New hamster breathing super fast and in corner all the time??

[xKat]

Hey I'm a new member of this community

So, yesterday I got my very first hamster from a pet shop. Yes, I know it's better to adopt them, but as I'm 16 and don't live with my parents (I live with my sister, who has no car) It's nearly impossible to adopt one close to where I live.

Anyway, we brought our Russian dwarf home. He looked perfectly healthy! I put him in his cage and it went pretty well. But then after a little while I noticed he was so quiet and in a little corner of his cage. I fed him some mealworms from my hand and he did take them, but went back into his little corner again. He doesn't move a lot or use his wheel at all.

Now, a day later, he's breathing super fast. In the corner he just lays there, looking at me. As soon as I try to pick him up (not even from above) he runs into another corner and hides himself under the bedding.

Is this normal for a new hamster? I've never had one before, so I'm quite worried. Should I take him to a vet or just let him settle in for a bit longer?

[cypher]

Hi & welcome to HC.
If you only got him yesterday & he's clearly still nervous you should really just be leaving him to settle in for a bit longer, it may be that he's breathing fast due to fear but it could also be a respiratory problem, try to observe him without disturbing him at all to see how his breathing goes, if it seems to be rapid all the time then he may need to go to the vet.
What substrate are you using? It's not common but some can have allergies to wood shavings so that could possibly be an issue.
You say he goes to his corner so I'm wondering if he has a proper house to sleep in & plenty of cover in his cage so he feels safe.
You can use a cardboard box with no base & a door cut in one side for a house, give him lots of shredded plain white toilet tissue to make a nest.
Bendy bridges can be used to make more safe covered places for him too.
Don't try to handle him or pick him up yet, just talk to him quietly when you're by the cage but otherwise leave him to settle & he should become more confident & venture out a bit more, then try offering treats either through the bars if you have a barred cage to begin with or just lay your hand flat on the substrate unmoving & let him come to you, go slowly with taming & getting to know him.

[xKat]

Originally Posted by cypher

Hi & welcome to HC.
If you only got him yesterday & he's clearly still nervous you should really just be leaving him to settle in for a bit longer, it may be that he's breathing fast due to fear but it could also be a respiratory problem, try to observe him without disturbing him at all to see how his breathing goes, if it seems to be rapid all the time then he may need to go to the vet.
What substrate are you using? It's not common but some can have allergies to wood shavings so that could possibly be an issue.
You say he goes to his corner so I'm wondering if he has a proper house to sleep in & plenty of cover in his cage so he feels safe.
You can use a cardboard box with no base & a door cut in one side for a house, give him lots of shredded plain white toilet tissue to make a nest.
Bendy bridges can be used to make more safe covered places for him too.
Don't try to handle him or pick him up yet, just talk to him quietly when you're by the cage but otherwise leave him to settle & he should become more confident & venture out a bit more, then try offering treats either through the bars if you have a barred cage to begin with or just lay your hand flat on the substrate unmoving & let him come to you, go slowly with taming & getting to know him.

I bought him a little house to sleep in, but I put it in the second level of his cage, and he doesn't go up there at all. I tried taking the house to put it on the first floor, but he wouldn't leave his corner and as the house is quite big and there are a couple of tubes on the first floor as well, it wouldn't fit anywhere else on the level. I ended up taking a candle thingy, one that you're supposed to put the candle wax on top and a candle on the bottom (can't think of the word) and cleaned it out very well. I put some tissue paper in the hole as nesting material, but he has never gone in it.

As for the wood shavings, I use aspen. In the pet store he was on wood shavings and the woman told me what they used was similar to aspen, and it should be just fine if I used the aspen now.

I really tried to pick out a healthy hamster and I didn't notice anything weird about his breathing, it only started once he was in the cage. I thought, oh maybe he doesn't like his cage. As he has a barred cage here and in the store he was in a glass tank. So I made him an extra 100 cm x 40 cm bin cage with mesh on the top and on one side. I didn't want to pick him up just yet so I tried taking a mug and hold it in front of him, but he didn't move towards it, not even when I put mealworms inside (he seems to love those). So I don't want to move him just yet. I feel like the breathing thing has more to do with stress, because I also notice that whenever I put my hand in the cage it gets even faster.

I'll try to leave him alone for a couple more days, and buy him a bendy bridge instead of the candle holder that I used up til now. The store does offer a free meeting with a vet if something seems to be off in the first two weeks, so if after the first week he's still in his little corner and the breathing still seems to be weird, I'll take him to a vet. Or is that too long to wait?

Thanks for your help anyway, really appreciate it

[cypher]

Cages with levels really aren't ideal & they won't sleep on a level, you may want to think about getting a different cage at some point as they really do need a larger floor space rather than shelves/levels.
The bendy bridge will be much better for him for now anyway, make sure he has plenty of toilet tissue too & he should be happier.
Hope he settles soon.

[Pebbles82]

What Cypher said Actually he could well be allergic to aspen. It is a better substrate than pine shavings, but hamsters can be allergic to any type of wood.

Generally it's recommended to leave them alone completely for about 3 days to settle into a cage and not try to handle them. You can start again with that now, and keep an eye on the breathing. It could just be fear or it could be another cause of breathing difficulty.

If it doesn't improve in the next 24 hours, or gets much worse, then it could be an idea to replace the substrate with a paper one. Carefresh is usually ok. You would need to scoop him out and put him somewhere safe, change the substrate and then pop her back and then start again with the 3 days settling in. You could also try adding something like a shoebox house on the floor of the cage - cut the base out of a shoe box and a hole in the front for a door. The lid can be a lift off roof so you can spot clean and check on him sometimes without needing to remove the house and the nest falling apart (although not at first or he won't feel safe in the house).

How tall is the cage, because heights can be a risk for small dwarf hamsters as well? If you think he is in real distress then it could be a good idea to take him to a vet. Do you have a pet carrier?

[xKat]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

What Cypher said Actually he could well be allergic to aspen. It is a better substrate than pine shavings, but hamsters can be allergic to any type of wood.

Generally it's recommended to leave them alone completely for about 3 days to settle into a cage and not try to handle them. You can start again with that now, and keep an eye on the breathing. It could just be fear or it could be another cause of breathing difficulty.

If it doesn't improve in the next 24 hours, or gets much worse, then it could be an idea to replace the substrate with a paper one. Carefresh is usually ok. You would need to scoop him out and put him somewhere safe, change the substrate and then pop her back and then start again with the 3 days settling in. You could also try adding something like a shoebox house on the floor of the cage - cut the base out of a shoe box and a hole in the front for a door. The lid can be a lift off roof so you can spot clean and check on him sometimes without needing to remove the house and the nest falling apart (although not at first or he won't feel safe in the house).

How tall is the cage, because heights can be a risk for small dwarf hamsters as well? If you think he is in real distress then it could be a good idea to take him to a vet. Do you have a pet carrier?

Update: the hamster is fine I left him alone for a couple more days and he started feeling more comfortable in his cage. I put the house on the bottom floor. I also attached an extra bin cage to his main cage as I did think it was slightly too small. (I saw old youtube videos saying 360 sq inches was a great size :c) The breathing thing was probably because he was scared, because i haven't changed the substrate and he's doing great again.

I do have a DIY mini bin pet carrier, just in case is comes back. The cage is about 70 cm high because of the levels. He doesn't use the top one, just the bottom and first floor. I do have toys hanging down so if he does go to the top floor and falls he will be able to hold onto it.

[Pebbles82]

Glad he has settled down 70cm is way too tall for a hamster cage. They can fall between shelves if they monkey bar across the roof (and we don't see what they do in the middle of the night) and aren't good at grabbing onto things so it could be a long drop or bouncing off the edge of the shelf and they can get injured. You could put a full level in maybe as that's the only real way to make a tall cage safe, but it would mean a bit of diy.

Where did you get the cage? Some people have had success asking for a refund and taking it back after a new, more suitable, cage has arrived. If you haven't had him long there's a good chance of trying - just say it's not suitable and too tall for your hamster. Depends where you got it from possibly.

If you do manage to, then the Alaska cage from Zooplus is very reasonable at about £33 and is a good cage for a Syrian, without needing add-on bins and cages. Although with you mentioning 360 square inches I'm guessing you might be in the US? In which case it might be better to just make one large enough bin cage rather than an add-on bin.