"I'll Take Pet Advice for $500 Alex."

Every pet should have a happy owner, but not every happy owner should have a pet.

All pet owners are not made equal. I sure as hell was not a very good one when I got my first pet(s) when I was in middle school. I bought my first hamster, Teddy, after begging my mom to let me get one because even though we lived in an apartment, it wasn't a dog or cat so it should've been easy to take care of and we wouldn't get in trouble for having it. The day after I bought my first hamster, I went and got another one, Angel, because they were $5 or so and with the cage and other accessories, it wasn't that much money so why not. Why not? I now know that hamsters are actually fine on their own. I assumed they would have each other to play with and not be lonely but this isn't always the case. They can eat and fight each other down the line if you aren't careful. Almost like pet fish.

I hadn't really done any research about hamsters and neither did my mom. We assumed it would be fine and I would be responsible, but I wasn't really. I was, like most people who think they want something without researching it first, excited for the first few weeks of owning the hamsters and then distant until I no longer had them to take care of. 

Not to mention that my hamster Angel, whom, was smarter than Teddy, actually ran away. That excuse that parents tell their kids on TV and in movies when the pet actually died and they don't want to hurt the kids feelings. That actually happened to me in the form of Angel squeezing out of the crappy over the top cage from the pet store and going into an actual hole in the wall behind our stove. I didn't know this hole existed until I was searching for her around the house when I realized she was missing. I moved the stove some to see her chilling with some lint before ducking out into this hole. I actually kept the stove moved out of its place for a few hours as I sat there on my moon and sun bean bag, waiting. Obviously, she never came out not matter what food or treat I put there and I can only assume she died in the walls of the apartment building at some point. I do like to think that maybe she somehow lived a long life in disguise as a rogue rat and terrorized other tenants but that's only wishful thinking.

Thus, I was then stuck with Teddy. The male. I just realized now that it may have been a good thing that Angel went off on her own after three days because if they weren't misgendered like so many pets are in pet stores, I would've eventually had hamster babies and freaked out because who really knows what to do with those if you weren't expecting them. Sounds stressful and I would've tried to keep all of the babies too. 

(Fun fact: Hamsters can and will eat their babies if you touch them prematurely or they feel like it. They're hardcore and terrifying if they were bigger than what they are.)

Like I said, after a few weeks of happily cleaning the cage and trying to get Teddy to not bite me when I picked him up, I stopped trying to play with him. I just became his caregiver who changed his food and water and cleaned his cage during the occasional time I let him play in his ball. At least I never left him outside in the snow like one of my cousins did. Lost the hamster in the ball when they let it play in the snow one winter day and when summer came, the ball, with a hamster skeleton inside, was found under one of the hedges. It stayed there too for a while. I remember not believing them and checking under the hedge to see the pink ball and bones.

I wasn't ready for a pet then. Neither was my cousin obviously. I didn't realize how much work it was not just by taking care of his basic needs, but also by actually spending time with him and giving affection. Now I will sit and watch my current hamster eat or chew card board rolls just because he interests me and like any pet owner, I talk to him. We also have staring contests because he just stops and stares at me creepily sometimes.

Looking back on it now, I'm bothered by how my first two pets went and I encourage anyone, no matter the age, to actually look into whatever pet you think you want. If you're a parent, make sure to do research with your kids so they understand what they're getting into and what's expected from them. As kids, we thought we knew what we wanted but the reality was that we weren't ready to handle the responsibility of it. As an adult you should do all you can and discern what's BS and what's the truth while researching and figuring things out.

I'm on my third hamster now, Wilson. The starer. I say third even though he's technically the fourth because I don't really count Angel since she deserted us for darkness after only three days. She knew I wasn't worth it back then probably and ghosted when she had the chance. 

I got Wilson almost a year ago when I got back from camp and before him I had a female hamster named Feisty, who was exactly as her name describes. She had chewed through her carrying case box after being in it for twenty minutes the day I brought her home. She was an expert at escaping when I got her my last year of college. She figured out how to chew through the latches on her ball after wedging herself between things in my closet. She would desperately try to climb up her water bottle in order to jump over the edge. She never stopped trying to escape either. Little daredevil. 

This makes me wonder if hamsters are all always trying to escape because they hate being caged away with things that we think they'll enjoy. If it was normal to release hamsters into the wild because they could survive better on their own than with us, then I would've let her go but she wouldn't have made it. Nothing that small and born in captivity would. Unless it's Jurrasic park. Then all bets are off.

Fun fact: I had a guinea pig for a few months that a friend found outside in her backyard. She knew that I was debating on a guinea pig so her and her boyfriend asked if I wanted her. Her name was Cassidy and I had to give her away before going to camp since my mother didn't want to take care of her while I was gone. Guinea pigs are even more work and I understood that it wasn't her responsibility so I gave her to a local pet store for adoption. 

I've learned a lot with my small pets that I've had. I get better and better each time when I learn new things and become more of an expert on the subject. It's weird to see when pet store employees learn from me instead of the other way around. I'm not saying they should know everything or that I know everything but when it comes to some basic info, it makes me wonder if this is why pet store animals get such bad reps for seeming sick all the time.

Once Wilson is gone, I think I'll lay low on getting another small animal and get ready for a dog or cat instead. I've been a lazy being, thus, not wanting a dog if I can't take it out for a walk often and be able to pay it's vet bills. I haven't gotten a cat for the same vet reasons. Also, the fact that I haven't had time to devote to bigger pets or to pay an apartment pet fee either.

When I was in college, I had multiple roommates just come home with dogs because "they're cute and I just had to have them", yet, they didn't take care of it. They would spend all day or most of the day locked away in their cages or a bathroom and crap all over the apartment. Not to mention tear stuff up and cause damage to the apartment. These were people in their early twenties acting like how uneducated middle school Crystal would've acted. It was the craziest thing. I would be baffled by how they would deny responsibility for a pet that they went out and got. No one else. At their age, they should've done better about realizing that just because they want a dog, it doesn't mean they should have one at that moment. We were in college, most of us were busy, working a job, and didn't make time for homework, let alone taking care of something who's hospital bills could cost as much as our own on a bad day. They got the dogs because they said "why not?" then had to give them away after realizing that the untrained dog was only making their life harder because they didn't have the head space for one.

You need to be in the right mindset before committing to any pet, but the bigger or more exotic the pet, the more understanding and responsibility you should have. Your pets are your babies. No matter how big or small, how you take care of them says a lot about you. If you're willing and wanting to improve to make their lives better, then you'll probably end up being a good parent later in life since real babies are the ultimate test of readiness. There's no specific right way of raising a pet but there are plenty of wrong ones, thus, being able to know when you make a mistake with one is a big deal. Maybe you bought the wrong bedding for a smaller animal and they get sick, or you don't realize that certain fish can't be in certain water types and the fish die (Youtuber Jenna Marbles was great about explaining this exact fault that she had with her fish). Anyone can make mistakes when getting a new pet and I will say that sometimes, information online is contradicting or a pet store employee could be misinformed. It's up to you to realize that mistake when something seems wrong, and make it right. 

Like everything in life, you never stop learning. 

I highly encourage you, if you know you're ready and want a hamster, to go buy one. They're cute and are actually even more adorable when couples buy them. An epic gay couple was telling me about their hamster when I bought Wilson and Jenna Marbles and her boyfriend Julien got a hamster together as well. Just a thought. Like newlyweds who honeymoon at Disney World, it's not as crazy a thought as I use to think it was if you're both excited and ready for the journey.

Another note: Don't be afraid to tell people if they're doing something that could be bad for their own pet either. Some people could be oblivious while others don't care so just tread lightly. A bad parent will defend their awful parenting skills when reluctant to see that what they're doing is wrong. Pet owners can be the same way.