All Hamsters, wild and domestic, have relatively short life spans – only a couple of years. Generally speaking, they tend to live longer as pets than they do in the wild. Lack of food, drought, diseases, extreme temperatures, and the risk of being killed by predators, are reasons for the shorter life span in their natural habitat. Although there are almost twenty species of hamster in the world, only five of them are kept as pets. Pet hamsters normally live for 1-4 years, but it varies between the different species. What Factors Affect How Long Hamsters Live? Many different factors