My New Hammie - Weekly journal

[Yzma]

I thought some may find it interesting to read about the taming progress and things. I also wanted to make a journal on here for benefitial reasons. This way, I hope, people can quickly correct me if I'm making a mistake. Any comments, opinions or suggestions are very welcome! I'll try to get some pictures up here too, if I ever manage to take any good ones xDD So, over to business:

ENTRY 1: FIRST WEEK
DAY 1:
- Bought hamster equipment, treats and toys for several hundred pounds. Realized a lot of the things are unsuitable for hamsters. Banished bad stuff to the corner of my closet.
- Bought Yzma at the local pet shop. Was told she was born 17th of December, is a female and is most likely a Campbell's. So far I have no reason to doubt this information, but have yet to check her sex for myself.
- Chose Yzma for her energy and fearful attitude towards me. She was the only hamster not in hiding, and she came up to me immediately.
- Started handling Yzma from day 1 (in retrospect not the smartest thing I could have done). She never showed signs of fear (though seemed stressed the first days), but nibbled lightly.

DAY 2:
- Started wearing gloves on day 2. Yzma bites right through them.
- Joined an amazing hamster forum (can anyone guess which one I'm talking about? ;D)
- Found out she loves tiny pieces of potato cake. (Scandinavian thing, not actually a cake).
- Kept handling her for 30 - 60 minutes a day.

DAY 3:
- Replaced the thin gloves with some thicker ones.
- Let her roam around in my room, inside her ball, for the first time. She seems to enjoy it.
- Gave Yzma some me-scented toilet paper.

DAY 4:
- Found Yzma nesting with the me-scented toilet paper in the morning.
- Yzma's nerves seems to have subsided, and she now explores every part of the cage and seems comfortable with all her toys. She has also gotten a more normal behavior, such as sleeping at night, taking sandbaths, and she has stopped gnawing on the cage.

DAY 5:
- Yzma's biting has almost come to a complete stop. Her tiny nibbles does not hurt at all (I barely feel them).
- Managed to take Yzma out of the cage without gloves for the first time.
- Bought some new things for Yzma at the local pet shop. I think I found her favorite food: round balls of apple and pelt. She will not stop eating them.
- Bought a nesting/hiding place out of straw for Yzma. She won't go near it, same as her other house. She either nests or sleeps in her tube, or more often, in the corner of her cage.
- After much deliberation bought a new cage from Amazon. Am currently awaiting its arrival. Also bought some "boredom breakers", a silent spinner and some toys.

DAY 6:
- Yzma has retreated into her tubes and would not come out for the entirety of the day.
- Was so worried I stayed awake until 3am, and checked that she seemed fine when she finally came out. (I know they are nocturnal, but she usually comes out at 11pm, and is awake for short periods during the day).
- Handled her once before going to bed. She drew blood for the first time. I should have retreated as soon as she started nibbling.
- Started wearing gloves again (on one hand, so she will get used to my scent, but I can still hold her with the gloved hand if she bites again)

DAY 7:
- Made sure the local vet can handle dwarf hamsters in case of emergency. Apperantly, small animals and rodents are her speciality. She lives 50 meters down the road. How convenient
- Yzma bites harder than ever. After a bit of handling, she stops, and I can take the gloves off, but this is worrying me. Have only handled her once a day since yesterday.
- Let her roam around in her ball again. Got stuck under my bed. I had to crawl under to get her out.
- Recieved package from Amazon. Got excited. It was only the boredom breakers.
- Realized she loooooves small apple pieces.


(Sorry about the focus. My camera WILL NOT FOR THE LOVE OF ANYTHING HOLY, focus on anything close up. Will try it on manual focus next time.)

[Thin Lizzy]

What a great thread! Looking forward to the updates.

[cypher]

Great to hear how you're getting on, it's still very early but you're doing well with her, keep it up!
Progress seems to be a bit one step forward one step back with the biting, I'm wondering why that might be but I'm really not sure!
I'd be careful with the free roaming on the bed, if she does get away like that & you have a job to catch her it's really stressful for both of you & can set things back a bit.
Go easy on the apple treats! It does seem a shame when she obviously likes them so much but dwarfs really shouldn't have much fruit, try tempting her with some veg like broccoli & cucumber to see how she enjoys those.
Well done for checking out the vet, you really lucked out there, hopefully you won't need her but it's good to know you have a vet like that so close.
Looking forward to hearing how she gets on in the new cage when it arrives now!

Even blurry photos can be very cute & that one certainly is!

[Yzma]

Thank you, guys! I am a little aware of the apple treats. I gave her one ball to see if she likes it, and she definitively does. I think I'll give her one in special occations, like when I am changing the cage later on
I tried to give her some cucumber, but she wouldn't even try a nibble. Just smelt it and walked off. I am going to try with some other vegetables too, but I heard even that is bad in big amounts?
I don't actually let her roam around on my bed. Did I write that? o.o She's only loose on my bed when she jumps off my hand, but I quickly put my hand in front of her and she walks on it and there has never been a problem. She only roams around without my hand whenever she's in her hamster ball.
I too wonder about the biting. My grandma says it's because she realized I'm not a threat now and is getting cheeky, but I highly doubt that xD She was never scared to begin with, and surely she'd bite more if she was scared xD I do know that out of all the pet rodents, hamsters are probably the worst biters, so I am just going to be patient with her. Might take months for her to stop, but I'm sure she will eventually
The vet is actually a great friend of ours as well, so I'm sure she will help even if I just have questions. Makes me feel a lot safer
Oh, and I will definitively put up another entry when her cage arrives to let you all know how she is adjusting to it and liking it

[Yzma]

Also, I wrote that entry laaate, and now I'm picking up on some weird, stupid mistakes xDD

1. I picked her because she was fearLESS, not fearful xDDD
2. She has adjusted to sleeping during the DAY, not night xD

[cypher]

Ooops sorry about the free roaming bit I misread what you said!
You're right too much veg isn't good but a little piece of something each day is good, they all have such different tastes you have to experiment a bit to see what they enjoy though.
I thought you meant sleeping in the day somehow!
Thinking back to when Mickle was a baby once she'd stopped biting from fear or cage aggression & was getting quite tame she did occasionally give me a nip when I was handling her although she didn't appear stressed at all just a bit over excited so maybe your cheeky girl is doing something similar!

[Shannonmcn]

This is a great idea for a thread

[Yzma]

ENTRY 2: A NEW HOME
BUILDING
- Massive cage is massive (100 x52 cm).
- Emptied an entire 25 kilo bag of substrate. Replacing that every week will be expensive...
- Added bedding from the previous cage.
- Spent forever trying to arrange the shelves and everything.
- Made sure everything was clean.
- Added new toys that did not fit in the old cage + a silent spinner and a hammock.
- Sand papered the wooden house that came with the cage, because I was worried about splinters.
- Could not fit the two straight ladders like on the picture. They would just overlap. As a perfectionist, this is bugging me quite a bit...

DISCOVERING
- No stress. No fear. She felt right at home. Went straight to eat, clean herself and to nest.
- Yzma is having problems with the steepest ladder. Thinking of moving the shelf lower down.
- Adventured to all three floors in mere minutes.
- Climbed the bars an awful amount before settling down. Never chewed on the bars.
- Settled down and nested in her new toilet.
- Fell quite a bit from high places. Nearly gave me a heart attack each and every time.
- Seems very interested in the hammock, but after trying to jump on it a few times and failing, decided to leave it alone.
- CANNOT turn her silent spinner. Unless I screw it so loose it wobbles an insane amount and almost falls off, she does not have the strength to move it at all. HELP???

INSECURITIES
- What do I do about her not being able to run in her wheel? It's a 6.5'', and looks to be a perfect size for her. Is there something I can do to loosen it, without it wobbling so much?
- Should I lower the highest shelf so the ladder won't be too steep? She can climb it, but slides some times.
- What is a better position for the hammock, that would be easier for her to get to?
- What do I do if she starts nesting in her toilet?
- Is there a better way to arrange the ladders?
- With the wheel on the cage bars instead of a stand, I'm worried I'm creating an escape route for her. Should I put it back on a stand? It seems to wobble more on a stand.
- Is it a good idea to have a small bowl under the water? I thought it might fix the dripping problem, but the bowl is quite deep... hmm...

Please view all attachments, as they help give you a clearer view of what I am dealing with. I will send a picture of anything you guys ask me to. Yzma is currently asleep in her toilet ._.''

P.S. No idea why some of the pictures are turned...

[cypher]

The new cage looks great!
You always need to experiment a bit with new cage layouts to see what does or doesn't work, it's not until you've seen your ham exploring that you can really figure things out.
The ladder does look a bit steep, if you can lower the shelves or make it less steep somehow I think it would be better for her.
The hammock is quite small, maybe you could use more than one? I would arrange the one you have so that a little part of it is actually resting on the shelf so she can just walk onto it from there.
Nesting in her toilet lol! The only answer to that might be to give her a second one to use as it's meant to be! There's no knowing where they'll decide to nest but they do often move nests so she might change her ways!
Not sure what the problem with the wheel is, does it turn ok if you try to spin it? Some of them can be stiff but I've never had that problem so I'm not sure what the answer is as it is the right size for her.
You used a whole 25kg of substrate?! I get 20kg bags & even with 3 cages filled to the top of the base it lasts quite a while! She will love digging in it though so it's worth it. You shouldn't need to replace it every week though, if you can spot clean I wouldn't do a whole cage clean more than once a month or even less.

It is looking really good & she's a lucky ham, great that she's obviously enjoying it so much straight away

[Yzma]

Thank you so much, Cypher!! You have started to feel like my guardian angel xDD
Not really sure what the problem with the wheel is, it's just stiff. It does turn fine when I spin it, but I am considerably stronger than her too. I can see why she is having problems with it.
I will try re-arranging a bit later on, since I don't want to wake her (she has fallen asleep squeezed in between the toilet and the cage wall now...). Thank you again for the great advice!