has passed
if you've indeed found your hamster and they appear to be in torpor it is really important
that we extremely slowly warm them back up if done so too quickly you can actually warm the
blood before the heart is ready and you can actually send your hamster into heart failure
a couple hours later so you're going to want to start by syringe feeding your hamster electrolytes
this can easily be made with warm water, sugar and salt
or if you have unflavored pedialyte that can also work as well just as long as you warm it up
so you're going to want to start by syringe feeding your hamster this
and this basically helps warm the body from the inside
this can be done once every one to two minutes for half an hour and once the
hamster starts to come out of torpor they are going to appear very wobbly
and steady or very slow don't worry eventually they will get back to normal
i do also want to mention that a hamster who is
cold, limp and very slowly breathing could also just be a hamster in the process of
dying if there aren't any factors that could cause torpor then it's not likely to be torpor
the original tiktok uploader actually made a second video to give an update on
the hamster and they ended up passing away so there's no way for sure to say whether or not
they were actually in torpor or if they were just in the process of dying
torpor is something that we don't want our hamsters to go through it is very hard on
their little bodies and they only do this to survive unfavorable environmental conditions
i did see somebody tell me that there was possibly a trend of people trying to put
their hamsters into hibernation i didn't see it myself on tik tok so i can't say for sure but
don't do that don't try to put your hamster into torpor a hamster who is left in torpor for long
periods of time can either die from hypothermia or either starvation or dehydration so to prevent a
hamster from going into torpor it's good to ensure that we keep them at their optimal temperatures as
well as we allow them to have access to food and water and you're not like starving them to death
so hopefully this was able to clear that
up and i hope i don't have to make any more videos about tik toks
but i feel like that's it's probably going to happen again
so i will see you guys in my next video bye
for short ahh
hamsters will go into torpor is it getting too bright pick a time stay or leave
oh my gosh can we not blast the exposure at me that's so rude