The Zhu Zhu Hamster – this hamster breed doesn't sound familiar to you? That is not surprising, because behind this name hides not a close relative of the Djungarian dwarf hamster, but a cute children's toy! The following article was kindly provided to us by Miriam, whose daughter is 3 years old and owns one of the cute Zhu Zhu toy hamsters.
Zhu Zhu Hamster as a pet substitute
Who doesn't know the problem: at some point, the child really wants their own pet, and you are not sure if the child is really ready for this challenge.
A suitable alternative for this is a toy animal. Very popular at the moment is the Zhu Zhu Hamster
Unfortunately, you can only satisfy younger children with Zhu Zhu Hamsters; older ones will most likely not settle for the plush toy.
Younger children have something to play with in the Zhu Zhu Hamster and they can take care of it. If they no longer feel like playing with it, they can simply put the children's toy in a corner.
Pedagogically speaking, this is not the best solution, but at least the parents have no work with it and do not have to worry about the child neglecting the little hamster or perhaps even crushing it.
What does the Zhu Zhu Hamster offer for children?
The cute Zhu Zhu Hamster is battery-operated and has two different modes, the cuddle mode and the exploration mode. In cuddle mode, you can pet and cuddle the hamster and it will make sounds; in exploration mode, the animal will explore the surroundings, and its nose moves quite funnily, as if it were sniffing.
The hamsters are available in four different versions, where each animal has its own personality and temperament.
The hamsters can also be washed with a damp cloth. Unfortunately, the animal runs around on rollers, which does not necessarily work well on high-pile carpets, so you should ensure a smooth surface.
To really have fun with the Zhu Zhu Hamster, you can also buy Accessories, such as a hamster wheel or even a hamster mobile including a garage, and build a real little hamster city.
Since you can get the little animals from about 10 Euros , not much money is lost if the child really gets bored with it.
Zhu Zhu Hamster – the right toy for my child?
My little daughter (3 years old) loves the Zhu Zhu Hamster more than anything. Sure, children don't learn responsibility towards real pets with these toy animals, but they bring them joy and a small child actually takes on a relatively large amount of responsibility for it.
However, it must also be mentioned that the animals are not particularly sturdy, so if you cuddle them too hard or drop them, they break quite quickly. Especially the nose that moves is very sensitive; press it too hard once and it stops moving.
By the way, anyone who has a dog in the house should keep it away from the hamster, because when it moves, it awakens the hunting instinct; unfortunately, our hamster did not survive it.
The Zhu Zhu Hamster
