articles
China Elevator Stories
Chinese Zoos and Hamsters
My children are huge fans of animals.
26/09/2025
Ruth Silbermayr
Author
When I was living in Tai’an, I took my children to a small indoor zoo once… and then a few times afterward, after realizing how much they loved animals. The zoo was charming and featured a few different animals that children could feed. Being accustomed to zoos in Austria, I initially found it a bit unusual to keep animals in an indoor zoo, but since there was no outdoor zoo in Tai’an, I still thought it was a great activity for kids. Summers in Tai’an can get extremely hot, so being indoors allowed us to avoid the scorching sun.
Because my children loved animals so much—and because my Taobao account was constantly flooded with pictures of pets for sale—I began considering which animal I could get for them in my apartment in Siping. Ideally, it would be an animal that could survive for a few days when I was away teaching in Changchun, and one I wasn’t allergic to (unlike cats, which their father has as pets).
I decided to buy them gold hamsters, first asking my sons if they liked them. My younger son said he had always wanted a gold hamster but had never been allowed to have one, so I thought it would be a good decision. In fact, I got two, so they wouldn’t be lonely.
I researched everything I would need for them, then bought a suitable cage—one that wasn’t too small, since some people keep hamsters in cages that aren’t very animal-friendly—along with food and other essentials to keep them healthy and happy, such as a hamster wheel, which the male hamster uses for several hours each evening.
My son asked me to buy a male and female hamster so they could have babies, and that’s what I did. By now, we have five hamsters, including three adorable little babies, two of whom just opened their eyes yesterday.
My son was already familiar with bonding with a hamster, caring for them, and handling them safely. He is excellent at catching a hamster that’s on the run in the living room or bedroom. He also looks for signs of fleas or other health issues and immediately informs me if something seems wrong. He was the first to notice our female hamster had become pregnant; using just his eyes and later hands, he carefully examined her and told me he could feel the babies inside her belly.
He is very observant, pays attention to details, and is a wonderful “hamster mom.”
About two to three weeks after our hamster became pregnant, she gave birth to three little hamsters while I was teaching in Changchun.
I had already ordered a larger hamster cage, as she enjoyed bigger spaces and had managed to escape the smaller cage at night by observing how my son had taken her out during the day. I also wanted to ensure that her mate wouldn’t harm the babies, though he had been content to stay outside the “toilet” section of the cage—a round area where their mother had placed them for safety and comfort. (He has become more aggressive recently, though, and I am keeping them separate since the last bloody and violent attack occurred.)
When I was a child, I owned a dwarf hamster. Mine was male, and my brother’s was female. We allowed them to live together for a while, and his hamster became pregnant. Unfortunately, she died before giving birth, and my hamster died shortly afterward. He was about two years old, which was the age we had been told was typical for dwarf hamsters. After the death of his mate and before his own death, I remember finding him crying, with tears coming from his eyes. As an adult, I realize that experience—along with the deaths of other animals we owned, such as a male cat I once found at home—traumatized me. For many years, I never had pets of my own.
Additionally, I had moved frequently in China and led a largely unstable life, though it became somewhat more settled while living in Siping for a few years. I also traveled extensively, often away from home for weeks at a time.
Gold hamsters are relatively easy to care for and don’t make life unnecessarily complicated, which was another reason I chose them.
Have you ever owned hamsters?