View Single Post
Old 10-17-2020, 04:24 AM  
Space Hamster
Newborn Pup
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: UK
Posts: 13
Default Re: Help taming our hideaway hermit hamster!

Quote:
Originally Posted by cypher View Post
I’ve just seen your other thread about your cage & there’s some good advice there that should help.
Plenty of enrichment in the cage which is great but it is important to make sure your ham has the basics first so do try make or buy a better house for him, one that is large enough & really dark inside, no base & lots of substrate underneath, if you get a house like the Rodipet ones with the roof that lifts off it makes it a lot easier to just check on them now & then & you can use the roof of the house as a shelf which is better than using the plastic ones that come with cages.
You might find that just making a few simple changes could help to build up his confidence without him being so inaccessible you can’t keep an eye on how he’s doing.
Hello again cypher, how are you? Thankyou for taking the time to have a look at my cage and sharing your suggestions; I've just been on the rodipet website and ordered one of their labyrinth houses along with some other bits and bobs. I'd thought about ordering one before I got him but couldn't decide which to choose and then never got around to it. I'm really excited on behalf of the little guy, I hope he's going to love his new things!

I saw him out and about early the other morning and we had a funny encounter last night. I had stayed up late (oops) and had refreshed his waterbottle, went to fit it back to the cage without realising the little black hamster was in the very dark corner of the cage right where the bottle goes....welll...I don't know who was more suprised! The sound of the waterbottle made him jump, which then made me jump, then we both sat and stared at each other a few moments I have noticed though that he didn't seem to all out "panic" like he did at the very start, he instinctually bolted a little way across the cage but then stopped, like he realised it wasn't a huge threat after all. Much better!

He seemed curious, so I opened the door and let him sniff my hand for a couple of minutes. He had a little run on his wheel while I talked to him and then I slipped him a couple of the choicest pieces from his foodbowl and he happily let me rub his little head between his ears while he muched away. Very happy I'm starting to see him around again, and very happy to note he didn't sound sneezy or sniffly at all in contrast to when we first got him. Phew!


Quote:
Originally Posted by Ria P View Post
I also have a fairly reclusive young Syrian boy living in a Hamster Heaven.
Rory gets up very late around midnight and i've never seen him during the day. Like yours, he was more active at the beginning but once settled that changed a bit.
It may help to adjust his set up to make him more accessible for taming. I have taken all the HH shelves and tubes out and started with an empty cage.
Syrians usually love their houses and will move in. They need a large bottomless house with a removable roof so you can now and again check on them to make sure they're well and check their hoard for gone off fresh food without disturbing their nest. I use the inexpensive Ferplast guinea pig sized houses.
The house is in the left side of the cage, almost submerged into the substrate and plastikoted with a green/blue striped roof.
If i stay up till 01.00/02.00, chances are that i will see Rory coming to his door asking to come out to free roam in the room but i work and can't always stay up that late.
He wakes up around 22.00/22.30 because i can hear him scrunching and cluttering around inside his house and i had to try and tame him.
SO, once a week at around 22.30 i call his name and carefully remove the roof of his house and check if he's awake in which case i leave the roof off. If he's still fast asleep then i put the roof back on and try another night.
Ok, he's awake but minus his roof so he looks at me and sniffs around while i talk to him nicely. He sniffs for a while then grabs something to eat from his hoard and eventually climbs out of his house and goes into his coconut outhouse where he has a long and thourough wash. While he does that i put the roof back on and put everything back in its place.
He's not a hamster to be rushed and the whole sniffing, snacking, washing routine takes around 30-45 minutes.
Then he comes over to his open door and tries to climb out of his cage and onto my hand so i help him out and put him on my lap for some taming exercises. You can also take a hamster out by letting him walk into something like a jug. If he doesn't want to you could put a treat in it and if that doesn't work then he really doesn't want to come out and you have to try another night.
On my lap i started with stroking him and progressed to pick up exercises to gradually get him used to getting picked up.
After the exercises i let him roam around in a hamster proofed room and sit on the floor with him so he can still smell me. Roaming around is what he wants to come out for in the first place and he's so eager to get off my lap and onto the floor that we do this catch exercises where he starts to run like a wind up toy mouse and i catch/pick him up before he gets away and put him back to starting point to do a couple more reps.
It may be worth a try with your hamster but you need to be very patient which i'm sure you are to let the hamster do things in his own time.
Hello Ria, thanks so much for taking the time to reply and for sharing your experiences with Rory. Nice to know I'm not the only one with a guy who likes to party late at night! Some of my previous hamsters have been just like Rory in that they seem to like to take their time waking up and getting ready to come out, lots of grooming and snacking etc. Just like humans, I suppose - I know I wouldn't want to get out of bed and go straight for a run!!

I have a feeling once my guy finds out there's a big exciting outside he can come out and roam around and explore, it'll do wonders for encouraging him to come out. I feel like I'm starting to see him around a little more and recent interactions have been brief but encouraging, so I'm feeling a lot more hopeful.

Thanks also for sharing a picture of Rory's lovely home - I particularly love his stripy roof, wow!
Space Hamster is offline   Reply With Quote