Hamster Exploring My Bedroom

Annabel · 03-16-2019, 12:20 PM

Hey, i'm owning a winter white russian dwarf hamster named Henri for almost a month now and he's already very tame. Everytime i open his cage, he climbs up on my hand and we play every evening when he's awake. The thing is, by the time he wants to explore my room more and more. He doesn't want to just crawl on my lap like he did in the first week. So today, i just cleaned my whole bedroom, making sure it was safe for my hamster to play around. The moment i opened his cage, he immediately went out and explored my whole room while running really fast, but he comes everytime i put my hand on the ground and call his name. My question is, is it actually okay to let him out in my bedroom like that? Or is it too stressful for my hamster? But everytime i put him back in his cage, he keeps wanting to come out and play.

ps. i secure my room by locking the door and my room isn't big.

mangoandmimi · 03-16-2019, 06:51 PM

It is fine but especially for a dwarf it needs to be 100% escape proof. No wires, no small gaps to squeeze in or under - includes built in furniture and under beds. When I free ranged my hams I also blocked all sockets and made sure it was vacuumed too. If it is not 100% escape proof you could also make a very large playpen almost the size of the room which would be a bit safer really. Some hams love coming out for play time others not so much, if he seems happy with it then it’s fine to continue.

alpacassei · 03-16-2019, 08:58 PM

As long as you’ve 100% hamster proofed and you watch him the whole time, its fine. My Mishka liked to free roam a lot too

Pebbles82 · 03-18-2019, 03:31 PM

The others have said it all really. The only thing I would say is your hammy may be less interested in being handheld tame if he free roams a lot. So it's important to keep up some handling as well. Our Syrian has been free roaming in the living room for a while now. I start him off on the sofa and have a bit of interaction with him first and he fairly soon starts climbing down the sofa onto the floor and he's off.

After his roaming session I have him back on the sofa for a while and he eats something from my hand before I put him back in the cage. I think they love to run around freely but can get a bit untame if not handled as well.

Also you need to observe him constantly - they can run up curtains to the top and drop - all kinds of things! You need to check the room carefully for any holes in floorboards or walls - assume that's fine anyway