Free Roaming

[Cookiesmom]

I’m trying to figure out if our hamster likes free roaming. When she’s outside the cage, she runs around my daughters room like crazy. She doesn’t come by us. She doesn’t go in any of the hides we put out for her. Or explore any toys. She’ll stop for treats sometimes. But she pretty much runs along the walls or edges of the furniture. And doesn’t stop. It’s hard to catch her to put her back. When she gets back into the cage she calms down and lately gets right in her sand bath. Is she having fun running around? Or is she frantically searching for her home? And how can I tell? Thanks for any help.

[AliceJayne]

Could you try her in a smaller area like a hallway, where it has straight walls so she is less likely to try and find a way out?
You could even put her cage in the free roaming area with her and see if she goes straight back into her cage, that way you can at least work out if she's searching for her cage?

[cypher]

It can be hard to tell sometimes as they do like to just race around checking everything out but the space may be a bit intimidating for her, I would try a playpen, large enough for lots of toys, hides & a wheel & if possible for you to sit in with her.

[Natasha95]

I've been wondering the same thing with my new dwarf hamster! She seems to like running around outside her cage, but she's then impossible to catch, and she seems to be happy when I put her back inside. I'm still learning to read and understand her. I've had my Syrian for a lot longer, so I can tell when he's uncomfortable in a space, and he's learned to go back into his cage himself when he wants to go home, but my new dwarf is a mystery to me.

[cypher]

Are you using a playpen for your dwarf ham Natasha? It's better to keep them in a confined space, it can be quite big, with plenty of toys, hides, a wheel & things to explore, having to chase them around to catch them is stressful for both you & the ham! You can encourage her to climb into a tube, mug or something safe to transport her by putting a treat inside.

[Natasha95]

I tried putting her in a playpen, but that seemed to stress her out. She was just running back and forth in a straight line like crazy, so I let her out. When I first started taming her about a week ago, I had us both sit in the closet with some toys, so now when she free roams in my room, she tends to go into the closet (which also helps with putting her back in her cage at the end because she likes to sit in my sneakers). I think the closet seems to be the right size for her (not as big as the whole room, but not as small as the play pen).

As for general transportation, she seems to be learning that my hand is going to let her out of the cage, so she immediately runs over and sits in it when I open up her bin cage, but she also knows it's going to put her back, so she'll avoid it when she's outside of the cage.

[SeymourHammie]

I know a lot of people use a bathtub to let the run around. It's big enough so they can run around but not too overwhelming. You can put a few toys in there for them too. Just make sure it hasn't been cleaned with any chemicals that could be harmful to them.