Is she just worn out?

[Amys_Mum]

So we picked up a new hamster from the pet shop earlier. She's 3.5 months old, had been in the shop a while, and we decided she deserved a new home.

She spent a long time exploring her new cage, from about 5:30 when we got her home to about 7:30 when we had dinner, she was running about, up and down the levels, running in the wheel, digging in the sand, going through the cardboard tubes, climbing the bars (and getting stuck) - basically checking out every nook and cranny.

She's in my daughters room, and when my daughter has done to bed just now, the hamster is sat in the corner of the shelf curled up in a little ball, almost as if she's dropping off to sleep. There are three more cosy places she could have chosen, with substrate and tissue and paper, so this seems a bit odd.

Is she poorly? Or could she just be so worn out from checking out her new home, that it's the hamster equivalent of falling asleep on the sofa?

[souffle]

It is quite common for a young hammy to do just that when they move to a new home. They ofter tire themselves out on the wheel too. I think she will be just fine when she gets things organised to her liking and settles down. I wouldn't clean her out for a good long time to get her scent around everything. Spot cleans are fine for a youngster like this.

[Drago]

I agree with souffle, it sounds perfectly normal! My young hamster, Chance, likes to do the same thing. In fact he almost never sleeps in his nest area and often sleeps in very uncomfortable looking spots. Enjoy spending time with your new ham!

[Amys_Mum]

Thank you for the reassurance! Harvey started in a tiny cage and nested in the tubes at first before moving to the house, so I was a bit surprised Adele didn't want to be more sheltered.

I've just checked again and she's buried herself in the substrate! I had another panic as the house had ended up sunken and I thought she was trapped underneath it - totally forgetting that hamsters can burrow! She must be so confused, poor thing.

Thanks for the advicd about cleaning Souffle. She's in a Barney cage so I don't clean the whole lot, usually just the worst bits once a month and spot cleaning on top of that. Hoping I can potty train her once she's settled - she seems to like the sand bath.

[Thin Lizzy]

When I got Harvey, he ran on his wheel non-stop. As long as he's drinking plenty he'll be fine.
Avoid any cage clean for at least 3 to 4 weeks, let her mark her cage and settle.
Spot checks in her toilet area every couple of days will be fine.

[Pebbles82]

I bet she's having a grand time burrowed down in the substrate Re the house - you could either push it down a bit further, so it's partly submerged in substrate and too low for her to burrow under - and then either put a tube or tunnel down to the entrance, or just scoop a kind of entrance out of the substrate. Or you could have it sitting on top of the substrate and stick little dowel legs on it

I had quite deep substrate in Charlie's Barney cage and wanted the house sitting on top so it made another shelf that was high enough up, so I stuck legs on the house. He loved burrowing down inside it. It's a bit of a fiddle sticking legs on, I just had a bee in my bonnet I wanted to do it (it's what some of the German owners do in their natural tank layouts). I actually sent off for some special glue to do it with! Very good stuff - hamster-safe wood glue. And then just used some 25cm long wood dowels I bought on ebay and cut them down a little bit and glued four of them on the house so it was on stilts. You can get shorter ones - I calculated 15cm plus the height of the house as the dowels were stuck on the side of the house - so it sat 15cm above the base. Enough to tunnel under.

If you went with the idea of pushing it down so it was only sat on an inch of substrate, you could put another shelf over it possibly.

This is Charlie's house with the legs



You need to check the house once in a while, as he did this! On of the legs was in the way of where he liked to burrow under the side of the house But the other 3 held it up ok. I did it so it rested on the edge of the cage base on two sides and the dowels held up the front and sides.



He built this big mound of substrate next to the corner he was burrowed under - partly hoard under it and partly to insulate his sleeping corner I think



They do love rearranging substrate and making mountains out of it.

It does sound like the hamster equivalent of falling asleep on the sofa She will have had a mix of excitement and stress at her new home and worn herself out. She maybe hasn't quite decided what she wants to do in the cage yet. It's why it's usually recommended to leave them alone for the first 2 or 3 days to settle themselves in and find a kind of routine . They also like to scent mark everything so they can find their way around.

So don't clean anything for 2 weeks at least. Maybe spot clean a handful in the wee area after a week or so if it gets a bit whiffy. When you find out where she is weeing you could put a potty litter tray in that area with Chinchilla Bathing Sand in. Cleaning will really stress her out if done too soon.

How is she today?

[Amys_Mum]

She's doing really well Serendipity, still burrowing everywhere and showing no interest in actually going INSIDE the house, but she seems to be settling down. She's stopped freezing whenever we walk into the room and has taken a treat from my husband's hand so hopefully she's getting more used to us. We're taking it slowly, nothing has been added or taken out of the cage since she came home (apart from food obviously) so she's getting a chance to put her scent everywhere.