Introducing Roborovskis and any newbie owner advice?!

[Joey123]

Hi, I am new to Roborovskis but in the past have rehomed unwanted Syrians.
I have just found a female Roborovski needing adoption (hopefully getting her today!), it sounds like it is going to be a long , slow process of taming her as she has had little handling so any advice would be welcome.
On reading about the breed they are social so I don't know if I need to be looking for another female so that she has company?
We have a huge glass Ikea detolf cage so she will have lots of areas to hide, dig, sand bath etc.
Any advice would be great so we can give this little one a happy life.

[CMB]

As she has been kept on her own it is best not to introduce her to another robo.

They are known for being hard to tame and more of a watching pet and as she hasn't been held much when young she it likely to be hard to tame, but it's worth trying.

She may be scared of all the space in the detolf. Lots of hiding places, tubes etc can help.

You may want to block of part of the detolf at first to give her a smaller space to get used to. Then expand as she gains confidence.

[cypher]

Hope you get your little robo & well done for taking her on, it sounds as though she may have had a bad start in life & I'm sure she'll be happy to have a new loving home.

I agree with what CMB has said, it's never wise to introduce a robo to another, those that do live successfully in pairs or groups will generally be same sex siblings from the same litter & will never have been apart, to introduce a strange ham would lead to fights.
They live very happily alone & don't need company.

If you can block of part of the detolf to make a smaller space for her it would probably be the best idea, even with lots of hides & deep substrate they can be intimidated by larger spaces, you can then monitor how confident she becomes & how she uses her space before giving her more.

[AmityvilleHams]

A half Detolf housing a robo about 2 inches in length would be roughly equivalent to a 6 inch Syrian in a square meter cage So while it may not seem as nice as having the full Detolf,it is still a very good amount of space for a robo and if necessary could be expanded to a full Detolf over time.

For a sand bath,try and put it on a platform that can double as roof cover.This is good for confidence,and with new hamsters especially dwarf hamsters the more roof cover the better.You can put all sorts of things on platforms,and as long as they're made properly for whatever species will use them they're very good to allow more free digging and hiding space but also prevent a lot of things from getting buried!

[racinghamster]

Well done for taking her. But she MUST stay as a single robo. My advice would be let her do her own thing, settle in, keep her habitat single level with no vertical tubes as robos are fast speed merchants and don`t require height or difficulty. They are funny, happy go lucky little hamsters, so go with her and just enjoy watching her antics. Taming? I wouldn`t bother! Chances are you could end up with her on the floor or worse, injuring herself if she leaps, so as with most robos, just interact with her inside her habitat for safety reasons. I agree too that the Detolf could be rather big for a single robo. Something the size of a Zoozone 1 is ideal. No bars and safe. x