Bar Chewing..

[Dax]

Hammy wakes me up with it.

For the first 2 months i had him, we were on a pretty good sleeping pattern. I would get him out in his pen for 3+hours a night and he would run around and play. It would be routine and he was pretty happy with it. He would get up and play at around 11pm-3am.

I have recently moved house and got a new job.

Now i get him out in his pen earlier in the evening, but he is awake LATER than ever. I put part of his cage on the floor in the middle of the pen at around 10/11pm. Everynight. He just stays in his nest. I stay up til 4am every night hoping he will have a run around.

At 4 i have to go to bed and put him back with the rest of his cage. At around 5:30 he starts chewing his bars because he knows he has a playpen to run about in and he is stuck in there. :/

I dont know what to do.
Can i try and change his sleeping pattern? Maybe try make him wake up earlier?

At the moment hes getting no playpen time (atleast that hes awake for) and idk what to do..
Lastnight i changed his cage around and replaced some of his older toys with new ones. And that seemed to pacify him. Atleast i think it did because i went straight back to sleep. haha.


x

[Skeever]

Same problem here. Their slowly morphing sleep patterns have become five thirty to seven am wake ups and bouncing around the cage and chewing and general ruckus. I've adjusted to their changing times, but may have to start enforcing very strict feeding times again, and 'making' them get out and active sometime before , oh.......DAWN???? They chose the two worst hours of the entire day to get all hyped up ! Try introducing late evening feed times so they come out, and coax them out for some activity. Easier said than done. Winter has Ziggy doing a LOT of nesting and being lazy so this is HIS time, he seems to think.

I also think they prefer darker times, and though I may be up to four am? When I turn off the lights? Thats their cue to be NOCTURNAL MAN!!!!! Grrrrrrrrrr. I'll try a night or so without killing the lights and see if that makes a difference. A lot of living with hams comes down to trial and error. Ziggy is so large at this point, he can sometimes knock off the clear front panel of the tank, which falls to the ground , waking the entire neighborhood! And? I'm not sure he's really doing it? but he seems to be smirking when I get up to fix it and turn on the lights.

It is possible to get them into routines. Keep us posted how it goes.....

[Dax]

Wow, im glad Hammy doesnt have anything he can knock off his cage and make a noise like that! haha.

I fed him before work today and he was so tired he didnt even bother having a look.

I dont know if its the lights from my computer that make him think "Meh, its bright. Its not time to play yet"
Maybe i should try using the laptop instead. And i might try and make him come play a little earlier. I'll put him in his ball for 20 mins then give him the option of going back to bed.

x

[Skeever]

Thanks to their nocturnal acts of violence and party animal antics, I've started turning off the lights so I can sleep but leaving the screen on, to cast a dim light in the room. At least I can sit up and see who is breaking what then....and maybe they'll think its still light out. Doesn't seem to affect them if they want to rock n roll though , sigh.....

I've recently noticed, if I have them out though and its only the light of dawn outside in the room? they seem much more at home and willing to slow down, and sit still? I guess being out in a play area in a lit room is NOT their ideal environment. Last time Pook was out at dawn, he lay on my hand, sat up and meerkatted on my hand....we'd hear the neighbors and do 'double takes' looking at each other wondering what THAT sound was.....he was as sociable as friendly cat, and very laid back. He's since gone back to being the intrepid explorer....so more trial and error when I have time to see what makes them the most relaxed, and how I can alter their peak times ......

[Dax]

Tonight i have decided to bring him downstairs. Theres much more room down here and in a while im going to stick netflix on, sit on the floor and try and coax him awake with afew little treats.

How many little bundles of hammy joy do you have Skeever?

x

[Skeever]

Two Syrians. One almost a year old, and one about six months.....

Even the cleverest hammy can be lured out if he's awake by giving him a whiff of a treat, and moving it just out of reach till they can't resist coming out to get it

[Dax]

I tend to tap very lightly on his tubes. (He has a habitrail dealy inc his bin cage) Usually he comes out and looks at me like "wat is ur problem? >:["

x

[Skeever]

LOL....an adorable look, isn't it? If I mess with his food bowl, or make food bag noises, they find it hard to resist. Once their up, a fav treat often gets them a bit more 'involved' in the negotiations