Mensa hamster or just disgruntled homemaker?

[LucyCaitlyn]

Grayling came home yesterday and spent last night in a temporary set. Honestly not my usual way to do things I just wanted her here with us.
Well today her new home arrived it's a 3 storey cage from EasyPet.
After 2 hours frustration to put it together I finally had everything in situ.
Deep safe shredded paper on the base for burrowing with some of last nights bedding mixed in. A wall mounted wheel and a fleece tunnel hammock.
1st floor has a "Hyacinth" Chinchilla mat on the floor, food bowl and a variety of chewy toys with a clear plastic tube to the basement.
2nd floor is the Penthouse. Her bed is actually attached on the side of the cage and on the opposite side is a clear twisty tunnel leading to the floor below.
On this floor she has faux grass samples, off cut from the hyacinth mat below so she can access the tunnel. A pumice stone heart secured to the bars with sisal. Another fleece tunnel hammock, lots of different chews, another wall mounted wheel, her bottle and an empty food bowl.
I knew that she would rearrange to her liking but what actually happened had me laughing.
I transferred her from her temp digs to her mansion just as I answered a phone call from my best friend in NY. "what's the weird noise? was her opening comment. "That's Grayling hissing, I've just put her in the Penthouse of her new home" told her.
While we chatted and Grayling explored I opened the basement door and added a cardboard box. There was strange grumbling noise and there in the basement was Grayling.
She's 10 weeks old, as far as I know she's never encountered a tube system before and yet she found the entrance, wizzed down to the next floor found the tube entrance on that floor and was in the basement before I even got the box through the door!
She'd only just been put on the top floor and had no knowledge of the other floors.
I was astonished, I've had hamsters a lot of years but never one that learnt this fast.
She checked out the basement all the time grumbling so loudly my friend could hear her
As I tweaked each floor she'd be there even before I got the door open. In the end I stopped because she was making so much noise I was worried I was upsetting her.
She carried on grumbling and rearranging and I carried on my call, silence from Grayling so I looked. She was trying to get a long thin chew stick through her twisty pipe. I broke it in half thinking she'd still never manage it - she did, both pieces!
When she got to the Penthouse she put both sticks in the empty bowl. Then she went up and down each floor selecting things which went into the empty food bowl.
Finally she filled her cheek pouches with food and that went in the bowl too, all accompanied by her steady grumbles.
Finally shattered she slept for awhile. When she woke she checked the bowl before heading to the basement for a wee.
In all my years I've never had a hamster make this noise, or so much noise. She doesn't appear to be at all fearful of me, I've not tried touching her, just let her sniff me.
She's fairly quiet unless she's rearranging her stuff then it's the steady grumble with an occasional hiss.
Once she's had time to settle I'll get photo's.
She's an absolute delight and I'm so glad we found each other

[herbi7]

Haha can we have a pic of her setup and your little grumbly friend? they can be such endearing character s! I think you're going to have fun when you try and clean her out or rearrange her for any reason!

[Pebbles82]

Lol - some of them are quite vocal apparently. Ours is silent! (He's a strong silent male type ha ha). He does stamp his feet occasionally though if he's annoyed.

Yes it would be good to see a pic of the cage. Sometimes they do need a bit of a tweak for accessibility or safety reasons

[flowerfairy]

Sounds amazing. What cage is it? Three floors sounds great.