New hamster sleeping in toilet

[Jamieking86]

Hi everyone, new here. Me and my partner bought a Syrian hamster yesterday, we named him/her Frankie as the employer at pet store said he thinks he’s a male but it may turn out she’s female, so we thought of a boy/girl name

Anyway, we have a medium size cage with all necessities, house, a litter tray, water bottle, tube, food bowl etc. Since he got home yesterday he loves sleeping in his litter tray. He’s done a lot of poos in their too, so I think he knows it’s his toilet, but we haven’t seen him sleep or lay anywhere else but his toilet. Is this normal? His litter tray is under a shelf which he can climb on so I’m thinking maybe he feels a bit safer under their as it’s all new to him?

We also have like a banana shaped wooden thing which has cotton wool inside for his bedding, we opened it as it was quite hard so wanted to help him a little, and we noticed he has dragged some of it into his house but we haven’t seen him in their yet. I’ve just put some torn up toilet paper in too as I read this can help them for bedding too, but we’ve just seen him store it in his mouth and he burrowed it in the corner where he can enter his tube. Thanks in advance.

[mangoandmimi]

Has he got a big enough house in there? For a Syrian a good starter house would be a shoe box kind of size, not the little houses that are most common. Best to cut the base out & an entrance, so you can lift the lid off without removing the entire house. Often they won't use houses that aren't big enough or to their liking so you'll need to make sure there's one available. Since he's just moved in try and leave him alone for a few days and best not change the cage too much if you can help it - I'd put the house in now though.

Not sure what banana thing you mean but it sounds like kapok - if it's in that pod it can be very dusty and not good quality so just torn up tissue is better. If it's actual cotton wool material then it certainly needs to go. Shredded tissue is all they really need for nest bedding, just put a pile of it somewhere and he'll make a nest.

It can take them a few days to settle down properly and it's not uncommon for them to sleep in random places at first, he's probably just nervous and should hopefully move into a house soon.

[cypher]

What kind of house does he have & where is it situated in the cage? He's probably sleeping under the shelf as he feels safer there but it may be the house isn't suitable, it does need to be a house with no base on a good deep layer of substrate not on a shelf or anything so he can burrow down under it & make a nest.
If the house isn't right for him the shoe box idea mangoandmimi mentioned often works well for them.

I agree about the kapok, better to just use shredded plain white toilet tissue for nesting.

[souffle]

It will take him time to settle and tame. We don't give baby hamsters tubes or houses they can jam themselves in to as it does stress them trying to get them out for taming. We use a deep substrate and a huge heap of ripped tissue.
You MUST take out any sort of fluffy bedding / cotton wool type bessing as it is very dangerous and can kill a hamster. When they pouch it can get round teeth and choke them and if they swallow any it can block the bowels. The test is to put some in a glass of water and see it it dissolves. If it doesn't it won't dissolve inside them either. If you put cheap loo roll in you will find it just goes in to a harmless paste!

[Jamieking86]

Hi guys thank you for your replys. This is the cotton wool type i mean, it's not cotton wool, its not as thick but it's similar and they have to break the wooden banana to get to it which they enjoy doing, if it's no goood though the toilet tissue idea he seems to love
http://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pe...=32&orderBy=1#

I just don't understand why they sell these products if they recommend them and are potentially harmful for the poor things.

Anyway, since my original post, as the moderators took a long time to approve it, he has now started using his house. He took some shredded toilet paper in their and some of the cotton wool like material and he seems to love it in their now. It certainly isn't the biggest of houses, i think as he starts to grows we will certainly have to replace it, but I don't want to keep disturbing him changing things around as we've only had him a couple of days. We keep trying to give him a treat when he wakes up through the day, getting him to take it out between our fingers to try and get used to our scent etc which has worked so far. Going to give it another couple of days before we try him eating out of our hands and see how we go.

[Emsmum]

Originally Posted by Jamieking86

Hi guys thank you for your replys. This is the cotton wool type i mean, it's not cotton wool, its not as thick but it's similar and they have to break the wooden banana to get to it which they enjoy doing, if it's no goood though the toilet tissue idea he seems to love
http://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pe...=32&orderBy=1#

I just don't understand why they sell these products if they recommend them and are potentially harmful for the poor things.

Anyway, since my original post, as the moderators took a long time to approve it, he has now started using his house. He took some shredded toilet paper in their and some of the cotton wool like material and he seems to love it in their now. It certainly isn't the biggest of houses, i think as he starts to grows we will certainly have to replace it, but I don't want to keep disturbing him changing things around as we've only had him a couple of days. We keep trying to give him a treat when he wakes up through the day, getting him to take it out between our fingers to try and get used to our scent etc which has worked so far. Going to give it another couple of days before we try him eating out of our hands and see how we go.

What type of house did they sell you for him?

[Jamieking86]

Originally Posted by Emsmum

What type of house did they sell you for him?

It came with the cage. Its about 5 inch high and 6 inch long.

[Pebbles82]

Yes that's kapok - not safe. It's just as bad as fluffy bedding, even though natural. It's important to remove it as if swallowed it can cause digestive blockages. Why do they sell these things? Good question. There is no legislation as to what is safe to sell - the only legislation is the animal welfare act which puts the onus on the pet owner to look after them properly.

Plastic houses with a solid bottom aren't suitable as they get condensation and the hamster can't have normal behaviours like burying their hoard under their nest. It means the house needs cleaning out a lot which upsets the hamster and makes them do things like peeing on their hoard to deter people taking it away - and then you have to clean it out even more - it's a vicious circle.

I would just give him a cardboard box house for now - a tissue box with a hole cut for the door would do. Open underneath and sat on top of the substrate, so they can burrow down to keep warm and bury their hoards under the nest.

It's quite important to leave the nest and hoards alone if you can - if they're not pee'd in as it helps them feel secure and can really stress them if they're removed.

So I would keep his nest from the old house - take it out of the house, remove the house and just plonk the new house over the top of the nest

The other thing pet shops tell you is to do a full clean out every week - don't do it! Partial cleans are better and infrequently. If he/she is using the litter tray you can just empty that every few days mainly, give the wheel a wipe as and whend and you can easily go 6 to 8 weeks or more without changing the substrate - and even then best to leave some of the old clean behind so it still smells familiar.

[Jamieking86]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

Yes that's kapok - not safe. It's just as bad as fluffy bedding, even though natural. It's important to remove it as if swallowed it can cause digestive blockages. Why do they sell these things? Good question. There is no legislation as to what is safe to sell - the only legislation is the animal welfare act which puts the onus on the pet owner to look after them properly.

Plastic houses with a solid bottom aren't suitable as they get condensation and the hamster can't have normal behaviours like burying their hoard under their nest. It means the house needs cleaning out a lot which upsets the hamster and makes them do things like peeing on their hoard to deter people taking it away - and then you have to clean it out even more - it's a vicious circle.

I would just give him a cardboard box house for now - a tissue box with a hole cut for the door would do. Open underneath and sat on top of the substrate, so they can burrow down to keep warm and bury their hoards under the nest.

It's quite important to leave the nest and hoards alone if you can - if they're not pee'd in as it helps them feel secure and can really stress them if they're removed.

So I would keep his nest from the old house - take it out of the house, remove the house and just plonk the new house over the top of the nest

The other thing pet shops tell you is to do a full clean out every week - don't do it! Partial cleans are better and infrequently. If he/she is using the litter tray you can just empty that every few days mainly, give the wheel a wipe as and whend and you can easily go 6 to 8 weeks or more without changing the substrate - and even then best to leave some of the old clean behind so it still smells familiar.

Thank you for that we most certainly will do that. Most things we have for our hammy came with the cage, we simply asked the clerk at the store if everything was big enough and good enough for him, the clerk said yes everything is fine. I would have happily spent more on bigger, better things if I'd have known. Luckily we have a tissue box with only a few tissues left in it, so it will be ideal Thank you for your help. We will keep you updated on how Frankie is doing.

[Emsmum]

How big is his cage? Have they sold you one that's big enough?