Hammy's cage

[samzyzg]

I'm considering whether or not a change of cage may help hammy be more active, apart from the fact he lives constantly in his bed (only coming out to pee, for water and to search for food).
He's essentially always been like this but when he was in his mini duna he'd at least dig around and occasionally come looking for me.
Whenever I can get him out, either by pulling apart his nest go fetch him or catching him out during the day he's more than happy to come out of his cage and then is constantly on the run.
I'm thinking maybe because he's in a vivarium it can be a bit dark since light only comes in from one side, and he did seem to enjoy his mini duna I was thinking of maybe either putting him back in the mini duna (which is a slight downgrade) or trying to find a different cage to see if that helps him at all.

Just seeing if anyone had any opinions or tips?

[Laurenxxx]

I've just moved my hamster into a much bigger cage today and she's been going crazy running, climbing, jumping and just being loads more active than she normally is

[samzyzg]

See thats what I thought would be good for hammy when I moved him into his new cage but it doesn't seem to have worked =/ I was thinking just mayb because its quite enclosed and maybe a more open cage about the same size would be good.

[samzyzg]

Anyone else have an advice?

[The Hamster's family]

SOme hammies are more active than others... That being said, bigger as always about better... What kind of toys did you put in the cage ?? I wouldn't go smaller than a Hamster Heaven... even tho it's been a pain to find one !

Annie xx

[samzyzg]

Well he's got a few tubes, a few chew sticks and his wheel + sputnick and well his bed literally takes up about half of the cage (I gave him a giant pile of ripped up tissue paper to make a nest out of). The thing is that he's extremely active if I can get him out of his cage, I don't like waking him up but I do have to do it every few days else I literally wont see him at all, he never uses his wheel at all even outside of the cage (he'll sniff it, run for about 10d then toddle off).
All he'll do in his cage is sit in his nest, go get some water, go behind wheel to pee, go back to bed. he'll also dig around a bit for his food on feeding days but essentially 23/24hours he's in his nest hidden under a pile of ripped up tissue paper in the dark, hence I wondered if maybe I got a barred or more open cage than a vivarium for him he might get a bit more active.

[strawberrysmom]

I kept doing this for my dwarf Strawberry. I'd expand and expand and expand and add more enrichment and etc. He'd at first be active like crazy but then slow down to almost full stop again in a couple days. I have to wake him up to free range him or anything which he's grateful for more than grumpy. Otherwise he'd never do anything!