Why you should keep your dog/cat/ferret(s) out of the same room as your hamster!

I often see people posting their hamsters getting sniffed or touched by their dogs, cats, ferrets, or other members of the Carnivora family. However, I feel no one ever really talks about how stressful this is for the hamster!

I want to talk about two points, disease risk and stress to your hamster. First, disease risk—Asymptomatic salmonellosis is found in up to 70% of cats, pasteurella up to 90%, staphylococcus 60-80%, bordatella 4% of cats, up to 35% with leptospirosis. For dogs, 5-20% for salmonellosis, 4-9% staphylococcus, 20-70% pasturella, 19-45% bordatella, and 7-8% for leptospirosis. For ferrets, these numbers are a little bit harder to find, but ferrets naturally carry staphylococcus Delphini as part of their flora. These are all zoonotic diseases that can be spread from your other animals to your hamster! While some of these do have to spread via a cut or bite, some are airborne and can spread from being in the same room.

For stress, I’m just going to link https://www.academia.edu/865069/Hamsters_use_predator_odors_as_indirect_cues_of_predation_risk, https://www.ovid.com/journals/nebior/abstract/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.05.005~the-effects-of-predator-odors-in-mammalian-prey-species-a?redirectionsource=fulltextview, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12954393/ . To sum these articles up, the scent of a predator in hamsters triggers a fear response that is long lasting and can suppress immune function.

So please, don’t let your dog/cat/ferret(s) into the same room as your hammie! it’s incredibly dangerous and stressful for them.