Get or Avoid? - Page 5

SandyT · 01-21-2019, 10:07 AM

I'm tempted to go to the 'darkside' and just buy one from P@H rather than adopt. Apparently the one that had suspected wet tail has been sold!
Serendipity, part of the reason I got the tile was to keep the claws down but I'd never forgive myself if the ham fell on it. I have seen a pic of yours, is that in your Syrian's cage?
I do indeed have 2 water bottles, one each side. I don't want the hemp to get soggy but I certainly don't want to endanger my future ham. Would a terracotta saucer work maybe and less dangerous?

Pebbles82 · 01-21-2019, 10:44 AM

I think it looks ok as there isn’t much height between the house roof and top of the cage and the slate is flat but if you are worried about it you could wait till the hamster is in there and see how he is. If the slate was on top of the substrate I’d say it was too far to fall onto but not on top of the house.

SandyT · 01-21-2019, 01:46 PM

I went to the dark side!!
Do I leave her alone completely or can I talk to her and sit by her cage? She is a bit nervous, understandably but very inquisitive too.

cypher · 01-21-2019, 01:56 PM

Congrats! What a lovely sweet face

I always talk to mine, if they get nervous I just do it for a short while to begin with.

Pebbles82 · 01-21-2019, 02:23 PM

Oh my goodness look at that face! She is gorgeous. Yes leave her alone in the cage for 2 or 3 days and talk to her gently - so she gets used to your voice and her name. Don’t change or move anything in the cage now for a couple of weeks. If she is showing clear signs of wanting to come out you could have her out in a playpen area or the dry bath tube with a tunnel or two (not ones from the cage - kitchen roll inner tube slit down the side is fine). Her face - she looks like she’s won the lottery - I bet she loves the cage.

She’ll need a day or two to decide what’s what and where to build her nest and to scent mark. You may here a lot of banging and scratching in her house tonight. No idea what the do but they seem to make a racket when they’re preparing a house for a nest - maybe testing the walls and scratching their name on the wall

Pebbles82 · 01-21-2019, 02:25 PM

You could empty the litter tray after 5 days to a week if she uses it but if it doesn’t smell or you’re not sure where she’s peeing I would leave things.

SandyT · 01-21-2019, 05:19 PM

Thank you.

I'm so excited to have her. I'm calling her Marnie. When the woman first opened the cage, Marnie reared up and bared her teeth and the other employee said I wouldn't bother. I was a bit nervous but knew it was just because she was scared. She was such a sweetie though when I held her and I knew she was for me.
Her cage looks so small now she's in it, I wouldn't mind but it's a Savic Plaza (all be it a different base) so I thought it would be nice and big.
I already have worries though!! Earlier, she climbed behind her wheel to get from one shelf to the other. Little monkey. Also, there's a small gap between her house and the base of her cage and she loves going in there, she burrows out of her house that way and I'm scared she'll get stuck.
The water bottles are dripping so I definitely need something under them, the one may have stopped since she had a drink from it. Do you think a thoroughly cleaned metal lid would be ok under it?
The shop assistant didn't give me much food, saying you can just swap them, they don't have sensitive stomachs. I thought, I'm sure that's not the case. She didn't really give me a chance to buy any either. I've got Burgess and one of Silver's but I think I'm going to go with Bunny Dream or Dream Expert so I'll have to go and buy some P@H food tomorrow.
I'm sorry for being such a faff, I just don't want to get it wrong. To think, young children are given these animals! I'm a grown woman and am nervous over every little thing!
I did hear some funny noises in her house Earlier, good to know that's normal. Lol. I haven't put her toilet/litter tray in yet as I thought you waited for them to decide and then put it in that place.
Thank you everyone for your help and kind words. I am so happy to finally, it's been a long 6 month wait, be beginning my hamster journey.

mangoandmimi · 01-21-2019, 05:36 PM

Oh how sweet congrats on new little one

Marnie suits her!

Bless her already monkeying around, a bit of climbing isn’t abnormal I’d try not to worry. A lid to catch the water sounds fine, but bottles are a pain so you could just use a bowl to be honest, lots of advantages over bottles. Wouldn’t worry too much about switching the food over as she won’t have been on the original one for long in the first place. Bunny food would be better than those two you’ve currently got too.

I know what you mean about Syrians suddenly making a cage seem small - they’re so active it can’t be helped! Looking forward to hearing more about Marnie anyway

cypher · 01-22-2019, 12:19 AM

Sounds like she's been having a lot of fun exploring lol! It all sounds totally normal though & nothing to worry about, my female Chinese goes into her house that way too but then that's quite typical for a Chinesey!
Any metal or plastic lid should be fine for catching drips under the bottle.
I agree about the Bunny food being a better option, I would go for the expert rather than the basic.

Pebbles82 · 01-22-2019, 02:54 AM

Seem to have just lost my post! Anyway. Was just going to say that actually it could be an issue if she is digging under the house - it looks like the labyrinth rodipet house is it? They can be quite heavy and if she digs under it, it could squash her. So there are two ways round this. Either support it underneath or have it right on the base of the cage directly on the plastic with a thin layer of substrate inside the house - it then is stable and mimics an underground burrow. But then it is much lower down in the cage and a long drop to the roof.

Or - have it higher up supported so she can burrow under out (our current syrian does this too). Rodipet actually sell slot on legs for the house

https://www.rodipet.co.uk/houses/rod...of-houses.html

Or you can stick dowel legs on which is what I did before the rodipet legs were available. I had the back of the house actually resting on the lip of the cage base and "legs" to hold it stable at each side and the front.

I think they were 20cm beech dowels and I cut them down to the right length to match the height of the lip on the base.

I did the dowel legs for our last hamster because I wanted the house roof to be high enough for a shelf and was worried he would dig underneath but ironical he never did - he wasn't a digger.

Our current syrian is definitely a digger and burrower and has the rodipet legs. They just slot on - I did find some of the slots a bit loose and one kept falling off, but that was easily sorted with a bit of tissue paper jammed in the slot.

Photos of the dowel legs below. The Rodipet legs would be quicker and easier because you don't have to take the house out and can do it in situe - the dowels the house needs to be out and the glue to dry for about a day and she may not appreciate that at all!

Meanwhile you could just prop something under two sides (a couple of upside down egg cups maybe) just so it can't fall down.

You're right normally you do wait to see where they pee before adding the litter tray

But if it's the labyrinth house i have (looks a bit like it) I've always found they use the middle back compartment for a toilet as it's nest to the darkest compartment where they tend to nest so I just used to put the litter tray there and they would use. Altough having said that I have recently moved the litter tray to the front right compartment as Newt decided he wanted to hoard in the middle back now instead! So yes see where she pees!

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