Hamster Coloring Pages

A hamster is a small round body, two tiny ears, a pair of bright eyes and cheeks that can hold far more than seems possible. It is one of the first pets many children have, and one of the easiest animals to color well. These hamster coloring pages follow a hamster through its whole day, in the cage and far beyond it.

At home in the cage, a hamster runs in its wheel, climbs a rope ladder up to a platform, peeks out of a log tunnel, balances on a little seesaw among its toys, rolls across the floor in an exercise ball, climbs the wire bars, burrows head first into its bedding, sleeps in a nest of shredded paper and runs through the tubes of a big habitat with its own bedroom and dining room.

Then there is food, which is what a hamster thinks about most: sunflower seeds held in two paws, a hamster stuffing its cheeks from a bag of seeds, a strawberry, an acorn hugged like a treasure, a carrot nearly as big as the hamster, a slice of cucumber shared between two, and a teacup full of seeds with a hamster sitting in it.

The cozy and funny pages are the ones children ask for again: a hamster in a bobble hat beside a mug of cocoa, a hamster in a chunky knitted sweater, asleep in a slipper, cuddled with a friend in a tipped flowerpot, stretching on a rug, breathing on a snowy window, curled up in a jack o'lantern, riding a tortoise, waving from a hot air balloon, climbing an ear of wheat, carrying a dandelion clock, pushing a wheelbarrow, stacking pebbles, standing in a meadow of flowers and climbing a pyramid of toy blocks. A big close-up face, a small hamster on a rug and a hamster mandala of seeds and orange slices finish the collection.

Which hamster is which

There are several kinds of pet hamster, and knowing which one a child has helps when it comes to color:

• Syrian hamsters, also called golden hamsters, are the largest. The classic coat is golden brown on the back with a white or cream belly, but they also come in cream, grey, black and patched coats.
• Dwarf hamsters are smaller. Winter whites are grey with a dark stripe down the back, and some turn almost white in winter. Campbell's dwarfs are usually grey brown with the same stripe.
• Roborovski hamsters, the smallest, are sandy with a white face and white "eyebrows".

The ears are pink inside, the nose is pink, the eyes are dark and shiny, and the paws are pale pink. A child who colors the page in the colors of their own hamster has a portrait to keep.

Real hamster facts in the pages

A few pages show real hamster behavior. The cheek pouches really do stretch back to the shoulders, and hamsters use them to carry food back to a hidden store, which is what the seed bag page shows. The wheel matters because hamsters travel long distances at night in the wild; they are most active in the evening and at night, which is why so many of them are asleep when children are awake. One thing the pages allow themselves: grown Syrian hamsters live alone, and two together will fight. The pages with two hamsters sharing a snack are drawn for fun, and are closer to a pair of young dwarf hamsters than to two adult Syrians.

Easy and detailed hamsters

Most hamster pages are friendly to small hands, because a hamster is mostly one big round shape. The simplest keep that shape large on an empty page. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Hamster face
• Slipper bed
• Exercise ball

The detailed ones add a knitted sweater, a woven basket, a patterned teacup or a field of wheat. Lots of detail begins with:

• Nest nap
• Cozy sweater
• Running wheel

For a new hamster owner

Hamster pages make a good welcome for a new pet. Print a page before the hamster arrives, and let a child color it while talking about what a hamster needs: a big cage, a solid wheel, deep bedding to dig in, a place to hide, fresh food and water, and quiet in the daytime while it sleeps. The finished page can hang next to the cage with the hamster's name written underneath, and a second one can become a feeding chart for the week.

Printing a hamster

Every page is a free A4 PDF drawn at 300 dpi. A4 prints at full size, and on US Letter "fit to page" shrinks the drawing by about six percent so every whisker stays on the paper. The printing guide shows the setting. Add to pack gathers a whole afternoon of pages into one file. More round, gentle animals are in the capybara coloring pages and the bunny coloring pages, more cute faces in the kawaii coloring pages, and another busy seed collector in the squirrel coloring pages.