When do they settle in?

[Rodent Fan]

Cheers Jasmine, glad you understand! Your gerbils sound as noisy as my mice. It's shocking what a racket such tiny creatures can make! But my little Archie is so incredibly quiet, it's quite lovely

I guess when you've had a different type of rodent before, you can easily fall into the trap of expecting them to be the same. But I am learning differences between mice and hamsters every day! It's fascinating

[Vectis Hamstery]

Originally Posted by Rodent Fan

I left Archie alone for about 3 days, but as he is used to being handled I didn't think it necessary to wait any longer.

That sounds entirely appropriate I don't recommend new owners of my pups leaving them alone for a week or two. A day or two is enough, sometimes not even that for an active, nosey Syrian pup who has been used to coming out every day for cuddles!

[Fluffagrams]

I feel that how long you should give them will depend on whether they are from a breeder who has handled them regularly to a shop where they might not have been handled as much. I've found that because my breeder hams have been less stressed about their homecoming in the first place, they need less time to recover and settle.
I've given my breeder hamsters one or two days before I'll get them out and I tend to keep their earlier handling sessions fairly short but I spent my first week with my pet shop girl just talking to her and offering her seeds.

It's funny you say that about your mice being noisy because my Chineseys can be quite noisy at times with the gnawing, the moving furniture around, the sound of Jessie's wheel after she's pushed it up against the side of the cage or when she's bashing her biscuit against her nest box as she eats it. I'm glad they live downstairs and not in my bedroom because there's no way I'd be able to sleep!

[Rodent Fan]

Fluffagrams - I have always thought that chinese hamsters look more mouse-like, so perhaps they are noisy like mice too hehe :P

At least I'm assuming that most hamsters are fairly quiet? All my mice are noisy (what is with the furniture rearranging?!) but Archie is my first hamster so I don't know what the norm is for most hams I sleep with him in my room no problems, he's so considerate lol.

[Pebbles82]

Hamsters are quiet until:

1) They fill their wheel full of food then run in it
2) You give them a new house and they racket around inside scratching the walls and redecorating
3) You get a screecher lol!