Cage Making Hamster Anxious/Reclusive??

[Buddha120]

Hi guys, just wondering if anyone could give me a bit of advice?

I got a new hamster at the end of October from a breeder. He had been well-handled before we got him at around 5 weeks old. I handled him briefly between getting him home and putting him into the cage we'd got for him and he seemed happy enough, he appeared relaxed and was grooming himself in my hand so all seemed good. We (my boyfriend and I) put him in the cage we got him which is a Zooplus Alaska cage and left him to acclimatise for around 5 days- I'm not sure whether that was a good idea or not? I have heard mixed advice. During this time however he was very reclusive. He stayed in the wooden hut the Alaska cage comes with more or less 24/7 only coming out for food and water which he would grab as quickly as possible before rushing back into his house. When it came time to try and start interacting with him again I spent some time every day just resting my hand in the cage sometimes with some broccoli or food in my hand and sometimes without. At first he was absolutely terrified of my hand and wouldn't come near it and if I moved even slightly he would panic and run and squeeze himself into the gap between the side of his house and the side of the cage. However, as time has gone on he's improved a lot and will eat broccoli and treats out of my hand now and lets us stroke his back. He's also climbed out of the cage onto my hand to eat food out of it before. However, occasionally at random he will be inexplicably terrified of us and will rush behind his house again. Because of this I've never tried to lift him out of the cage. When I've handled him I'll put his ball into the cage and let him walk into it himself, which he does, and then I'll set the ball on my lap and let him come out himself, which he also does, and I'll handle him for a while with absolutely no issues whatsoever, much like when we'd first brought him home!! Again, he very rarely comes out of his house, only to eat and drink. He does seem to be active at night as we hear him on his wheel but it's NEVER when either of us are around, even when the two of us are up until 1 or 2am. He has so many toys to play with in his cage as well that he appears to take absolutely no interest in and if we come into the room while he's using his wheel or outside of his house at all he will freeze in fear?!?!

But here's the interesting thing. My boyfriend and I spent Christmas at his parent's. Due to constraints on space both in the car and at his parent's house we bought him a 25 x 30 x 50cm wire cage from Pets at Home to keep him in temporarily for about 3 weeks. I know this is very small but it was actually the biggest cage they had in the store we visited. We filled it up with the few toys he appeared to be making use of and I don't know whether it was due to the boredom of being in a much smaller space but he was so much more active. He would play with all his toys, he would go on his wheel, he would climb on the bars, and most importantly he would come out when we were there and would come up to the side of the cage and say hello! In short, he appeared to be thriving and all the behavioural problems just seemed to no longer exist? However I don't know whether it just seemed that way from the outside and in fact he was just going mad with boredom? That being said he wasn't exhibiting any signs of boredom such as chewing on the bars or anything like that though he did run in his wheel a lot at night.

Now, since we've been back home and he's been back in his big cage he's become extremely reclusive again?! I really don't understand, it all just seems like really bizarre behaviour :S As the Pets at Home cage has space for tubes I'm considering buying another one and connecting them and putting him in there instead of the Alaska cage. Do you think this would be a good idea? Do you think it could be the cage making him reclusive?

Thanks in advance!

[cypher]

I don't think it's that bizarre really, it is something that can happen sometimes, if you give them the ideal (from their point of view!) cage with lots of substrate & places to hide away, good food so they don't have to constantly come out searching in the hope they might get nice treats they can become reclusive, they just sort of go feral!
I'm sure you'll get very mixed opinions on this but it might be worth considering keeping him in the smaller cage for a while again & do some intensive taming, get him out consistently each evening & have some sessions in a safe play area or make a play pen & keep that up until he becomes more tame again, then maybe try putting him back into the larger without so many places to hide away or too much substrate then if he still comes out & remains tame & interactive you could gradually change his bigger cage until you find something that really works for both him & you.

[CMB]

Your hamster seems to prefer the smaller cage at the moment. So Keep using that, but also let him play in the Alaska for short amounts of time as he may just need time to get used to it. It can also depend on the way the cage is setup.

Too much open space can scare a hamster. Having a few tubes and hides can help as he could go out of one and almost straight into another. Did you have a shelf in the Alaska as it provides overhead cover for a nervous hamster.

Hope he gets used to the Alaska as he may grow too big for the wheel in the smaller cage. A big enough wheel may not fit in the small cage.

[Fluffagrams]

What species is he?

It's something I've seen several times with my Chinese including ones from pet shops, ones from other breeders and one I've bred myself and like yourself, I found mine had become very reclusive, preferring to stay within their nests and were very skittish when they needed to venture out for food and water. They were perfectly content when being held which told me that it wasn't a personality trait and after discussing the problem with another breeder, found that the larger cage was the reasoning behind it.

Sometimes people find that adding more substrate and cover to a larger cage is enough to help them settle but it can be the case that this is not enough and they need something smaller. I know it goes against the popular belief but I've found that it's really helped my Chinese and I've got four happy and confident hamsters.

You may find that their confidence increases over time so that you're able to move him back up to the Alaska in the future. CMB's suugestion of allowing him to get used to the Alaska more gradually during playtime is a great idea and it's a method I've used in the past with some success.

If you got him from a breeder they might be able to offer a bit of an insight too so it might be worth asking them to see if they have any alternative suggestions for you.

[Drago]

I definitely agree that it's not an unusual behavior. Some hamsters like large spaces straight away, while others may require a smaller but more manageable one to settle into. I'd say you'd be okay leaving him in the cage he's in if he's comfortable in it. He'll let you know when he's ready for a larger cage. Once he seems very confident or seems restless in the cage he has, then it would be time to add more space, bit by bit

[Pebbles82]

He could be better in the smaller cage for a while, as the others say, especially while you're taming him. But with the larger cages a lot sometimes depends on how "full" they are - a lot of open space is scary to a hammy, but if you have lots of substrate to burrow in and shelves to sit under and tunnels and hidey place type toys, they can feel more secure. I had a large rat sputnik hanging from the top of our hammy's cage and a rat sized tube leading to it from a shelf, tied to the top of the roof. This gave a kind of overhead cover so he felt more secure running around the cage. And his favourite place was under the sputnik.

So you could try adding another shelf at the other side of the Alaska, and something like a rat sputnik (good size for a Syrian) next to it, so it is less open above and he has places to go and things to do more Also fill the base with substrate to within a 1cm of the top of the base - this effectively lowers the height a bit and also allows them to dig down.

The house that comes with the Alaska is a bit rubbish as well. It's a bit small for a Syrian and the holes are a bit small so they could get stuck - plus it's exposed on top of the shelf. They do better with a house that's open underneath, sitting on top of the substrate so they can bury hoards under the nest and snuggle down in the substrate. A shoe box makes a good hide/house and would fit partly under the alaska shelf. You cut a hole out for a door and have it upside down on top of the substrate so it's open underneath. The need somewhere dark to retreat to and nest and hoard and eat, so if there isn't anywhere dark to retreat to they can feel anxious.

If you post a photo of the Alaska cage set up, could make suggestions as to how to make it a large space your hammy might feel more at home in.

This was our Syrian's cage set up - it's not quite as tall as the alaska but about the same size otherwise. I had so much stuff in it I ended up upgrading him to the 100cm Barney. I did notice though that he did like to move around the areas of the cage where he felt protected from above. So the height and lack of overhead cover could be the issue because they are prey animals and expect something to swoop down and grab them!

It can take them two weeks to be fully settled in as well. We upgraded Charlie to this 80 x 50 one from a much smaller cage and he was a nervous wreck at first. We nearly moved him back again, but by day 10 he turned the corner and was running around and loving it and climbing the bars.

The wood house on the right made a shelf as well as being a house. There's a bendy bridge over the door for access to the house roof and makes a dark tunnel to the house entrance. As well as the sputnik to sit under he had a little lava ledge at the back right to cover the bit of space there and he loved sitting under that. Plus the vine branch on the left at the front to sit under - he liked climbing up that and it was also access to the other side of the rat sputnik (a shelf at that side is just as good).



This was his set up when he moved up to the larger Barney cage - it has three "shelves" - the one the cage came with on the left - large house roof on the right and a long narrow one at the back. So the only exposed space from above was in the middle and I hung the large tube across that, so he was happy coming out and not feeling exposed from above. Also he had a tunnel not far from his house door to run through to get under the shelf. He used the whole cage and I'd find him napping in the Sputnik sometimes.





So the larger floor area can be really good for them but a larger cage needs to not be too empty and open - if that makes sense