Pepsi came home

SlavicaK · 04-08-2018, 10:57 PM

We picked up Pepsi, a 6 week old Syrian boy, from the breeder yesterday. He promptly scampered under the wheel stand and went to sleep. He explored a tiny bit while we were still awake, but didn't like us watching him.

He was up last night, I could hear him running on his wheel between 11 and midnight. We saw him up very briefly when we woke up, he tunneled under the substrate and apparently went to sleep; some of the food had been nibbled overnight, and it seems like he had an explore of the cage. With two houses, he seems to prefer to hide under the wheel stand for now. I have no idea where he peed. How often do they pee, anyway?

The breeder had been handling him and his siblings, so hands are nothing new to him. We'll try to see whether we can start taming him tonight - the breeder said not to let him unlearn the taming progress - but he seems quite skittish, scampering into the substrate when he catches sight of us.

cypher · 04-08-2018, 11:11 PM

Congrats!
Pepsi has a lot to adjust to with his new home so it's normal for him to be a bit nervous & skittish but I think the breeders right about not letting him get unused to handling, I would just keep sessions short for the first few days & see how he goes.

RodentLove · 04-10-2018, 08:30 AM

Lol Pepsi. Love the name.
Congrats!

SlavicaK · 04-10-2018, 08:42 AM

Thanks! He found his house and has been sleeping there, eating some, and exercising in his wheel at night. He's still nervous around us, as expected, but we'll keep talking to him and taming outside the cage.

Drago · 04-10-2018, 08:54 AM

Congrats on your new little one! It’s always exciting to have a new ham in the house xx

I’d recommend waiting a few days before attempting to handle. I generally leave all my new hams for 4-7 days before disturbing them at all. After that, I begin talking to them, and allowing them to become accustomed to my scent. Best of luck with your new little one- you should share some pics of him

SlavicaK · 04-13-2018, 12:34 PM

Thanks, everyone! My daughter and I have been talking to him, gave him toilet paper shreds we kept in our sleeves (all of them ended up in his house, where he has started a store as well), and yesterday she hand fed him a peanut in shell. So far he seems a laid back and not very active boy, apart from his wheel running at night. I still can't figure out where he pees.

Today we had a short bathtub session with her inside, just the two of them together. It went well, no issues there, but he nibbled me as I transported him back in a little bucket - I think he was just scared at that point.

Here is a photo from tonight, Pepsi eating cucumber.

RodentLove · 04-13-2018, 02:43 PM

Can't wait for the Pepsi pictures

cypher · 04-13-2018, 11:36 PM

Lovely photo

It sounds as though he's settling in well, it can take them a while to decide on a pee spot & just stick to one place so I wouldn't worry about that.

SlavicaK · 04-14-2018, 02:49 AM

I'm assuming he's eating enough of his dry mix, but it's definitely less than 1 tbsp a day (I measure out a tbsp; a lot of it is left in the bowl, and morsels disappear into his store). I've never seen him drink but he would not be alive now if he wasn't drinking. He has a bowl and a bottle.

The whimzee toothbrush I left on the floor of the cage has disappeared and this morning I could hear gnawing noises coming from inside the house, thanks hamstercentral for the tip!

How do you weigh your hamsters? I was thinking of weighing a narrow tall tupperware container with him in it (and empty) on a kitchen scale.

Pebbles82 · 04-14-2018, 04:44 AM

He is gorgeous. I think you have to play it by ear with taming. On the one hand he needs to have the handling kept up, on the other hand they need time to adjust to new surroundings and are only babies so get scared. I found our baby was too fast to handle at first but he's still lovely and tame now

Sounds like you're doing fine.

Main thing is don't clean him out for at least two weeks while he's settling in as that can set things back - they need to scent mark everything in the cage and feel at home.

They tend to use a certain area as a toilet - usually a corner of the cage. If you notice where that is then you can put a litter tray with Chinchilla bathing sand in there and he should keep using it. If you put the litter tray somewhere else he won't use it!

If the toilet area starts to get a bit whiffy in the first couple of weeks, just spot clean that area/corner by taking a handful of substrate out and adding a new handful and mixing it in so it still smells familiar. That could be the time to put a litter tray in and put a little bit of the smelly substrate on top of the sand so he knows it's still his toilet corner and starts using the litter tray. Then you just empty the litter tray every 5 days or so and the cage should stay clean

That way you really only need to spot clean occasionally and don't need to do big clean outs. I only do a substrate clean after 2 to 3 months with that method, and then still put a bit of the old back that's clean so it still smells familiar, and mix it in with the new. And clean wheel a different week and toys a different week again - so something always smells familiar.

Their number one important things are their nest and hoard, so best not to remove those at all unless they are pee'd in/on - then you have to but put a bit of the old nest back that is dry and put new paper strips out in a heap in the cage so he can take some and rebuild the nest. If it's not pee'd in I leave the nest alone - they get quite upset at it being messed with. Likewise with the hoard. Hoarded dry food can last a very long time. If you have to remove any hoard because it's pee'd on then always replace it with new food in exactly the same place.

They tend to pouch the food from the bowl and hoard it, and then eat from their hoards when they feel like it (eg nap, snack, nap snack without getting out of bed lol).

I put the tablespoon of food in the bowl and leave it 2 days. After 2 days I discard any that's left and put a new tablespoon in. They are funny things hamsters - they ignore old food sometimes and only take new food. But his hoard is really important. There was a hamster recently who possibly starved because he was cleaned out a lot and had no hoard to rely on.

Weighing - I got that down to a tee

Using one of those flat digital weighing scales during taming sessions. You just put it in the bathtub, put a bit of food on it in the middle (eg a small piece of cucumber), zero it and the hamster takes the food and tends to keep sitting on the weighing scales when eating it. Easy enough to wipe the scale top with a disinfectant wipe afterwards.