I am an older hamster owner
The first Hamster I had wasn't actually mine - he moved in with me along with a boyfriend. Boyfriend's hamster. Until that time the hamster had been a much loved pet anyway but had a tendency to be a bit laddish. He had witnessed boys parties, had loads of freedom to do whatever he wanted and once jumped into a vat of punch (very wild parties he had) - which thankfully was empty apart from a few drops.
As such by the time he lived with me the hamster was pretty independent and beyond house training! (Hamsters are never really house trained - that was a joke).
He was used to free roaming - he a horrible little 3 tier rotostak of tiny round cake boxes stacked on topof each other with a lookout post on top - for his cage. With nothing in it but some bits of toilet paper for his nest on the base and a lettuce leaf usually. But the door was left open all the time and he came and went as he pleased.
We had a hamster proof living room (solid floors, he couldn't get under the doors) so he continued to free roam. Slept all day, got up about 6 or 7pm and was out and about all over the living room. I got very attached to him. But wished he would sit for a cuddle. If you picked him up to sit on you for a stroke he would have to be off again.
We didn't know about hamster safety issues and he would climb up the curtains and peep his head over the top. Thankfully he never fell.
I realised I loved this hamster when he started following me about (in hindsight I think he decided I was an escape route). I had a long dressing gown and would find myself weighted down at night and in the morning and look round to find he was sitting on the end of my dressing gown having a ride.
Once I didn't notice until I was out of the room and half way up the stairs. He had achieved his mission. Cheeky hamster.
At night we left the door open on his cage still but as soon as we went to bed he went back in his cage and ran in his wheel most of the night. He'd be asleep in the morning. I don't remember what he was fed apart from lettuce (which hamsters shouldn't live on!) I think he foraged a lot of crumbs and maybe my bf gave him some hamster mix as well.
One day he got stuck in his turret on top of his rotostak. His little head at the top of the tube and his body in the tube. We noticed he had a large lump on his neck under his chin and had got stuck in the tube. Freed him and he seemed fine and quite himself and very active. But we took him to the vet where they said he needed an operation to remove the lump - and sadly he never came home.
I cried for days. I had no idea you could love a little hamster like that.
Twenty years later I had a stepson who wanted a hamster - and we have had one every since. So in 2014 we got Charlie - a syrian hamster from the local pet shop. The cages in the pet shop looked a bit small and flimsy. I remembered the amazing rotostak cage and bought another one but it was bigger than our old one with a longer base unit. And a lot of external tubes. Wrong. Hamster care had been well researched and improved by then. We had a book and it recommended about 80cm by 50cm floor area. I cheated and added up the floor area of all 3 units and decided it was big enough.
Our hamster was not happy though - he chewed the few little bars there were, got cage rage. The bottom unit got full of condensation and stinky and he looked depressed and attacked your hand if you opened the lid. So we could only let him out of the second level unit and straight into a ball. Couldn't let him free roam as it was an old house with floorboards and holes all over the place - plus a clumsy child around. He then grew extremely large! And got stuck in one of the tubes.
That was it - I had already fallen in love with this little creature - head over heels - and went online to find out more about hamster cages. Came across a lot of information (and this site) and overnight ordered an 80 x 50cm cage (theSavic Mickey 2XL which is basically the same cage as the Hamster Heaven but narrow bar spacing). I wanted the narrow bar spacing as I was worried about mice in the old house as we did get them occasionally. The narrow mouse bar spacing was to keep any stray mouse out!
Next mistake was to move him straight into the new cage (a completely different environment- more space and ventilation) cold turkey. He completely freaked and sat and shook nervously for days. By then my partner had fallen for the hamster as well and we spent our evenings worrying about him. Put a blanket over the cage so he felt less exposed. He still sat and shook. Partner suggested maybe we should move him back to his old cage - but couldn't really as he didn't fit in the tubes.
I had some wonderful help and advice on here and understood it could take a good 2 weeks for him to settle into his new cage and I hadn't moved his old bedding across so it was a massive culture shock.
We stuck it out. He shook a bit less but was scared to come out of his house. Then on day 10 suddenly he was a different hamster - he loved his cage! He was almost smiling. His body language was completely different and he had a whale of a time in his cage. He used to run very fast on his (now large wheel - I did think the other one must be too small as he was huge in it and running very bent which didn't look comfortable - and found my instincts were right). So he would run very very fast and then jump out on the mass of substrate and just kind of chill and relax there and look all happy. Then he'd do it again and again.
So when Charlie died about a year ago, we had a big hamster shaped hole in our hearts and now have two more. Newt another Syrian - a lovely boy who is a pedigree from Souffle on here. And Nugget who is a roborovski hamster and now has the Savic Mickey2XL that Charlie used to live in.
Charlie was a completely different hamster to "my" first one. Large, lazy and a bit neurotic and very picky. But we tamed him (again with a lot of help on here) and he was lovely and snuggly and liked being stroked behind his ears and would even go to sleep on my lap under a blanket - depending whattime of night it was. He was a bit of a home bod and didn't like coming out of his cage much so we tempted him out every night. Once out he enjoyed himself and would also sit between us on the sofa.
Newt, our current syrian is a different personality again -much more active but very placid and adorable - also very funny. He is an avid digger and eats like a hoover - never seen a hamster hoover up so much food so fast.
Nugget the robo isn't hand tamed - I just didn't get the time and he is so little and fast and nervy. I have conversations with him but he is a "look don't touch" hamster really. I adopted him from an unwanted litter locally. He has never liked hands. Robos are notorious for being hard to hold and tame but I didn't really try hard enough - had a very busy year. Newt was already tame when he got him and soon got used to being handled by any of us.