Hamster squeaking while in his hide?

envidianthine · 11-10-2020, 11:53 AM

Hi everyone, me again!

I've had my Syrian hamster, Ezio, for almost a week now. He's eating, drinking, sleeping, running on his wheel, digging, going to the bathroom... all of that seems completely fine and normal. However, today he's been squeaking up a storm while he's in his hide. I can't see what's going on in there, but I did manage to film a quick video recording the squeaks. I've uploaded it to Streamable so hopefully you all can view it: https://streamable.com/hgtkcj

Outside of his hide, he does also squeak occasionally, but not this intense/often. I haven't started taming/handling him yet, so I can't exactly just pick him up and look him over. But what I can see while he's outside of his hide is that he seems completely fine. Nothing out of the ordinary.

I've been a bit frightened by all the information out there regarding hamster noises, as a lot of people say that hamsters only make noise when they're afraid/in pain/angry/etc., so now I'm really worried about whether something's wrong with my little hammie.

I'm really interesting in hearing your opinions and advice! Thank you in advance!

LunaTheHamster1 · 11-10-2020, 12:13 PM

If you have only had him a week he could still be settling in, I have had hamsters that squeak a lot when rearranging the insides of their houses/hides to their liking. For example my syrian Twinkle, squeaked on and off for 2 hours when he first arrived here as he was burrowing all underneath his new house. It was like he was getting mad at himself as all he wanted to do was sleep but his new home wasn't set up how he liked.

If it was constantly I would be more worried about a respiratory infection, but if he is only doing it in his hide and he is eating/drinking.running around as normal I woudn't be too worried.

Obviously if you have doubts you can always take him to the vet.

Have you disturbed him when he makes the noises, he could be just warning you off to leave him to sleep.

envidianthine · 11-10-2020, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LunaTheHamster1

If you have only had him a week he could still be settling in, I have had hamsters that squeak a lot when rearranging the insides of their houses/hides to their liking. For example my syrian Twinkle, squeaked on and off for 2 hours when he first arrived here as he was burrowing all underneath his new house. It was like he was getting mad at himself as all he wanted to do was sleep but his new home wasn't set up how he liked.

If it was constantly I would be more worried about a respiratory infection, but if he is only doing it in his hide and he is eating/drinking.running around as normal I woudn't be too worried.

Obviously if you have doubts you can always take him to the vet.

Have you disturbed him when he makes the noises, he could be just warning you off to leave him to sleep.

Yeah, I'm hoping that that's the case! I have not been disturbing him at all, whether he's squeaking or not (besides cleaning his sandbox when he's running on his wheel or in his hide). The first day/night he slept under a bendy bridge, in his sandbox, which I found odd. Then for two days he slept in the corner of the cage, behind/next to his wheel. I've been told that's completely normal for hamsters to do. However, I made the mistake of cleaning that corner, because there was a lot of poop in it. I'm sure that disgruntled him a bit, but since then I haven't touched anything else. So I hope that one event didn't upset him too much ^^'

I also hope I won't have to take him to the vet, as I'm not sure if there are even any vets in my city that deal with hamsters, sadly. I guess I'll just keep an eye on him!

Do you think it would be a good time to now try to start handling him, since tomorrow will be exactly a week since I got him? Or should I wait longer?

Thank you for your response! c:

LunaTheHamster1 · 11-10-2020, 01:11 PM

If he is in a decent sized cage I would recommend not cleaning his cage out for at least a month whilst he settles, you could try feeding him little treats and see how that goes if you haven't already and see if he comes to you.

envidianthine · 11-10-2020, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LunaTheHamster1

If he is in a decent sized cage I would recommend not cleaning his cage out for at least a month whilst he settles, you could try feeding him little treats and see how that goes if you haven't already and see if he comes to you.

Yeah, of course, I know not to clean their cages super often, I just meant spot cleaning. But I now know I shouldn't have even done that, but oh well... we learn from our mistakes!

I've tried giving him food/treats from my hand, he'll sniff them but not take them. Hopefully we'll make some progress soon! ^^

Ria P · 11-11-2020, 05:19 AM

Some hamsters are vocal and some never say a peep. They can produce quite a surprising range of sounds. One of my Syrians was quite loud at first but quickly calmed down when he found that things were to his liking. Another one of my lot sometimes makes little noises while in his nest and i'm pretty sure that he's dreaming. They can squeak, chutter, squawk, hiss, screech and make all sorts of sounds for all sorts of reasons and not all are alarming.

As long as he does his normal hamster stuff i wouldn't worry.
What i would recommend though is getting him a big house with a removable roof. I use the Ferplast guinea pig house. That way you can check on him without disturbing his nest by briefly lifting the roof off.

envidianthine · 11-11-2020, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ria P

Some hamsters are vocal and some never say a peep. They can produce quite a surprising range of sounds. One of my Syrians was quite loud at first but quickly calmed down when he found that things were to his liking. Another one of my lot sometimes makes little noises while in his nest and i'm pretty sure that he's dreaming. They can squeak, chutter, squawk, hiss, screech and make all sorts of sounds for all sorts of reasons and not all are alarming.

As long as he does his normal hamster stuff i wouldn't worry.
What i would recommend though is getting him a big house with a removable roof. I use the Ferplast guinea pig house. That way you can check on him without disturbing his nest by briefly lifting the roof off.

Thank you so much for your response! The removable roof hide sounds incredible, but sadly I haven't been able to find any where I live. Might have to resort to DIY!

Ria P · 11-11-2020, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by envidianthine

Thank you so much for your response! The removable roof hide sounds incredible, but sadly I haven't been able to find any where I live. Might have to resort to DIY!

Easy! Use a shoe box. The lid is the roof, cut out the base and a door then sit it on top of the substrate.

envidianthine · 11-12-2020, 08:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ria P

Easy! Use a shoe box. The lid is the roof, cut out the base and a door then sit it on top of the substrate.

oh that's a pretty cool idea actually! but what if the box has a print on it, is the ink safe for the hamster? that would be my only concern with such boxes. ^^'