Mixed Signals

[Twimper]

Hey guys just wanted to talk a little about my syrian's behavior to see if anyone else has experienced the same or can work out whats up with my girl. So I've had Penny for two weeks now and her behavior seems a little erratic to me.

She seems really skittish (i know perfectly normal for a hamster) and is sometimes terrified of my hand. Yesterday i had it perfectly still, she froze up so i kept quiet and still so she could see I'm not a threat or anything. Then out of nowhere she leaped away not just run leaped in to air. But the odd bit is that at other times she's happy to take treats from me and groom right next to my hand. So I'm super confused as to why sometimes she's freaking out. I always wash my hand and rub her substrate in my hands before approaching her so I know I don't smell of anything strange. :/ I try to approach her from in front rather than above so I don't seem like a predator.
anyone else had this where the hamster is a bit on/off with you?

The other odd behavior I've noticed is that she'll sit really still sometimes. For a good few min totally still. :/ she'll run on her wheel a bit then get off and huddle down and just sit. Totaly frozen. It's almost like she's tiering her self out on the wheel and taking breather brakes. (Maybe a sign of a stressed hamster?)

I do suspect I know why she's been jumpy as I did move her to a different cage (well tank) as she had very quickly taken up chewing away the little plastic clips that held up her water bottle. It was a built-in one that if she managed to get lost she could have pushed up and escaped from so moving her was no ideal but needed to be done before she got out. The new tank is pretty good, a large old fish tank I was planning on putting her in there any way at some point but I think moving her so soon might have stressed her out a little even though I did try to make it as smooth as possible with moving everything from the old cage with her smell on into the next tank. It's also happens that this tank is next to another tank witch has fish in. She dosn't react at all to the fish moveing but it might be the noise of the tank. Thought I have a super quite filter and air pump my other theory is that the noise from the tank is what's upsetting her and making her so unpredictable. She came from a pet shop which had music playing all the time and doesn't react if I play vids on my laptop in the same room but it might be the pitch of it that's bugging her.

I am playing with the thought to tomorrow add some supports to an old desk of mine (though her tank isn't full of water it's still darn heavy!) and moving the tank away from the fish tank. Not sure if that would cause more harm than good :/ it's hard to tell with penny.

So that was way longer than I meant it to be. but does anyone have any clues or a similar experience with Penny's odd behavior?

P.s Just some more info on the tank in case people ask. The tank is 5ft by 2ft so pretty big, bigger than her first one. She's got lots of place to hide, tubes/toys, A sand bath, large silent spinner wheel. It's got a homemade mesh top so has pretty good ventilation and She's on refresh and papper nesting matiral.

[cypher]

Two weeks isn't long & it can take them a while to settle after a cage change, even when you move all the old stuff over it can still take them anything up to a couple of weeks to settle down completely so it may be mostly that.
The noise of the fish tank might be bothering her, they do get used to noises but if it's really close it might be a good idea to move the tank if you can.
I would just give her time to settle, keep cleaning to a minimum, don't do any more than spot clean for at least a few weeks & after that just do partial cleans if needed, they really don't need much cleaning other than spot cleaning pee, try not to interfere with her nest at all unless she pees in it & if you do have to clean that area always put some of the old nest back.
I think she just needs time really, keep talking to her & offering her treats from your hand & go at her pace.

[Twimper]

Yeah I have just been doing spot cleaning. Unfortunately, she doses pee mostly in her nest so I've been taking out the worst 2/3rds of the nesting material and each time I clean it and been picking out the freshest looking of her food stash and putting that back too. So hopefully that isn't too stressful for her.

on a random side note, I've found out she's pretty vocal when she's annoyed. I woke her up by accident when spot cleaning and she started making little-chaffing noises at me from her nest. I've never had a hamster do that before. I'm not worried about that behavior (I'm not a morning person either and would moan at someone waking me up too!) but seeing as this is a behavior thread I thought id just say about it. I kind of see it as a good thing that she'll do that if she's upset with me near her nest so I know when it's time to back off and let her be.

[cypher]

Some hams can be quite vocal, I don't think it's a bad thing she's making her feelings known either
How big is her house? If you have a big enough house you could maybe put a litter tray with chinchilla sand (not the pellets sold for litter trays) inside or if not try putting one close to the nest & just put some peed on substrate on top.

[Twimper]

It's not that big, it's just the built-in one I managed to take off the old cage so there isn't really room for a litter tray in there.

I have been moving peed on substrate to the sand bath in hopes she'll use that but as far as I can tell she hadn't used it as either a bath or a toilet yet. She seems to prefire grooming herself rather than bathing.

One thing for sure she makes me appreciate how easy my first girl was. She was so laid back and tame. Penny is turning out to be a bit of a challenge compared to her but I'm sure i'll win her over to be friends with time :3

[cypher]

They are all different & it's still very early days so I'm sure you'll get there soon enough.

[Twimper]

Yay she's using her sand bath to play/dig in. It's only a small victory but i'll take it XD