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Old 01-13-2016, 07:02 AM   #21
fuzzyfriendly
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Default Re: My sweetie

There. Now she has two water bottles. The living world water bottle holder is a bit big (I have it in the cage since there are no bars on the side) and not that practical as far as changing the water goes, but basically both are working fine now. I plan on checking them twice a day from now on, while changing water in one at a time. She is so cute, if she's not outside of her house when I start changing water, she usually comes out to check what all the ruckus is about and then goes right back inside.

I'm sorry to hear that about your gerbil DrKMcK. It's awful to lose a pet and wonder "What if ...".

I admit I still get very nervous from time to time and keep thinking: Did I forget something? Or have I made a small mistake that could end in tragedy? I guess that comes from the lack of responsibility&no pets in the last decade. I hope my anxiety will lessen after a while.

One more question about the food. She has good appetite as far as fresh food bits go. I gave her tiny bits of broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce in the last couple of days (one type of vegi a day). She ate everything right away. Her poop seems to be ok as well. But I filled her bowl with bunny dwarf hamster mix on Sunday (about two tablespoons) and it's still not empty. She ate most of it. But she left some yellowish seeds and pellets. Should I wait until she eats those as well? Some people say that it's not a big deal if you throw away the pellets, since they don't provide that much of necessary nutrition. Others say that you will get a very picky hamster if you change their bowl before they ate all of it and that even pellets have a great nutritional value. So I'm not sure about what to do.

An hour ago she went in to the bowl, did a bit of a browsing and then went back to her house without eating anything.
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Old 01-13-2016, 07:27 AM   #22
cypher
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Default Re: My sweetie

Glad you got the water bottles sorted, there's always something to get anxious about, I'm not sure if I've become less anxious over the years or just got used to it lol!
I would give her fresh food now, some just won't eat the pellets & while it isn't true that they aren't an important part of the nutritional balance you can't force her & it won't harm her if she leaves some, I've never had a ham eat everything in a mix but as long as they eat most of it they seem to do fine, if she begins to get really picky you may have to leave it longer but I wouldn't worry just yet, she should be ok with what she's having.
Glad to hear she's enjoying her veg too
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Old 01-14-2016, 11:20 AM   #23
fuzzyfriendly
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I got sick and a bit lazy. So the taming process isn't going as fast as it should be. I feel a bit guilty about not taking her out of a cage for the last couple of days, but I think she is doing ok. Active and curious as always. My partner and I are still a bit worried about continuing with our normal lives. We still sometimes try too keep things quiet, but since she came from a family with small children, I am totally sure that our household is not nearly as noisy . There is no point in keeping things too quiet right? I mean she is still young, we should probably gradually expose her to vacuuming, radio and so on? It will probably get even more difficult later on. I'm not saying we should scream around her cage and have the tv on full and so on. But having a conversation in the next room or watching a show after 9 pm in the same room, shouldn't be a problem, right? She usually comes out and rumbles, runs on her wheel or stands on her legs and observes us if we are watching a movie. So I may be over-complicating things once again. Oh and here she is, eating her broccoli

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Old 01-14-2016, 10:39 PM   #24
cypher
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Another very sweet photo!
I don't think you need worry about general noise, with things like vacuuming I always start in another room & slowly begin to move closer to give them a chance to get used to it but otherwise just keep general noise levels normal (it's pretty quiet in my house anyway), if you try to be too quiet I think it just makes it more scary when there is some sudden noise or something gets a bit louder than usual.
It does sound as though she's familiar enough with people not to be too concerned by things going on around her, do try to keep up the taming/bonding by having some time with her out of the cage when you can though, it does need to be quite a regular routine though obviously you can't help it if you get ill.
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Old 01-15-2016, 11:00 AM   #25
flowerfairy
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I am always amazing by how little notice my roborovskis take of any noise.

They always run away from me but happily sit and eat and wash with any amount of noise like hair dryers or youtube!
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Old 01-16-2016, 02:53 AM   #26
fuzzyfriendly
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Agh we are having a bad couple of days. She wouldn't come out yesterday. I hamster proofed one of our rooms to let her run and explore, put a couple of toys on the floor as well, but she just wouldn't come out from her house. She usually spins her wheel at about 9-10pm. Yesterday we stayed up till midnight and she came out eventually but then she kept hiding behind the wheel, under the substrate ... Wouldn't even take food from our hands (but she took it during the night and the food bowl is less full as well).

She might just be having a bad day. I will try again tonight. Or I might have pushed her too far this week. I was actually very surprised that after a week of having her, she was eating food while sitting on my hand. She even tolerated me stroking her while she was eating with my other hand. Now it seems like she decided we need to take a couple of steps back.

She is sometimes quite active in the middle of the day, at about 3pm. Would it be a bad idea to give her a bit of cage-free time then if I am at home?
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Old 01-16-2016, 02:13 PM   #27
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I would certainly give her cage-free time at 3pm if she is up and about. Hope she warms up again.

My youngest syrian, Gopal will often let me stroke him and then suddenly flinch away and refuse contact ... Still utterly cuttely gorgeous though.
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Old 01-16-2016, 09:50 PM   #28
Thin Lizzy
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Default Re: My sweetie

Such mega cute pics!
You and your partner shouldn't need to worry about noise, I do what cypher does with the hoovering, when I get a new hammy, I always hoover in another room so that they get used to it, then when it comes to the room where the hammy is, I make it a quick hoover then gradually increase the time I have it on.
Twinkle wasn't bothered by the hoover when I got her but my telephone - even with the ringer on low, it's still loud but she got used to it.
Both of you need to carry on like you did before you got her, she'll adapt in time.
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Old 01-16-2016, 10:46 PM   #29
cypher
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Default Re: My sweetie

It can be a bit hard to know what sets them back sometimes, just let her guide you though, if she's up & about & seems ready to come out then go for it, my dwarfs are often up & out in the day, whatever suits them really!
Go easy on things like cleaning if she seems a bit unsettled & leave the cage alone as much as possible until she's back to her previous level of tameness.
It can often be a two steps forward one step back process, who knows what goes through their little heads but it's nothing to worry over.
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Old 01-18-2016, 10:43 AM   #30
fuzzyfriendly
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Hi guys, thank you all for your kind responses. I think we are back on track. We had two more sessions outside the cage. Little escape artist manages to find a hole in my floor plan every time. Today she climbed 30 cm of towel (vertically! in a second!) that I have put between box and wall to fill the tiny gap between them. So I scooped her up and shortened the playtime to 5 minutes, just to figure out a new plan for tomorrow . Probably a piece of carton will do. Luckily she is quite calm when I'm holding her with both hands, peeking around mostly

Is it possible that she is not really enjoying her time outside the cage? How do hamsters look like when they seem to be enjoying time outside the cage? Or even: how does a happy hamster look like? Darn here I go with my stupid questions once again.

Basically she climbs all over us, and runs around the room like crazy. Looking for escape? Basically checking every corner every time she comes around an trying to climb up the walls. She did this yesterday for about 20 minutes. Slowed down for about 5 sec to clean herself a bit. I've put toys (tunnels, wooden toys, some books, a small cardboard box) and some food on the floor. She ignored everything, even the tunnels that she likes in her cage. I've put some close to the wall in case she didn't like the open space, but it made no difference. I will try using the bath, maybe even tomorrow. But I'm afraid she will somehow manage to pull out the plug and try to go down the drain or something that I haven't foreseen. Another plan that I have is just to buy enough of tunnels to connect her cage from the topwith a big cardboard box (filled with other objects). That way she could return to her cage anytime during play session. What do you think?
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