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Old 10-18-2020, 05:17 PM   #1
Otismom
Newborn Pup
 
Join Date: Oct 2020
Posts: 2
Default Hamster happiness or anxiety

Needing some advice on my hamsters behaviour! He is a young Russian dwarf hamster. He has been home with us for nearly 2 weeks and we are trying to do everything we can to make sure he is happy and healthy! He is very active, runs in his wheel but is also showing signs of repetitive behaviour and can get very frantic. I am not sure if this is a sign of happiness or anxiety. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as we are first time hamster parents!

Thanks from Otis’ mom and dad
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Old 10-19-2020, 03:35 AM   #2
Pebbles82
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Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 23,533
Default Re: Hamster happiness or anxiety

Hello. What sort of repetitive behaviour? Like running a particular route in the cage over and over? Anyway if he seems frantic then that does sound a bit like anxiety.

Two weeks is usually their settling in time when it's best not to disturb their cage layout or clean anything, so they settle. So causes could possibly be a cage clean? Other things could be - do you have a cat? Or other pets. Or possibly a health condition. It could also be cage size if it's small.

The most common thing is people not being given good information about cage cleaning. If you give them a good amount of substrate (4 to 6" deep) then it isn't necessary to do full cage clean very often. You can "spot clean" occasionally (ie replacing the odd handful of substrate). They are quite clean little things really - it's only their pee that smells. Their poops aren't dirty or smelly and they can eat them sometimes (which is normal behaviour - they have two stomachs and can redigest vitamins etc from their poops). They sometimes keep a stash of poops (emergency food supplies!). So they can be left until you need to do a full cage clean - if they start taking over you can spot clean them out.

General advice is don't clean anything for the first two weeks or take things out of the cage or rearrange the cage. If that has happened then start the two weeks again. During that first two weeks they need time to adjust to their new cage and environment, choose a place to build a nest and they also scent mark everything in the cage partly to claim it as their territory and partly to help find their way around (they leave scent trails as well). They don't see well and rely on scent.

So if things are moved around this stresses and confuses them and if all their scent is removed(ie a full cage clean) they can be a bit frantic and feel lost and scared.

They are also very particular about their nest and hoard. Those can be left alone really - unless they are pee'd in. I prune the hoard if it's a bit large when I do a substrate change (and you can easily go 2 months or more without changing the substrate, with spot cleaning and a sand bath/litter tray). But you always need to leave some of it behind. If it's pee'd on and smelly and needs removing then try and leave a bit behind that is dry and also add more food in the same place to replace it. They can get frantic if their hoard is removed. And also start having abnormal behaviours like peeing on the hoard to deter people from stealing it - that can become a vicious circle but usually broken quite easily if you keep replacing with new food slightly to one side of where the hoard was before.

Their nest and hoard make them feel safe - they are hard wired to have a larder and a cosy nest to keep warm. They can build really quite large nests - especially in winter - so if there isn't a house big enough to build a good nest they may do it under the substrate or in a small plastic house that can get stinky easily. So one way to prevent that is have a house that is open underneath and sat directly on top of the substrate. That way it stays more ventilated and they can have normal behaviours like burying hoards under their nest and it tends to stay cleaner.

As they get a bit older they tend not to pee in their nest and it stays clean and dry.

So if it's a clean out issue then maybe just start the two weeks settling time again. And maybe delay starting to handle/tame the hamster for a week or so unless they show signs of wanting to come out. Meanwhile you can talk to them through the cage regularly - so they get familiar with your scent and voice. Or feed the odd treat through the bars (if the cage has bars).

Once they've settled in (and you can see them look visibly more contented and relaxed after settling in) then you could do some out of cage taming. Their behaviour is different out of the cage than in it. A playpen area or the bathtub can be a safe place to get them used to being hand tamed. Although with dwarf hamsters sometimes a large box as a taming box is better (that didn't work with our robo as it was a hand coming from the top).

If the cage set up isn't right for them that can also cause some stressed behaviour. They need plenty of enrichment and hidey places to feel secure, without too much open space, and enough substrate to burrow down or dig a bit or bury hoards.
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Old 10-19-2020, 10:26 AM   #3
Otismom
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Join Date: Oct 2020
Posts: 2
Default Re: Hamster happiness or anxiety

Thank you for your advice! I did clean his cage out yesterday and added some extra toys for him. I suppose the cleaning has stressed him out a bit! Should I now leave him alone for a few days so he settles?
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