Hamster Central - View Single Post - I have the hammie version of the guy from Memento

mikatelyn · 02-20-2019, 07:21 PM

So it's been a couple of weeks and I thought I'd provide an update since, like someone else on here noted, I feel like so many "help me tame my hamster" threads leave us on a cliffhanger about what ultimately happened with the hamster.
I've had Smokey for a little over 2 months now, so he's probably about 5-5.5 months old.
Smokey seemed more confident for a few days, but then went through a reclusive phase for about a week where he just wouldn't want to come out of his nest, and was sleeping day and night except for a few trips to the water bottle, use the potty, and to get food (which, by the way, he appears to have stopped peeing in his nest all on his own and now just uses the sand pit!! I chalk it up to the increase in hidey spots, and the decrease in changing things around in his cage)
I did a lot of searching on this forum for possible reasons, and I think the following:

1. We're in a bit of a cold snap, and the house was around 64F. He's a pet store hamster, so I don't think he'd ever been in a temp below 70F before. So I warmed it up a couple of degrees, and I did notice that at least he was up at night using his wheel again

2. If there was too much noise during the day (radio, movies) it would be hard to get him up at night. Giving him at least a couple of hours of quiet time before trying to get him up by rustling around a bit in his cage seemed to do the trick. We also moved the radio into another room, and we try to keep the TV volume down (he's in the living room)

3. He seemed to regress in taming. I think it's because I changed up taming techniques and was trying to get him to consistently crawl on my hand when I put it in the cage by offering a treat and leaving my hand in the cage. He would usually, but not always, take the treats, but would seem disinterested in getting on my hand to come out except for once in a great while. He'd eventually get full, I think, and go back to bed. Then I watched Erins Animals Season 2 of taming diaries and thought maybe Smokey needs to go back to what I was originally doing with bathtub/playpen time. So I went back to offering him a cup, and he crawls right in, we go play for 10 minutes or so, then I put him back in his cage. After a few more minutes he's begging to come out again and he'll crawl right on my hand at that point. I think in the past I had him out for too long at a stretch (upwards of an hour if he looked like he was enjoying himself and didn't look frantic or scared. I always have water and food in the play pen.) Now I keep it to 15 minutes or less, then put him back in the cage. Usually after a few minutes he runs to a high place and looks up at me, which is how he indicates he wants to come out.

4. I thought he was maybe getting bored with his play pen, so I tried to put him on the sofa with me. Woah Nelly! Smokey has gotten really zippy since the first few days when he was all slow and stumbly! So then I sat with him in one of those portable metal play pens made for hamsters (Prevue multi colored small animal play pen) https://www.amazon.com/Prevue-Pet-Pr.../dp/B003SZSVCI

We were in there for a few minutes and he was running around looking happy. He then got behind me. I maybe had my eyes off of him for 1-2 minutes. I look behind me to check on him, and he'd already scaled the fence and was on the other side! He looked ready to make a break for it, but luckily I caught him before he got zippy again. So, FYI, that play pen is NOT good for syrian hamsters!

02-20-2019, 07:21 PM
mikatelyn Hamster Pup Join Date: Dec 2018 Location: AZ, USA Posts: 115	Re: I have the hammie version of the guy from Memento So it's been a couple of weeks and I thought I'd provide an update since, like someone else on here noted, I feel like so many "help me tame my hamster" threads leave us on a cliffhanger about what ultimately happened with the hamster. I've had Smokey for a little over 2 months now, so he's probably about 5-5.5 months old. Smokey seemed more confident for a few days, but then went through a reclusive phase for about a week where he just wouldn't want to come out of his nest, and was sleeping day and night except for a few trips to the water bottle, use the potty, and to get food (which, by the way, he appears to have stopped peeing in his nest all on his own and now just uses the sand pit!! I chalk it up to the increase in hidey spots, and the decrease in changing things around in his cage) I did a lot of searching on this forum for possible reasons, and I think the following: 1. We're in a bit of a cold snap, and the house was around 64F. He's a pet store hamster, so I don't think he'd ever been in a temp below 70F before. So I warmed it up a couple of degrees, and I did notice that at least he was up at night using his wheel again 2. If there was too much noise during the day (radio, movies) it would be hard to get him up at night. Giving him at least a couple of hours of quiet time before trying to get him up by rustling around a bit in his cage seemed to do the trick. We also moved the radio into another room, and we try to keep the TV volume down (he's in the living room) 3. He seemed to regress in taming. I think it's because I changed up taming techniques and was trying to get him to consistently crawl on my hand when I put it in the cage by offering a treat and leaving my hand in the cage. He would usually, but not always, take the treats, but would seem disinterested in getting on my hand to come out except for once in a great while. He'd eventually get full, I think, and go back to bed. Then I watched Erins Animals Season 2 of taming diaries and thought maybe Smokey needs to go back to what I was originally doing with bathtub/playpen time. So I went back to offering him a cup, and he crawls right in, we go play for 10 minutes or so, then I put him back in his cage. After a few more minutes he's begging to come out again and he'll crawl right on my hand at that point. I think in the past I had him out for too long at a stretch (upwards of an hour if he looked like he was enjoying himself and didn't look frantic or scared. I always have water and food in the play pen.) Now I keep it to 15 minutes or less, then put him back in the cage. Usually after a few minutes he runs to a high place and looks up at me, which is how he indicates he wants to come out. 4. I thought he was maybe getting bored with his play pen, so I tried to put him on the sofa with me. Woah Nelly! Smokey has gotten really zippy since the first few days when he was all slow and stumbly! So then I sat with him in one of those portable metal play pens made for hamsters (Prevue multi colored small animal play pen) https://www.amazon.com/Prevue-Pet-Pr.../dp/B003SZSVCI We were in there for a few minutes and he was running around looking happy. He then got behind me. I maybe had my eyes off of him for 1-2 minutes. I look behind me to check on him, and he'd already scaled the fence and was on the other side! He looked ready to make a break for it, but luckily I caught him before he got zippy again. So, FYI, that play pen is NOT good for syrian hamsters!