Hello!!
I'm looking for some advice about my 5 month old Syrian Hamster, Cinnamon, and his issue with monkey barring.
I got Cinnamon in May this year and we've bonded well! I love his cute little face, and he gets very excited to see me when he wakes up. Recently though, he's started monkey barring, and I'm not sure why. I'm worried he's stressed. I thought you guys could give me some advice on what to do.
So, of course a little information about Cinnamon's Enclosure: He lives in a 300 Litre Aquarium (48" x 24” x 18” / 864 Square Inches I believe) with a DIY wire mesh lid. His substrate consists of a mix of Carefresh Natural Paper Bedding, Aspen Bedding and Timothy Hay - He has Carefresh White Paper Bedding in his hides, some Zoo Med Eco Earth in a dig box and a Sand Bath with Tiny Friends Farm sand. The way his enclosure is currently set up, 1/3rd of the enclosure has around 4 inches of substrate while 2/3rds has 10 inches.
Inside his enclosure he currently has:
. x3 Tunnels: Sea Grass, Willow & a Cork log.
. x4 Hides: 2 Wooden Hides, a Ceramic Hide and a DIY hide made of a Cork Paper Folder & wooden craft sticks - This one's his favourite.
. x2 10(ish) inch large bendy bridges used as substrate dividers.
. x1 Terracotta plant pot.
. x1 Ceramic Dig Box.
. x1 Marble cooling slab.
. x1 10 Inch Trixie Wheel (He had a wooden one, but peed on it till it broke
. x4 Hanging Toys (Chews, Wooden Toys, Bells, Sticks..)
. Many other Toys (Willow Balls, Wooden Sticks, Loofahs, Vegetable Shaped Toys, Wooden Log Slabs, Birch Logs.. Lots of toys!)
. x1 Water Bottle
I also have a bunch of other Hamster items I will sometimes swap out to give him something different to interact with. The enclosure is in my bedroom, which is usually very quiet.
To keep him busy, I scatter feed his food and he also gets a lovely herb mix every so often - Only a little though, because it's a lot of smells and I don't want to overwhelm him.
So! Now you know Cinnamon, back to the issue: He's started monkey barring on the wire mesh enclosure lid and scurrying at the walls sometimes. At first I was worried he wasn't satisfied with the enclosure size, then I worried it was possibly something outside of the enclosure stressing him out? Me perhaps? Since he tends to do this more often when I walk by the enclosure. I'm really not sure. He seems to get very energetic, and that's when the monkey barring begins. I try to discourage it by making it so he can't reach the bars, but he always finds a way.
When he starts monkey barring, I'll offer him a hand to climb out of the enclosure on if he wants to. He usually takes me up on this offer, and we have a little cuddle and playtime, but he often goes back to monkey barring when I put him back. Yesterday though, he didn't even want to come out and seemed a little more skittish than usual, so I gave him space. I'm worried about him, I wish I knew what it was exactly that's causing his behaviour. Seeing him stressed breaks my heart. Hopefully you guys can give me some advice!
Thank you.