Sarah Mitchell

I grew up in Stowe, Vermont, in a house that always had animals in it. At 9, I received my first hamster, a golden Syrian named Biscuit, gift from my grandmother. Biscuit lived 3 years and 4 months. I still remember the exact date. I went on to study veterinary nursing at Vermont Technical College for two years before switching to UX design. I describe the pivot as "following the money while trying not to lose my soul."

I built a career in product design across Burlington, Boston, and New York, then relocated to Amsterdam in 2018 when my husband Tom took a role at a European fintech. I now work remotely as a senior product designer from our apartment in the Jordaan.

In 2019, my daughter Lily brought home the class hamster for two weeks. I'd had hamsters as a child, but that was twenty years ago. Recommendations change, and I wanted to do things properly. So I went looking for reliable, up-to-date information online and found almost none.

Generic pet blogs, outdated forum posts, advice clearly written by people who had never owned a hamster. I started keeping notes.

Noodle went back to school after two weeks. Six months later we adopted Peanut, a Russian dwarf from a neighbor who was moving and the notes document became something more serious.

Peanut became the hamster who made me take the project seriously. Later, Mochi and Sir Fluffington III joined the family, and the notes became a real site.

Hamster World launched in early 2026. Every article is written or reviewed by me personally, cross-referenced with veterinary sources.

For questions, corrections, or source updates, email me at contact@hamster-world.com.