Hamster show

[3] Standard show pens have open wire fronts, and are small for short-term exhibition only during the judging.

[3] Water is usually not allowed, assuming that the judging is well-managed and quickly done; instead, the hamster may be given a juicy piece of fruit or vegetable.

[2] Whereas shows for other animals commonly allow the manager to groom the animal after it is benched for presentation, in hamster shows judges commonly request the owners to stay completely away until the end of judging.

[4] The show judges evaluate pet hamsters on their tameness and health.

[4] Part of the process of pet judging is education for hamster owners.

[4] "Straight" class refers to hamsters that are a standard presentation of an established variety, and in the straight class, entrants are judged in a subclass against other hamsters of that variety.

[5] From there, the hamster's manager is sorted according to their professionalism, with novices, breeders, and perhaps others being in separate duplicate classes.

[2] This includes stroking the fur to measure the softness and feeling the hamster to assess its condition and size.

[2] In a 100-point judging scheme, a common allocation of points is as follows:[2][6] "Color and markings" has the most points because emphasizing this encourages care and organization in breeding by ensuring that establish varieties of hamsters persist without becoming diluted in the gene pool.

[2] A common shortcoming for bred hamsters is thin belly fur.

[2] Similarly, "size" judging should take into account that females are larger than males.

[2] Size judging includes making an experienced judgement of whether a hamster is under- or overweight, and in either of those cases, points would be deducted.