Look behind the fridge

We’ve actually adopted small animals in the past from petsmart adoption events. They come from local shelters but I can’t remember the actual shelter mine came from now though. They often have tables up front with cages that will have names/ages and their adoption information. Some are very young, the 2 guinea pigs we adopted were brothers that were 5 weeks old and their adoption fee was only $5.

We nearly adopted a pair of aggressive gerbils from our local shelter until an employee warned us off. We got two of the sweetest, gentlest sibling pair I ever met at Petsmart.

I understand your wish not to patronize pet stores after your experience, but you still need to double check for problematic behaviors in any setting, whether it's a shop, breeder or shelter/rescue situation. I agree that young ones are best, so they come with less baggage and get used to you.

(Also, gerbils are more fun than hamsters! Gerbils are social, hamsters are not, and gerbils need aquariums, not cages - do your research before buying.)

Alexandria Animal Welfare League has small animals for adoption.

Your neighbors probably have one to offload on you. Check with them.

Poppy bee is excellent. Jess runs it and is a great resource. We got our wonderful hamster from her.

Breeding animals to sell as soon as weaned is not particularly ethical OP. If you want ethical get one that needs a home already.

There's one on the website for the MoCo shelter, and they've waived adoption fees: https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/animalservices/adoption/small.html

There may be others available that simply haven't been listed on their site yet. Call or visit.

https://www.petfinder.com/small-furry/biku-70144662/md/derwood/montgomery-county-animal-services-and-adoption-ctr-md423/

Petfinder.com connects rescues and shelters and allows you to search by species of small furry creatures as well as by breed for dogs and cats.

Animal shelters! You would be shocked how many shelters - in the DC area and out - have small pets like hamsters up for adoption.

I drove past a “hamstery” in Clifton the other day.

https://poppybeehamstery.com/

The problem I think is that hamsters are fundamentally not good pets, not that yours was a bad hamster. I say this as a devoted child hamster owner.

Looking for an ethical place to get a pet hamster. Ideally would like to take home as soon as it's weaned so it can get used to us and we know its exact age. We had a not great experience with a hamster from Petsmart. Any tips or good experiences out there with a non-chain store hamster source in DC, MD, or VA?