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How to Do a Science Project With Hamsters

Hamsters make appealing pets because they are small and fairly easy to care for. These same traits make hamsters appealing subjects for science projects, as well. You can use a hamster or hamsters to conduct experiments on many subjects, such as learning, memory or effects of environment. However, since a hamster is a living creature, a little preparation is needed to ensure that the hamster is safe and healthy, and that your experiment runs smoothly.

Things You'll Need

Hamster cage
Bedding (wood shavings)
Food
Water bottle
Small bowl
Wheel, toys
Hamster

Instructions

- 1
  Decide what you would like to study. This will determine how many hamsters you need and how you will set up their enclosures. For instance, you may want to see if having more toys to play with improves a hamster's memory, in which case, you will want to purchase toys for one hamster but not another. Ideally, you will have a hamster or hamsters to serve as your control group and other hamsters for your experimental groups, but some experiments can use a hamster as the control and the experimental group.
- 2
  Obtain a cage or cages for your hamsters. Hamsters like to burrow and will show more normal behavior with a larger enclosure; an aquarium larger than 10 gallons can serve as a good cage for a hamster.
- 3
  Prepare the cage. You will need a thick layer of bedding, like wood shavings, a bowl to contain the food and a water bottle for each cage. Unless it interferes with your experiment, a hamster wheel and toys are good for a hamster's health.
- 4
  Put the cages in a safe, quiet place. Hamsters are sensitive to temperature and will thrive best in a spot that is between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Don't put the cages in a drafty spot, or near a heater or direct sunlight.
- 5
  Prepare a plan to observe your hamsters. This step may not be necessary for some experiments. Observing animal behavior can be tricky without a good plan. Make a chart of behaviors that you want to observe, such as running on a wheel, drinking, sleeping, eating or burrowing. Decide what behaviors will fit under which categories in your chart to be sure that your observations will be consistent. Once you have created your chart, you can keep a tally under each category for each time you observe the behavior, which makes your task much easier and makes it easy to create graphs later.
- 6
  Purchase your hamsters and put them in their cages. You may wish to purchase hamsters of the same gender for practical purposes. Some breeds of hamster cannot be kept together. Syrian hamsters will fight with each other, and dwarf hamsters may or may not get along with members of the same gender; be sure that your hamsters will get along if you house them in the same cage.

Animals & Science