Chinese hamster questions

[DrKMcK]

Hello Ann. Your little Chinese is a shy little girl and it will take some time for her to feel safe. Having your son scare her may make her be a bit more nervous. Kids and hammies do usually sort things out, but it can slow things down. Chinesies normally take a bit more time in the first place in taming. Give her time and go at her pace. She needs to learn to trust you.
As for the peeing in her nest, lots of them do it. Until she feels safe, peeing in her nest marks her home. If it gets really smelly, try to just scoop out the wet and replace it with clean bedding. If she's peed on her food, replace it with fresh. You don't want to do it too often since they get upset with us messing with their home.
One of my hamsters, who wound up being a social, friendly boy, took 3 months to tame. Each hammy is different, so patience is the name of the game. Check out Erin's Hamsters on You Tube. She has some great taming tips.

[cypher]

Don't worry too much Ann, there are often little set backs with taming & your son will have scared her but she will get over it, just take it slowly, I know it's hard & can take a lot of patience but the rewards are just so worth it! My first Chinese was really timid to begin with & would just peek at me round a corner or from a little hole somewhere but with time she became a very tame & cheeky little friend so persevere & don't get down hearted if you seem to take a step back from time to time.
My first peed in her nest too, I only got my second Chinese girl yesterday so I have no idea where she's peeing yet lol! but it is quite common & you do have to clean it out, just try to do it with the minimum disturbance & only remove what's wet or smelly so her nest will retain some of her own scent & she'll soon adjust to that & may even find somewhere a bit more convenient to pee when she gets a bit braver! You could try putting some of the wet substrate from her nest into a small bowl or dish with some sand & she might get the idea & pee in there instead.

[Ann]

Thank you. I know we'll get there eventually. I really think she's still a little traumatized from the pet store. I watched them get her out and they just reach in and grab them without warning. So that's probably what she was expecting when my son picked up her house. I did go ahead and change out some of her bedding. I don't think she's very happy with me right now. After I took out most of the wet bedding and added new, she went back in her house and immediately started chirping and rebuilding her nest. I put the soiled bedding in the corner of her sand box so I'm hoping she'll get the idea. I managed to get a couple pictures of her while she was out. Is there a post that tells me how to upload them? I tried using the attachment icon but it's not working for me.

[cypher]

Slow but steady & she'll get used to things
You can either click on the go advanced button below the reply box then scroll down to manage attachments to upload the photos or upload them to a file sharing site like photobucket or flickr then post the link in your thread here.
Hope that helps, I really want to see those photos

[velma]

Originally Posted by Ann

I just wish I could see her do some her exploring.

Not any help in the taming front but while she's getting settled, if you want to see what she gets up to in the dark, so long as she is comfortable with you sitting quietly in the room, apparently they can't see red light. You can get some red LEDs and up them beat her cage which should mean you can quietly observe her going about her business.
The other thing we did (I say we, I mean my geeky OH ) is put a webcam facing the cage. We have one that has night vision and works on the wifi so I could watch on my tablet from another room. They're the sort of cameras you can get for putting on bird boxes or in garages for security - as well as a live feed if you log on, ours is motion sensored and takes stills when triggered & emails them to you

[Ann]

Ok, lets try this. Here's little Clover!

[velma]

She's lovely, Ann! Hello Clover!

[cypher]

Awww bless! Hello little Clover
She's so sweet, I love the egg box shot

[Pebbles82]

She's gorgeous! I would recommend trying a potty tray. We only have a Syrian so I don't know how chinese react, but ours started using it straight away and his cage stays mostly clean and dry. Usually they say put it in the corner of the cage they use as a wee corner, but if yours is weeing in her nest that wouldn't work the same. I should just put one in somewhere with chinchilla bathing sand in it and a bit of her wee'd on substrate and see if she starts using it.

I have one of these corner ones that's quite good - ours pees in the very back corner and sits in the front for a wash.

Hamster Potty corner Litter Tray for Mice Hamster Gerbil Cage House. Size: 16 × 7 × 12/12 cm: Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies

This is the sand most people use (also available at Viovet and elsewhere)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Supreme-Petf...a+bathing+sand

Or you could make her a shoebox house and put the potty inside it

[cypher]

I think most Chinese just like to pee in the wheel, sometimes in the nest too, it's just their thing
I'm going to have to go on a pee hunt tomorrow I think & see what mine's been up to... fun!