Having difficulty at playtime.

[Dax]

Hey guys!

Hammy has always been good at playtimes. He has come out, played in his playpen quite happily for hours when he had access to his pen and his cage at the same time.

Since moving house, i cannot give him the same semi unsupervised playtime he had before. Now we live in a house with dogs and i have to contain him to a smaller room.

Sooo, we have had some teething problems and at the advice of afew people on here i have been getting up during the evening time to play.

The problem with this is, he comes out, wonders around his playpen, pouches any food/treats then spends the next 50 mins of his house playtime trying his hardest to get out of his pen.

When he's in the playpen he has pulled the pen apart and escaped once, then the next day he was chewing and scatching at the taped parts of the playpen causing him to have parcel tape stuck to his little hands.

Now he needs constant supervision, even to the point where you cant even sit on the bed and let him play. Im just moving him away from the sides of the playpen constantly until i have to put him back in his cage because i feel so bad about how much he hates being out. :/

I dont know what to do, and i feel so guilty that he doesnt have the same playtimes he used to have.

Advice?

TL;DR: Hammy's playtime has turned into "try and get out of the playpen any posible way I can" time. He just doesnt seem to care about any of his toys. He just wants back in his cage as soon as he has pouched any food/treats. Even when given the chance to depouch, he still doesnt want to be in his pen. Why? How do i make this better?

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[Gatsby]

How long have you been in new house?

[Dax]

I actually moved back in with my parents in September/October time.

Edit; wanted to point out this is a house he has been in many times. We spent weekends here every 2 weeks since the day we got him in august. He has always been fine here. So I don't think it's a change of location thing.


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[Shannonmcn]

Maybe he's just bored? Do you always have the same toys and things for him to do in his pen? Are there any strong smells or bright lights that might be making him more nervous? Is there any possibility of letting him free roam in the whole room? If there aren't any cables or vents he could get into that might be a thing to consider if you're confident enough he can be picked up again.

Just a disclaimer so you can ignore me completely if you want: My current little ham can't be trusted for more than a second free roaming anywhere so I mostly use a ball, switching to a pen soon hopefully.

[bbbarker]

Like Shannonmcn said if you have been using the same toys your hammy might be getting bored, I know my hamster started chewing her bars a few weeks after I got her so I put some new toys in and immediately it stopped. Hopefully this works for you and good luck

[Shannonmcn]

Just to add to my previous post, the smell of dog might have more of an effect than you'd think. I came into may room one day with my mum and we'd both been coverhead in Spaniel all day ( the best experience, please try it, the face licks are super) and my previous ham Buttercup froze for ages, I had to change all my clothes and scrub myself and physically move her before she started behaving normally again, I think they know predator smell. Maybe your little one is still just getting used to that? Can you keep dogs out of the room he's in?

[Dax]

@Shannonmcn -

I try to switch up the toys he has but maybe i should get him some new ones. Im just finding it hard to find affordable good ones. He's quite a big boy so anything with small holes in is no good. And most of the toys i can find in my local petshop have smaller holes. :/

I might try and hoover the carpet today before i put him down this evening. The dogs only go into my bedroom for seconds. The door is always closed and they are thrown out immediately if they do go in.

I dont know if its because he thinks this new routine is actually just get up for food time and not stay out for play time. I might try putting no food in his pen until half an hour before he goes back to his cage.

Free roaming is a total no go in this house. The room is jam packed with stuff for him to get under, into and eat. I have moved 2 people from a house, into one room. So we have a ton of stuff and not enough room to keep it.

Thankyou for your comments. They have been very useful.

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