Zylvan, another new man in my life!

[Drago]

Definitely very late to this thread but have been following it the whole way through. I must say that Zylvan is adorable and sounds a lot like a gerbil of mine. Her name is ginger and she lives with one of her siblings, Mitzi. Things were going really well with her at first minus how rough of a condition she and her sister were in (they were a classic case of neglect, skinny and horribly dirty with bad coats) she was friendly, but very skittish and cautious. I try working with her but her fear of humans since her situation has only grown worse, she will bite my fingers when I try to pet her, but I will keep trying to help her out in learning that she'll never be treated poorly again. Hopefully both my gerb and Zylvan gain confidence in humans, maybe Zylvan had a rough start too? Anyways best of luck to you!

[Thin Lizzy]

Hope you're feeling better soon cypher, maybe Zylvan has sensed you're stressed.

[Hamsterita]

Oh! I didn't know that you were ill. I hope you're feeling better now.

how's zylvan doing these days?

[cypher]

Thanks again everyone.

We've gone full circle now!
Zylvan's back in the bigger bin, he was about due a clean anyway so I decided to switch him back at the same time.
The layout is a bit more open than it was initially but he has more smaller hideouts, two houses, the christmas pud & the pumpkin house so he can choose which season he wants to celebrate & a coconut which he loves & a new wooden cheese cube thingy, it was so sweet to watch him popping in & out of that
He didn't seem too upset by the change, a little nervous but after hiding in the coconut for a short while he had a good look around & seemed to enjoy it, when I put my hand in he gave it a good sniff all over then just walked round it fairly calmly without looking as though he felt trapped & panicky like he did in the smaller bin so I'm hopeful he'll do better in there & now the smaller bin is familiar & has his scent on it I'll use that as a taming bin but give him a day or two to settle again first probably. Whether the taming bin will get him all nervous again I don't know but I'll persevere one way or another & figure out what will work best for him.
He obviously wasn't holding the change against me this morning when I spotted him sitting in his wheel munching something & went to talk to him & he raced to the mesh to greet me & grab a treat, he never stays out for long in the morning, just grabs some food & goes back to bed but he did seem a little more relaxed, fingers crossed it stays that way & just gets better now.

[Thin Lizzy]

Maybe Zylvan being in the smaller bin made him realise how much he missed that extra space and I'm glad he's enjoying your new layout. Love that he raced to the mesh to greet you that's total bliss.

[BorisPasha]

It's lovely when they sit on your hand and have a good sniff Sounds like he's settling well in the bigger bin, fingers crossed his confidence keeps growing.

[cypher]

Zylvan still seems to be enjoying the space in the bigger bin, still very nervous but he does appear to be a bit calmer & is enjoying exploring more too, at least he has a bit more to do now.
I was putting flowers, leaves & herbs in the cages yesterday, something I only do every few weeks generally so a new experience for him, I thought he was fast asleep buried in his house but it only took him a couple of minutes to appear, have a good look & then he sat there nibbling on some of it, looked so sweet as though he was in a colourful garden!
They had apple yesterday, a very rare treat, I offered him a tiny piece & he sat there nibbling away while I held it for him
Taming & gaining his confidence is going to be a long slow process I'm sure but that makes the good moments all the more special & rewarding

[BorisPasha]

That sounds really lovely Cypher, I can just imagine Zylvan sititng there in his garden Are the flowers, leaves and herbs something you put together yourself?

[Hamsterita]

Wow with garden festivals and apple treats he's going to forget about his trust issues soon, I'm sure

Next time I would like you to take a photo of the flowers and the herbs in the cage. It sounds interesting and I really would love to see how they look

[cypher]

I do have quite a collection!
I have a bag of mixed flowers I got from Mixerama but mostly I use loose ones, whole marigold, cornflower & chamomile flowers, sunflower petals & rose petals, herbs vary but usually a bit of echinacea, plantain, dandelion, nettle (not usually all at once & only a tiny bit) & I give them birch leaves too.
Ratrations do some nice flowers & mixes.

Hamsterita I'll do that next time, they're all mixed in with the substrate already this time! Lots of digging & exploring been going on

ETA I forgot to mention I always put flowers, herbs etc in the freezer just in case of bugs!