Bosse the burrower's detolf - need suggestions!

[Bosse_Hamsterdam]

Hi,

This is my first entry in this forum, but I've been reading for a while. It's been a great place to learn from!

My syrian Bosse moved in with us two weeks ago, and is currently seven weeks old. He is quite shy, but I've had some progress with taming him and he now takes treats from my hand and happily sits next to my hand grooming. However, he likes to burrow and he stays burrowed in his deep carefresh bedding throughout the day and doesn't come out until midnight, which makes taming challenging because of how very tired I get...

Now, on to his cage. Here is the current setup:
bur.jpg

So his "nest" is in tunnels in the carefresh on the right. During the night he moves all over the cage, and he recently started using his sand bath as a toilet, both for pee and poop. Such a nice hamster that way! If only he would wake up earlier...

So what I like about this setup:
1. He can burrow which he obviously enjoys tremendously
2. He likes to sit and groom under his bendy bridge once he comes out of his burrows
3. The sand bath is very popular
4. He seems to enjoy climbing under and over the vine
5. The ikea Knuff is a great platform for his food and water dish, they never get any bedding in them

And what I would like to improve
1. The little house next to the Knuff is pointless, I don't think he's been in there even once. Also, I don't think the opening is 7 cm. I stupidly got it at the pet shop because it looked so nice.
2. He needs some tunnel in the middle of the cage, there isn't enough shelter there (even though he happily walked out there the other day to take a pumpkin seed from my hand!)
3. I really would like to just squeeze more stuff in there and also add more hemp bedding (I only had a small 20 L bag when I made this setup), but it needs to stay away from the wheel.
4. There is no way of cleaning out his food stash or spot cleaning in the carefresh without disturbing his burrows and messing with his safe place, which I'm reluctant to do.

I just got my order from Rodipet with a cork tunnel. I order the size M which is 8-12 cm diameter, and I got the biggest possible, 12 cm (almost 5 inches) inner diameter, and 20 cm (8 inches) long.

And I got the Rodipet easy clean terra ceramic burrow.

rodipet.jpg

Now how should I use these to improve the cage? Do you have any ideas or suggestions?

I'm thinking that I should probably avoid making any big changes for now, since he is still settling in, but for the future?

And is there something I should change right away?

Thanks in advance from Bosse and his very sleepy human slave.

[emma_teddy]

this is an amazing setup! i'd love to get a detolf but we just don't have space.
yes, i'd definitely wait a bit to rearrange or do any cleaning, since he is still settling in. because your cage is so large, you probably won't have to clean very often, especially if he's using the sandbath as a toilet. you'll probably never need to do a full clean, at most just a half clean, but certainly not for a while yet.

with the cork tunnel, i've seen people put them where their bedding slopes down? like as a kind of divider, but it seems that you have the Knuff there so i'm not sure if that would work. also if you want to create more space to add more things, you could get a larger sandbath and put the wheel in the sandbath. then you also wouldn't have to deal with getting bedding in the wheel (don't know if that's a problem for you but it is for me lol).

and i don't think there is anything you should change right away, your setup looks really good!

[Bosse_Hamsterdam]

Originally Posted by emma_teddy

this is an amazing setup! i'd love to get a detolf but we just don't have space.
yes, i'd definitely wait a bit to rearrange or do any cleaning, since he is still settling in. because your cage is so large, you probably won't have to clean very often, especially if he's using the sandbath as a toilet. you'll probably never need to do a full clean, at most just a half clean, but certainly not for a while yet.

with the cork tunnel, i've seen people put them where their bedding slopes down? like as a kind of divider, but it seems that you have the Knuff there so i'm not sure if that would work. also if you want to create more space to add more things, you could get a larger sandbath and put the wheel in the sandbath. then you also wouldn't have to deal with getting bedding in the wheel (don't know if that's a problem for you but it is for me lol).

and i don't think there is anything you should change right away, your setup looks really good!

Thank you so much for your great suggestions! I will definitely look into getting a larger sandbath and putting the wheel in there.

As for the Knuff, it doesn't have to be right there, and also since it came in a pack of 2, I may take the second one and make into a slightly different design.

I would really like it if he would hang out in a nest instead of deep down in his bedding. If he did, I could coax him out with delicious-smelling treats So I would really like it if he'd move into the ceramic burrow one day..

Also, if anyone has something encouraging to say about the late nights , it would be highly appreciated. Something in the line of "my hamster also woke up late in the early days but now he is always up by 8 pm", that would be very encouraging

[emma_teddy]

my hamster when i first got him took some time to get his sleeping schedule figured out. the first few days he would get up super early, around 7-8pm, sleep around 1am, and get up again until 6-7am. this started growing a bit later, to where he was getting up around 9-10pm and staying up until 6-7am. keep in mind my basement was cool in temperature and that does affect their sleeping habits.

i have had him now for 8 months (i believe he is around 10 months to a year old) and his current sleeping is he is up at around 9pm and goes back to sleep around 7am. something like that (i'm rarely awake that early in the summer lol).

your hamster will probably end up changing their sleeping patterns a few times. it depends on the temperature of your room as well.

[Dalis_mum]

Edison changes his sleeping habits per the season. Being mostly nocturnal means they wait until dusk/sunset. Don't be surprised if, as we move into the shorter days of autumn if your ham starts getting up earlier. Don't be discouraged however if come may/June next year you feel like he is avoiding you, it's nothing personal, it's just too light. One way to try counteracting it that I haven't tried is a good pair of blackout curtains.

[Bosse_Hamsterdam]

Thanks for your encouragement! Bosse actually started to get up slightly earlier, around 11 - 11:30 pm, which is better than after midnight. I'm hoping for even more improvement as he gets more confident.
Also, I exchanged his old house which he refused to even go into (if I put food in there he would just streeeeetch to reach it and then back out) for the terracotta burrow, which he seems to like a lot more. Although I doubt he will ever sleep anywhere but in his own deep bedding burrows

[Bosse_Hamsterdam]

Here's the cage with the burrow instead of the house:

IMG_7791.jpg

Sorry for the dark image, but I'm waiting for Bosse to come out and he really likes it dark.