Most pet hamsters share one family
In 1930 a zoologist collecting animals near Aleppo, in Syria, dug up a mother golden HAMSTER and her litter from a burrow. Several escaped, some died, and the few that were left were bred in a laboratory in Jerusalem. Almost every pet Syrian hamster in the world is thought to descend from that small group.
Hamsters are nocturnal and live alone in the wild, so they sleep through the day and should not share a cage. A GERBIL is the opposite: it is sociable and happier kept with a friend. A pet MOUSE lives only a year or two, which makes small rodents a first pet that teaches children about looking after an animal, and sometimes about losing one.
Not a pig, and not from Guinea
The GUINEA PIG comes from the Andes mountains of South America, where people began keeping them thousands of years ago, originally for food, and they are still eaten in Peru today. Nobody is certain how they got their English name; they are rodents, not pigs, though they do squeak and grunt a little like piglets. Our Incas page covers the part of the world they come from.
A RABBIT's teeth never stop growing, so rabbits need to chew hay constantly to wear them down, and they are much happier in pairs than alone in a hutch. The CHINCHILLA, also from the Andes, has some of the densest fur of any land animal, so thick that it keeps clean with dust baths rather than water.
The goldfish memory myth
A GOLDFISH is said to have a three-second memory. It is not true: experiments have trained goldfish to push levers, swim through mazes and come to a signal at feeding time, and to remember what they learned for months. Goldfish were bred in China from a dull greyish carp more than a thousand years ago, when orange and gold fish were first kept in ponds for their colour.
The BUDGIE, also called a PARAKEET, comes from Australia, where wild flocks are always green and yellow; the blue, white and violet birds sold in pet shops were bred later. Budgies, the PARROT and the COCKATIEL can all learn to copy words. The CANARY was once carried down coal mines, because it would show signs of poisonous gas before the miners could.
Pets that outlive their owners
A TORTOISE can live well over a hundred years. Jonathan, a giant tortoise on the island of St Helena, is believed to have hatched around 1832, and has been called the oldest known living land animal. Anyone buying a tortoise is really choosing a pet for their grandchildren too.
More than half of UK households have a pet. The DOG and CAT are the most common, then fish, rabbits and small rodents. A PUPPY or KITTEN needs years of care, and a LIZARD or SNAKE needs heat lamps and careful feeding, so the right pet is the one whose needs a family can meet. The rest of the grid holds the FERRET — a female is a jill and a male a hob — the PONY and the plain FISH.