Scared chirping and 16month Syrian male hammie after cage attached to a (fenced-in) playpen area was introduced in a new apartment and limited interaction with female 2 year old rat
plz don’t judge me I tried so hard to love him I promise
so wha ha happened was then I went home for break this past January and my dog would have for sure traumatized him so my friend here offered to watch him. what i did not consider was that this friend of mine has a rat who let them run around the bed together and needless to say, they did not get along. While significantly smaller, Iggy was actually reported to have been the clear alpha in the interaction and was the one showing signs of aggression toward the female rat.
When I went back to college, I moved into a new apartment and well, Iggy has not been very happy really in general since then. He used to come right to the edge of the cage whenever I came home and greeted me. He has not done that since I have moved into a new apartment, about 3 months ago. I try not to pick him up too often but he was showing some very out-of-he-ordinary behavior a few weeks ago:
- laying down in the front corner of his cage and flipping onto his back in a curled submissive position. (i saw on youtube a similar?? ish? way of holding him where i kind of cup his body and place my thumb on his tummy which i have used before in order to take him out for some roam around time)
- used to run in his wheel a lot more at night
- if I take him out of the cage, he is active but he seems to be way more into burrowing into the wall behind his cage rather than exploring the new area.
In order to cheer him up, over the past few days I bought a (small) fenced-in area that was connected through a tube to a new cage. However, I think I made (yet another) mistake in setting up the new cage in my living room when he has been living in my basement the past while. I rub Iggy's scent on the new cage, put some half eaten treats i found on the floor and used a plastic tube to connect it to the playpen, blocking out a corner of my living room, and placed his old cage inside it and left the latch open.
I sat with him and played music he likes and spoke nicely until he came out of his cage. Then he went through the tunnel on his own, assessed the new cage, seemed to enjoy it but after about 10 mins returned to his old cage.
Within about an hour he hadn't come around again at all to check out his new digs. I was surprised, I put tons of treats in the playpen open area there and food always motivates him. idk if everyones hammies can be so expressive but mine is not usually like this
- i started to walk over to the cage
- Iggy freezes and stares at me
- I try to continue calmly and sit down a few feet away
- he scurries out of his cage and starts running around aimlessly, not digging or sniffing like usual. very chaotic, nervous seeming.
- about 5mins in, Iggy was chirping at levels much louder and persistent than usual.
this is so abnormal! In the past, he had only chirped very quietly to let me know he wants my attention for a treat he can’t reach or his water had fallen over. The crying decreased when i walked away, but I thought he would feel better after a moment of discomfort and I took him back to his usual spot in my bedroom turned off the lights and left him alone.
I hope ya’ll have some good tips on ways i can reduce his anxiety and make him more comfortable in the new environment. He has a clear attachment to his current cage so i have no intention of ever taking that away from him. However, I thought it would still be good to give him a good amount of area outside of his secure bedroom to dig and play. so i was going to essentially make the same thing but out of cardboard (lined with something safe?) rather than the cage that seems to remind Iggy of his interaction with the rat. I would love advice on what materials would be the cheapest and safest to use here and how you think this new potential set up is appearing. I think Iwill need a floor lining for underneath the large box I use.
Picture 1 includes Iggys current cage on top of a laundry basket with holes i intend to use to create a ladder to help him get down to the box and the shoe storage maze.
Picture 2 includes new cage that he made no audible complaints when
What steps are there to acclimate him to this environment? Is it too late at this point?
Could I try to reuse pieces of the new cage in the future enclosure or would they make it a scarier experience?
What do you think of the shoe storage as a digging tower/maze?
Would he like the carpet? i don’t mind letting him ruin it if he would enjoy burrowing in it
Are there any scents that hamsters enjoy? Old owner had a pet cat
How do you bake the sand that they like to burrow in? Should I use sand or bedding in the shoebox maze? Should I use sand or hamster bedding in the cardboard box?