Why they do this?

[Rodent Fan]

I was wondering today why hamsters do this certain behaviour... When I'm playing with Archie, and he's going full speed playing around, and then suddenly it's like someone hit pause. He'll sit up all alert and just freeze. He'll maybe move his head to look in a different direction but he's very still and alert (before he zooms off again). Is this just stopping to assess the situation, look out for predators etc? He looks like a little meerkat when he does it.

Also, after some fun play time on the sofa today, he just lay down on the sofa really flat... his head was up, but his body was really flat with his legs splayed out behind him (it did look pretty amusing). I petted him for a good couple of minutes and he just lay there - he only stopped when I offered him a mealworm. I've never ever seen him lie down during a playtime before so I found it quite strange. Do they do this for any particular reason - or was he just chilling out?

Sorry if these are silly questions. Archie is my first hamster so I'm like a first time Mum worrying about every new thing lol.

[cypher]

Freezing & pancaking are both signs that something has either startled them or scared them, it doesn't have to be anything major & may even be something we wouldn't notice, a sound, even a scent from somewhere, a sudden movement around them, anything like that can cause them to be on the alert & instinctively watching out for predators, the pancake/lying flat thing makes them less visible to predators as does freezing.

[Wisper]

Hamsters can hear sounds we humans can't at higher frequencies so it does look like they are getting startled by nothing in particular.

My current hamster did this a lot when I first got him to the point he would freeze for several minutes and seemed not to even notice me moving near him. As he settled in however he does this less and less, they must just get used to the background sounds around your house and realise they are not worth worrying about.

[Rodent Fan]

That's interesting guys, thanks At least the mealworm snapped him out of pancaking lol