Hamster Day - April 12, 2025

History of Hamster Day

Hamsters are diminutive rodents that have been domesticated and are renowned as pets. Although hamsters have been around for several centuries, they only gained popularity as pets in the 20th century.

The first recorded mention of hamsters was in 1797 by naturalist Alexander Russell, who described the golden or Syrian hamster. However, the Syrian hamster was officially classified and detailed by George Robert Waterhouse in 1839.

Despite these early reports, Syrian hamsters weren’t publicized as pets until the 1930s. Hamsters are nocturnal and burrow-living creatures in the wild, which contributed to their elusive nature and difficulty in locating and researching them.

In 1930, an academic from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Aharoni, succeeded in capturing a Syrian hamster mother and her offspring in Aleppo, Syria. Sadly, the mother didn’t adjust well to confinement, resulting in the death of some of her young and the escape of others. Only four of the litter survived. With those four, Aharoni managed to build a successful colony, and therefore initiated the creation of additional colonies globally. In the late 1940s, hamsters started being marketed as pets in America, leading to a surge in their popularity.

In natural habitats, there are various species of hamsters, notably the Chinese, Campbell’s dwarf, and Roborovski hamsters. Today, the preferred pet hamster remains the golden or Syrian hamster, but other species are also raised as pets.