Hamster Central - View Single Post - Hamster runs around edge of cage and jumps to try and get out

Pebbles82 · 10-10-2018, 10:31 AM

Our Robo did this after I cleaned his cage the first time. It's a sign of stress - wanting to escape because they've been invaded and things are different. Running and hiding behind the wheel is quite normal before they're tame.

You;ll just need to take it slowly. Avoid putting your hand in the cage if that scares him at the moment - as you say, just at feeding time, minimally - maybe when he's asleep.

Avoid doing any cleaning for a couple of weeks. Honestly robos pee so little I reckon it evaporates! Try offering him treats through the bars - so your hand is outside the cage - if you have bars. If it's a tank then I'd wait to do taming/treats on hand until he is out of the cage in a safe playpen type area or the dry bathtub.

Robos are notoriously hard to tame. Ours still isn't tame - I haven't had much chance to try full on taming as he seems happy - but he has always been terrified of hands - a lot depends on their experiences in early life! And some on their personalities. They are more known for watchng pets than handling pets, but it is possibly to tame them wth time and patience.

The other reason he may be doing this behaviour is if there isn't enough substrate and enough places to hide under. if you give him 5" or more depth of substrate hewill probably dig tunnels and burrows and if you give him a house that's dark inside and part submerged in the substrate he'll probably use it. They need a safe place to retreat to that's dark inside.

I find the hardest thing is getting them out of the cage for taming without scaring them to death! Scooping him up in a mug or hamster ball is supposed to be the thing to do and then transferring them to a large box or taming bin eg. But give it some time for him to settle and enjoy his cage. Too much open space may scare him so put loads of substrate in and fill the cage with cardboard tubes and hidey places like tissue boxes or cardboard egg boxes so he can dive into and under things.

Main thing is don't do too much cleaning. The more substrate you have in the less often you need to change it - i go a few months without needing to change the substrate in our robos cage.

10-10-2018, 10:31 AM
Pebbles82 Hamster Antics Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 23,533	Re: Hamster runs around edge of cage and jumps to try and get out Our Robo did this after I cleaned his cage the first time. It's a sign of stress - wanting to escape because they've been invaded and things are different. Running and hiding behind the wheel is quite normal before they're tame. You;ll just need to take it slowly. Avoid putting your hand in the cage if that scares him at the moment - as you say, just at feeding time, minimally - maybe when he's asleep. Avoid doing any cleaning for a couple of weeks. Honestly robos pee so little I reckon it evaporates! Try offering him treats through the bars - so your hand is outside the cage - if you have bars. If it's a tank then I'd wait to do taming/treats on hand until he is out of the cage in a safe playpen type area or the dry bathtub. Robos are notoriously hard to tame. Ours still isn't tame - I haven't had much chance to try full on taming as he seems happy - but he has always been terrified of hands - a lot depends on their experiences in early life! And some on their personalities. They are more known for watchng pets than handling pets, but it is possibly to tame them wth time and patience. The other reason he may be doing this behaviour is if there isn't enough substrate and enough places to hide under. if you give him 5" or more depth of substrate hewill probably dig tunnels and burrows and if you give him a house that's dark inside and part submerged in the substrate he'll probably use it. They need a safe place to retreat to that's dark inside. I find the hardest thing is getting them out of the cage for taming without scaring them to death! Scooping him up in a mug or hamster ball is supposed to be the thing to do and then transferring them to a large box or taming bin eg. But give it some time for him to settle and enjoy his cage. Too much open space may scare him so put loads of substrate in and fill the cage with cardboard tubes and hidey places like tissue boxes or cardboard egg boxes so he can dive into and under things. Main thing is don't do too much cleaning. The more substrate you have in the less often you need to change it - i go a few months without needing to change the substrate in our robos cage.