Science+Fair+Lit+Review+TP

= =  Review of Literature

 Hamsters are small, adorable rodents that are nocturnal. If you are awake during the morning or up late, a hamster would work well as a pet because it will be awake from the evening to the early morning. Teaching hamster tricks is not the same as teaching a cat or dog. However, you can build your hamster a maze and watch him find his food at the end. Your hamster will also be increasingly faster going through the maze as his memory of the maze improves. Hamsters are nice and loving animals that are used for many purposes throughout the world today. For right now the purpose is to test to see which hamster is the faster. The hamsters that I will be using are dwarf hamsters 1 male and 1 female. Dwarf hamsters are a little bit smaller than regular hamsters, but they are pretty much the same.

 Hamsters are nocturnal. Nocturnal means that they are active during the night. I currently have 6 dwarf hamsters and during the night the run on their wheel and make all kinds of sounds. In one of my websites it said, "Hamsters are well-loved pets. They can be domesticated and kept as pets. They are easy and fairly cheap to maintain. Being lively animals, they love to play in cages and are entertaining to watch.Hamsters are omnivorous, eating small insects and also fruits or nuts." (Science Fair Projects)

I read in a book what to feed the hamsters and how to tell if they are tired or sick and this would help me in the experiment that I will be making. The book told me to feed them nuts, and fruits, and vegetable so that they stay healthy. To tell if they are tired they would not be moving or they would be asleep. The book said, “Hamsters are the most curious animals in the world. They need to be fed right in order to stay healthy. They also have health problems and the only way you can tell is if they are not eating. If they are asleep then don’t bother them because then they will be tired and they will get sick easily. If you’re thinking of giving your fury friends a good clean bath, DON’T. Hamsters were meant to live in deserts and are not built to take water baths. This comes from the book Animal Planet Pet Care, Hamsters. Doing so may cause them to catch a cold. In serious cases, they may even develop complications and eventually pass away because of it.” (Sue Fox)

 I also learned hamster behavior varies depending on their environment, genetics, and interaction with people. Because they are easy to breed in captivity, hamsters are often used as laboratory animals. Hamsters have also become established as popular small house pets, and are sometimes accepted even in areas where other rodents are disliked, and their typically solitary nature can reduce the risk of excessive litters developing in households. Palande said, “The lifespan of a hamster very much depends on its breed. Dwarf hamsters usually live between 2-3 years. While the larger breeds can sometimes live till a ripe old age of 4 years. In the wild, they are always busy digging homes and are known as expert tunnel designers. There exist 14 species of hamsters, out of which eight are suitable for bringing home as pets. Hamsters are small, delicate and timid animals. There exist different types of hamsters, for example, giant, medium, dwarf, rat-like, mouse-like and they, especially smaller ones, need to be handled with extreme care as they have brittle bones.” (Palande, Leena)

I also learned from previous books that all hamsters are solitary, burrowing, nocturnal animals, with chunky bodies, short tails, soft, thick fur, and large external cheek pouches used for holding food. Some of the larger species have scent glands on the flanks; the scent is used for territorial marking. Hamsters feed on grain and other plant matter and are serious agricultural pests in many parts of their range. Another thing that is important to this project is the maze for the hamsters to try to figure their way out. I saw that the maze is just a square with 4 walls that they can’t jump over. I also heard that the maze is a box with four sides and a beginning and an end. They also said that it needs to be high enough so that the hamsters can’t jump over. Jones said, "A hamster maze is basically a large box with an open top and a lot of little walls inside that the hamster can’t see over. The walls are made in such a way as to have just one path from beginning to end; which means the hamster will have to try virtually all of the paths to find the one that leads him or her to the exit."(Jones, Sam E) After hearing and listening about the hamster mazes I have got whole lot better information about them. The only thing that I am missing about them is the steps on how to do them.“1.) Pick a material. Blocks are good because they are tall. Also wood. 2.) Start out straight for a while but then make a four way crossing. 3.) Make turns at each one but put a dead end when the turn is there so the hamster can't see the dead ends. 4.) On the right path split it into two paths with the same dead end technique. 5.) Go straight for a while. 6.) Finally split into three paths with the same technique. 7.) On the final path, turn once more and leave it open with a treat there.”(How to Build a Hamster Maze) I also learned from previous information that hamster mazes are another hamster favorite. To put one together, you can use wrapping paper tubes, shoe boxes, plastic pretzel jars, cereal boxes, short lengths of PVC tubing, cylindrical oatmeal containers etc. This is a fun project for me especially for my experiment and will also be a brainteaser for my hamster to have fun in. Another option of building a hamster maze is by using Legos instead of paper tubes boxes. So all in all hamsters are the most important thing in the world and are loving animals too. I think that the hamsters are going to help me a lot with the experiment. I also think that the way they will react with the maze is going to be way different from how they play. = ** Works Cited ** =

Fox, Sue. Hamsters (Animal Planet Pet Care Library). N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
 * This is a good site because Sue Fox is the founder and president of Etiquette Survival and she has provided etiquette products, educational material, and private consolations to business professionals, celebrities, corporations, K-12 schools, and colleges for 12 years with her company, Etiquette Survival.

"How to Build a Hamster Maze." WikiHow. Ed. Jack Herrick. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2013. < [] >.
 * It is a good site because Jack Herrick is the owner of Wiki How and is also on the Board of Directors for Statusnet, an open source micro blogging company, and the Board of Advisers for Mixer Labs, a start up acquired by twitter. Prior to focusing on building how-to manuals, Herrick was a co-founder of Luminescent Technologies, a computational semiconductor lithography company

Jones, Sam E. "How to Build a Hamster Maze." Helium. Helium, 17 Nov. 2010. Web. 25 Sept. 2013.
 * It is a good website because the publisher Same E. Jones has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science and a Master of Science in Information Systems Management. He has worked for over twenty years in the telecommunications business and is now working as a freelance writer after leaving the corporate world to write professionally full time.

Palande, Leena. "Hamster Facts." Buzzle.com. Buzzle.com, 23 Sept. 2011. Web. 25 Sept. 2013.
 * This is a good website because Leena Palande is the buzzle software writer. She is also makes professional profile on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the world's largest business network, helping professionals

"Pet Web Site." //Hamsters : About Hamsters//. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2013.
 * This site is good because the Pet Web Site started out as the Complete Hamster Site in 1997, and later expanded to cover a variety of pets. It is a popular site with pet lovers of all ages from all over the world. Pet Web Site is run Acorn Internet Ltd, based in Oxfordshire, UK who operate the following web sites:Pet Web Site, Equine World UK, Aintree Grand National

"Science Fair Projects." Science Fair Projects - Comparing the Learning Abilities of Hamsters and Mice. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2013. < [] >.
 * It is a valid source because they are a company site that does this for a living to make money and is supported by other valid sites. It is a good site because they are a company that makes science topics.