Bobby - The territorial one

SleepyMini · 03-04-2016, 08:12 AM

I would like to show you all my little hybrid boy, Bobby!
Bobby is a cute 14 months old hybrid.
His story is pretty sad...I have a rescue project and a good friend of mine (who adopted a rescued girl from my project!) showed me an ad on Facebook,basically this person wanted to get rid of her hamsters, they were all living together, on the same carrier cage (unfortunately on my country 95% of the hamsters live on very small cages and that's one of the main reasons for my project to exist), in one of the photos I saw something really heartbreaking: One of those hamsters was lying on the wheel with a very bad wound on it's head.
I sent a message as fast as possible and found out that one was their mother (they kept the parents with the litter) and I asked if I could have her, unfortunately this person was from far away, so, I had to ask that good friend I mentioned above, to help me with the travel.
When they showed up to my friend, they didn't brought the mother, they said they didn't want to let her go and so, they brought little Bobby instead...well...let's say our rescue was not exactly what we intended, but it can still be called a rescue, since Bobby would probably just be adopted by someone who would just keep him in a small cage.

We found out pretty quickly that Bobby was not the kindest hamster, Bobby doesn't trust people (his previous owner talked about kids playing with the hamsters, so...I am guessing he got scared for life), he screams and bites without any hesitation, after changing him over to a Barney cage, we found out he was also very territorial (probably because he used to live on such small cages with all the others and now he sees himself on such a big home, he will, of course, want to protect it and keep it to himself), personally I decided I wouldn't force him to do anything, I prefer to keep him only as an observation pet than stressing him even more, as I haven't had any progress on the first months, he keeps attacking anything new I put inside his cage, or anything with my smell on it, but I love him to death anyway. <3

Enough talk, have some photos of little Bobby:

CMB · 03-04-2016, 08:18 AM

So cute. Good for you for enjoying Bobby as a looking at only hamster. He has found a good home.

Pebbles82 · 03-04-2016, 09:42 AM

He looks adorable! Although I can see he can be vocal by a couple of those photos! You are doing a grand job and he's lucky to have the Barney cage. Sometimes they take quite a while to get really familiar with a cage. In a few weeks, if you don't change anything in the layout and keep to spot cleaning, he might feel a bit more relaxed. As you say, he might never be very tame, but you never know, with a bit of time and patience. Cage cleaning really stresses them, so if he uses a potty, then mainly just do occasional spot cleans and don't clean everything at the same time - when you do need to do more than spot cleaning, do the substrate at a different time to cleaning the toys and at a different time to cleaning the wheel and try and keep about half of the old substrate that is clean and replace it with the new, mixing it in - so it still smells a bit familiar

Have you tried the tissue trick so he associates your scent with something positive? ie put some sheets of toilet paper up your sleeve or down your bra for a couple of hours, then tear it into strips and put it somewhere in his cage in a pile - he will take some for his nest.

cypher · 03-04-2016, 09:45 AM

He looks lovely, good to know he's having a second chance at the good life with you : )

SleepyMini · 03-04-2016, 10:04 AM

Thank you all for your comments. <3
I've tried a bit of everything, he has been with me for half a year now, the only thing I haven't tried is the tissue trick, never heard of it before, I can try, however, if it doesn't work I really don't mind to just keep watching him, he is really funny to watch, very active little boy, I find him precious, no matter if he will never trust me.
He wasn't been screaming lately though, he is not afraid anymore, apparently.
Thank you for the tip.

Nancy's Hamsters · 03-04-2016, 10:28 AM

Welcome to the territorial Hybrid dwarf rescue club. Seems we have at least 4 members in the club on this forum so far. My little man at least will allow handling though with lots of caution on his part, but he is so territorial he boxes anything new to him and his cage LOL.

So glad to see and read I am not the only soft hearted one here.