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Old 09-23-2018, 06:25 PM   #1
delilah
Newborn Pup
 
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: UK
Posts: 2
Exclamation confused and worried about my new syrian?!

Got a syrian a couple of weeks ago. Since we got her, she's been extremely scared and skittish and seems as though she's going to be extremely difficult/impossible to tame but is generally very active and spends a lot of time on her wheel. However, when she is not on her wheel she just seems so bored? Her cage is big (zoozone 2) and has lots of stuff in it but she doesn't seem hugely interested in any of it. When I take her out of her cage to play she freaks out and desperately tries to escape her pen.

To top it off, she has been acting strangely tonight. Firstly, she keeps curling up in a ball and staying like that for ages and I was freaking out that she was going to hibernate. And she also keeps really frantically trying to escape from her cage, which she has never really done before as the cage has no bars, so she's literally scraping her teeth on the hard plastic and squeezing her hand through the tiny hole where the water bottle sits and trying to jump up and I'm worried she'll hurt herself.

She just generally seems really unhappy and I don't know how to help her feel more at ease and i'm worried about her behaviour tonight
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Old 09-24-2018, 07:14 AM   #2
Pebbles82
Hamster Antics
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 23,533
Default Re: confused and worried about my new syrian?!

She sounds quite stressed. The first couple of weeks is settling in time in their cage so if you've cleaned it out or changed anything that will really stress her. I'd suggest going back to square one if that's the case. Leave her alone for 2 or 3 days in the cage (unless she shows signs of wanting to come out). And let her settle building her nest and deciding where to hoard and pee etc. And don't clean or change anything for two weeks. When you know where she is peeing (often a corner of the cage) you could take a handful of the wet substrate out -but i'd leave it over a week before doing that. Add a handful of new substrate and mix it in and then pop a litter tray in that corner. (Linked below). That way the cage will stay clean a long time. They need at least 3 to 4" deep of substrate so if there's less, add more now before giving her the settling in time for a couple of days. They also need somewhere dark to retreat to in the cage - a good sized house eg. If there isn't anything like that, pop a shoebox or tissue box with a hole cut out in there (she'll probably make anest in it). If you have a bendy bridge, you could put it over the house door so it's darker inside.

Also does she have a wheel that's big enough? Their cage is their territory and their environment so if they don't feel safe or settled in it (ie if they feel invaded) they try and escape and are desperate to get away. So avoid the temptation to tinker with it or change things or move things round - except for the initial changes before leaving her for a couple of days.

The water bottle hole is a very common place to get chewed - sticking a screw in toy in that hole tends to prevent it (see link) - you can attach the water bottle inside with velcro instead or use or make a bottle stand.

Put lots of torn up strips of plain white toilet paper in a big heap somewhere in the cage (but not inside the house - they like to forage for it). Scatter some food and hide the odd treat when you've got it just right so it'll distract her.

Don't clean the cage out for at least two weeks now. They don't need weekly cleans if they have enough substrate and a litter tray it can go a couple of months with just the occasional spot clean - you just empty the litter tray every five days or so.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hamster-cor...=hamster+potty

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Supreme-Pet...hinchilla+sand

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ancol-Woode...ds=carrot+chew

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Superpet-Ka...HHZEAHTY2F0HVR

The chinchilla bathing sand goes in the potty Also added a screw in ledge rather than the carrot chew - something to sit under - might be better and also blocks the hole.

It also sounds like she isn't hand tame yet so not easily handleable. After leaving her to settle then doing some bath tub taming is probably the next thing (dry bath tub with the plug in and a couple of toys (eg a mug on its side, a tube) she can't escape from there and you can gradually get her used to your presence and slowly used to being stroked/handled - post about that some more when you're ready!

So right now it's time and patience.
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Old 09-24-2018, 02:54 PM   #3
delilah
Newborn Pup
 
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: UK
Posts: 2
Default Re: confused and worried about my new syrian?!

Hi,
Thanks so much for your thorough reply. She eventually perked up, I was up all night writing a university assignment so i kept an eye on her. She seems a little better tonight but still seems stressed.

She does have a correctly sized wheel, a big house and a litter tray with chinchilla sand in. She pees in her litter tray but I can't get her to poop in there, she poops in her bed which means I have to constantly change the bedding in her nest and unfortunately whether i keep her in the cage while i do it or put her somewhere else she freaks out.

I do think she'd be much more settled if I just left her and her cage alone for a while like you say but it's obviously impossible to do that when she's sleeping in a pile of her own poop, it ends up getting stuck to her fur :/ but i just feel so terrible seeing her so stressed

Thank you again!
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cage, worried, shes, wheel, escape, generally, tonight, syrian, extremely, feel, frantically, freaking, behaviour, ages, ease, hibernate, scraping, hurt, hole, shell, water, jump, sits, bottle, unhappy

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