Beginner questions

ilxvemyhamster · 12-21-2017, 02:52 AM

So I got my first ever hamster last week and I love him so much! But, as a first time hamster owner I have a few questions about some of his behaviours. I want to make sure that he is happy.

1. He takes all his food into his tube along with a bit of bedding and chew toys. He doesn’t sleep there (he likes to sleep at the bottom under a huge pile of cosy bedding) but I can’t tell if he’s eating with it all being shoved in the tube. Literally as soon as I give him his food he takes it straight out of his bowl and puts it in the tube. I’m worried that he’s going to get stuck or he’ll hurt himself somehow. He’ll sometimes put his food in his house but 99% of the time it ends up in the tube.

2. He hasn’t been drinking much. When I change his water every morning he’s only drank a little bit. He’s very active and responsive and isn’t showing signs of dehydration but as I say, he’s not been drinking as much as I thought he would.

3. How can I tell if he is warm enough? He feels nice and warm but as I’m sure you can tell already, I’m a bit of a worrier.

4. I know it takes a while to tame your hamster but his bites hurt a lot! This has made me wary of holding him but I don’t want this to stop him trusting me! He lets me give him little strokes inside the cage and I can easily get him in and out using his ball. I tried holding him with a gardening glove on one hand as this made me less apprehensive about potential biting and was able to stroke him with my free hand.

Any tips would be much appreciated!

cypher · 12-21-2017, 03:44 AM

Is it possible to remove the tube from the cage or block it off? If it is then I would just take it away, it's very common for new young hams to stash food in tubes & they will sometimes pee in the tube too & it gets very unhealthy as well as making it difficult to check on things. It would be much better if you could do that & encourage him to hoard his food in his house.
Don't worry about drinking as long as you check the bottle is working properly each day, just run a clean finger over the end & make sure the water is coming out ok, they only drink about a teaspoon of water a day so it doesn't look as though much at all has gone from the bottle or bowl.
To be sure he's warm enough check the temperature of the room doesn't drop below 18-20C day or night, if the room is warm enough & he has plenty of substrate in the cage & some shredded plain white toilet tissue to make a nest then he'll be fine.
A week isn't long at all for taming so just take your time & don't go too fast, does he bite in or out of the cage or both? Putting your hand in the cage can scare them a bit & they can sometimes get a little territorial & may bite so it's best to get them used to handling out of the cage.
Make or buy a playpen (the metal ones you can buy aren't suitable for syrians) you can make a temporary one from large cardboard boxes or a better one from storage cubes or you can buy a wooden one from Zooplus. Or you can use the bath, plug in & a towel in the bottom as a play area.
Put some toys in the playpen & a wheel, give him some time to run around & explore & just let him run over your hands or hop on & off to begin with, offer him treats from your fingers to begin with then move on to putting them on the palm of your hand & he will begin to get comfortable & confident with handling & should stop biting.
There's a video here on making a playpen from storage cubes.

ilxvemyhamster · 12-29-2017, 07:43 PM

Thanks so much for your reply and tips!

Update: he no longer does the tube thing and has started hoarding in his house instead.

He was biting in and out of the cage and I was worried he was never going to trust me enough for me to be able to tame him but tonight I had a break through with him. I was able to pick him up and he seemed happy enough to walk/run from hand to hand and sometimes up my arms, on my lap, take treats from me etc. He didn’t bite once!! I was able to do this for around 10 minutes then I put him back in his cage. Then after an hour I was able to play with him in the same way for 30 minutes!!! I’ve had him for 15 days now and I don’t want to jinx it but I think he’s starting to trust me!

cypher · 12-29-2017, 10:16 PM

Good to hear how well he's doing, you've made really good progress together & I'm sure his confidence & trust will just continue to grow now.

SaltyPickles · 12-29-2017, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilxvemyhamster

Thanks so much for your reply and tips!

Update: he no longer does the tube thing and has started hoarding in his house instead.

He was biting in and out of the cage and I was worried he was never going to trust me enough for me to be able to tame him but tonight I had a break through with him. I was able to pick him up and he seemed happy enough to walk/run from hand to hand and sometimes up my arms, on my lap, take treats from me etc. He didn’t bite once!! I was able to do this for around 10 minutes then I put him back in his cage. Then after an hour I was able to play with him in the same way for 30 minutes!!! I’ve had him for 15 days now and I don’t want to jinx it but I think he’s starting to trust me!

Yep, some hamsters are like that. Last night I was playing with Ares, he was walking around on top of me while I was sitting on the couch. He did bite me, but only when I tried to hold him.