[mikatelyn]

Cypher, I think it's working!!
It's a little hard to tell for sure because he seems to do better in the mornings anyway
He didn't come out until sometime in the early morning (he sleeps more whenever I mess with his cage) but I finally heard his wheel about 5am. I offered him kale and sunflower seeds. He'd take it and sort of scurry back into that magazine holder. But then he'd keep coming back out when i offered him more treats, and probably within 10 minutes he was exploring all over his cage and he started doing that looking up thing he does when he wants to come out and crawled right on my hand and now we're doing bathtub play time. He didn't do that zombie hammie thing for nearly as long, and when we went to the bathtub he didn't do his usual initial frantic thing. Usually the first trip he looks like he's trying to escape, so I take him back to his cage. Then a few minutes later he wants to come out again so then he's more settled and exploring rather than trying to escape.This time he just seems calmer and curious, and isn't shying away from my hands.
Here's a pic of him exploring his castle (yes, he has a castle. Two actually. This one was a Goodwill find, $2.50,I couldn't resist. He does sort of have me wrapped around his little paws.)

I took out the ladder. The divider doesn't extend the full width of the cage, so there's an area where the bedding naturally slopes down and that's where he's climbing up and down. I was thinking I'd glue tongue depressors to the ladder to turn it into more of a ramp instead to make it safer for him, so he has one more thing to climb and have fun if he wants.

I hope this keeps up and isn't a fluke!