Where is the hamster legal?

Mesocricetus auratus. Restricted in 1 of the 25 jurisdictions checked. Every entry quotes the rule it comes from.

Alabama: no restriction found for hamsterAlaska: no restriction found for hamsterArizona: no restriction found for hamsterArkansas: no restriction found for hamsterCalifornia: no restriction found for hamsterColorado: no restriction found for hamsterConnecticut: no restriction found for hamsterDelaware: no restriction found for hamsterFlorida: no restriction found for hamsterGeorgia: no restriction found for hamsterHawaii: banned for hamsterIdaho: no restriction found for hamsterIllinois: no restriction found for hamsterIndiana: no restriction found for hamsterIowa: no restriction found for hamsterKansas: no restriction found for hamsterKentucky: no restriction found for hamsterLouisiana: no restriction found for hamsterMaine: no restriction found for hamsterMaryland: no restriction found for hamsterMassachusetts: no restriction found for hamsterMichigan: no restriction found for hamsterMinnesota: no restriction found for hamsterMississippi: no restriction found for hamsterMissouri: no restriction found for hamsterMontana: no restriction found for hamsterNebraska: no restriction found for hamsterNevada: no restriction found for hamsterNew Hampshire: no restriction found for hamsterNew Jersey: no restriction found for hamsterNew Mexico: no restriction found for hamsterNew York: no restriction found for hamsterNorth Carolina: no restriction found for hamsterNorth Dakota: no restriction found for hamsterOhio: no restriction found for hamsterOklahoma: no restriction found for hamsterOregon: no restriction found for hamsterPennsylvania: no restriction found for hamsterRhode Island: no restriction found for hamsterSouth Carolina: no restriction found for hamsterSouth Dakota: no restriction found for hamsterTennessee: no restriction found for hamsterTexas: no restriction found for hamsterUtah: no restriction found for hamsterVermont: no restriction found for hamsterVirginia: no restriction found for hamsterWashington: no restriction found for hamsterWest Virginia: no restriction found for hamsterWisconsin: no restriction found for hamsterWyoming: no restriction found for hamsterDistrict of Columbia: no restriction found for hamster

Select a state for the rule behind its colour. Alaska, Hawaii and the District of Columbia are drawn out of position so they can be clicked.

What the colours mean

  • Banned (1)No legal way to keep one, and no permit to apply for.
  • Permit requiredLegal, but you need a permit or licence before the animal arrives.
  • Conditions applyLegal without a permit only if a stated condition is met, such as a generation, a size or an indoor-only rule.
  • UnclearThe rule genuinely does not resolve for this animal. Ask the agency before relying on it.
  • No restriction foundNothing in the body of law we read restricts this animal here.

Choose an animal

ServalFennec foxPrairie dogCapybaraBurmese pythonHedgehogFerretSugar gliderQuaker parakeetBengal catSnapping turtleBoa constrictorDeguArgentine black and white teguNile monitorTiger salamanderBall pythonChinchillaGreen iguanaSavannah monitorTarantulaVeiled chameleonEmperor scorpionGerbilRussian tortoiseHamsterGuinea pigTokay gecko

Every restriction on the hamster

1 of the 25 jurisdictions checked restrict this animal in some way. The rest had no rule we could find.

Hawaii

BannedPart A
Mesocricetus auratus

Part A is research and exhibition only, so no pet keeping.

How this rule works: Part A animals may be brought in by a university or a licensed exhibitor under permit and may not be kept as pets. Part B, published separately as AR-71RB, is the private and commercial use list and was checked as well: it runs to hoofed stock, giraffes, otters, seals, macropods and three named parrots, and contains none of the animals in this dataset.

Hawaii Administrative Rules § 4-71-6.5, List of Restricted Animals, Part A (research and exhibition) →

For the full write-up, including the states that get reported wrongly, read the hamster legal guide.

Past the legal question? See the hamster profile.

How to read this

A state with no colour is one where nothing in the law we read restricts that animal. That is not the same as a guarantee: it means no restriction was found in the specific body of law checked for that state, which is recorded alongside each jurisdiction. Cities and counties regularly ban animals their state allows, and several states say so in their own rules.

Hatched grey means the rule genuinely does not resolve. Usually a definition arguably reaches the animal without naming it, and the honest answer is to ask the agency rather than to guess. Those entries are marked unclear on purpose rather than being rounded to a yes or a no.

Every entry links to the regulation it came from. None of this is legal advice, laws change without much notice, and the agency that issues the permit is always the last word. For the federal layer and how state schemes are structured, see the exotic pet legal hub.