Re: Is a mouse smarter than a hamster?Why

Wow, this is a toughy!
Neither of these animals are typically used in behavior studies for research.

What makes an animal smart?  Are zebra's smarter than horses because they 
are too aggressive to approach, so people picked the horse to become a 
beast of burden?  Are elephants smart because they never forget?  (side 
note: many animals have very good memories, that's how they learn not to go 
back and do something that caused pain to them.)

My thoughts on this is: animals are smart enough to live as long as 
possible in the very difficult situations that they are put in.  "It's not 
easy being green", as Kermit the Frog once said.  Animals have a very hard 
life.  Survival depends on how well the animal has adapted to its 
environment, how fast they can run, and sometimes being sly as a fox is 
advantageous.  

I consider mice and hamsters to be about equal.  They are both 
animals who are hunted by other animals, they don't have to hunt and kill 
other animals to survive.  They would have similar responses when pursued 
by an enemy; run, hide!  They would have similar instincts to help them 
find food.  Hamsters may be considered dumb because, when they have a litter 
and feel threatened, they will put the babies in their cheeck pouches, they 
will leave them there until the threat goes away and sometimes the babies 
will suffocate and die in that period of time.  But, this is just an 
instinct and has served them well in the past.  Mice may be considered dumb 
because they often don't know what to do the first time they have a litter, 
so they eat them.  Mice are very prolific, though, and can become pregnant 
as early as 4 weeks of age,  can be breed the day after a litter is 
born and will have a litter every 21 days, if bred each time they come 
into heat, for up to 2 years. 

If your wondering which one would make a better pet, I would pick a mouse. 
Hamsters often have grumpy dispositions and would many times sooner bite 
you as look at you.  Mice, on the other hand, are more often easier to handle 
and if they do bite are not doing it to inflict pain, but to give you a 
warning, "Hey, I don't like it when you handle me like that!".  Both like 
to sleep during the day and play at night, so if the cage is in your 
bedroom, make sure you get a nice quiet running wheel (the plastic ones 
work well).  Both will adapt well to living in a habitrail or any cage 
with room to move around, and will probably be very happy in there (No 
threats from predators!).  

Thanks for the question and sorry it took so long for an answer.