Pepsi came home

[SlavicaK]

Thank you, Serendipity! I changed his sand bath yesterday - I do believe he urinated in it (some clumps in the lower layers of the sand, but not visible from the top, and smelly). He also has a toilet with sand inside his house, but I'm pretty sure he didn't use that one. He has the rodipet + granit house, so it's quite easy to check the state of the house without disturbing everything.

I took a look at the nest when he was out for the taming session. It was smellier than the rest of the cage, but nothing was obviously wet. I guess the smelliness is expected, he spends most of his time in there. I left it as is, hoard, crumpled toilet paper and all.

I also changed a few handfuls of the substrate from the smellier corner of the cage, put a few new ones in, and mixed it all up.

He was quite loud in the cage last night. The water bottle was leaking this morning, I wonder if the metal chomping noise I heard was him unscrewing the spout or just bar gnawing. Whatever it was, I don't want it to continue.

I tried to weigh him yesterday, but no luck. He didn't go for the yummy mealworms on it, but was quite happy to groom all over for a long time in the tub, quite a feat reaching all of those places, I must say. He also makes it quite clear when he's had enough of the tub - starts scrabbling up the side - so we're getting somewhere in terms of communication.

Oh: and he ate the dandelion flower we gave him yesterday. It's prime time for dandelions around here!

[SlavicaK]

It has now been 15 days since Pepsi has been with us. He is rather calm and quite lazy during the day. Loves mealworms, dandelion roots, whimzee chews, and cucumber! Eats his mix, but doesn't seem to be so enamored of it - about 1/3 Tbs a day, I think, though I also scatter some for him to find in the bedding, so it's hard to know. He's also tried chicken, raspberries, peppers, and dandelion flowers, which were all nibbled, but none with the devotion he shows for mealworms. He's also obviously grown and his skirt is quite pretty.

He exercises a lot at night - I hear that comforting pitter patter from his wheel - but does not bar chew, other than that one night. Two nights ago he dug down deep into the substrate of two of his chambers, and filled the third one full and spilling over with substrate. I guess he likes a sunken nest!

As for taming: he doesn't generally come out until 11 at night, but we do wake him up, slowly and carefully, earlier in the evening, so that we can spend time with him. He doesn't come out for us or take treats from our hands if in the cage, but if I put a jug with a treat inside in front of his house, he will come out and take the treat (and then travel to the bathtub, by jug).

In the bathtub, he promptly poops and grooms. It's amazing how much better a two month old long-haired Syrian looks after a minute of grooming! My daughter sits in the tub with him and he likes sniffing around her and using her as cover; he doesn't mind being petted with a finger or whole palm, but does not like when you try to pick him up. After some 15 minutes, he goes back to his cage by juggy-plane.

On our wish list: we would like him to actually start coming out on his own to spend time with us, but we will have to give him time to decide to do that. Or maybe he'll never be that kind of hamster, who knows?

[Amethyst_ice]

This all sounds like great progress..just be careful with the mealworms..they can easily get fatty on them! x

[SlavicaK]

Thanks, Amethyst_ice! Having been reading around here, we only give him a couple of mealworms twice a week.

[Amethyst_ice]

It's hard to not over indulge them with treats when they like them so much and give you the cute eye