Meet Stella

[kesaiserris]

Hi!

In August of this year my husband surprised my daughter and I with a female, Syrian hamster. We named her Stella. From day one we were able to hold her.

Stella is brave, confident, and curious.

What she likes
Food! She will eat anything you give her to eat and if you aren't very meticulous in cleaning any crumb she can get her paws on. She especially loves oats.

Climbing and building elaborate, creative nests. If she can't eat it she uses it to adorn her nest. Most of her toys end up demolished in her nest. She often sleeps with the house turned upside down.

Helping like a cat she just plops down in the middle of whatever you are doing or else climbs all over you. So when we are feeding her, changing her sand she likes to check things out. She really seems to get a kick out watching us fill up the sandbox.

Sandbaths

Cuddles only for about 5 minutes before the need to explore/wiggle kicks in when wide awake, when sleepy she will fall asleep in your hand

Dislikes
She doesn't use a wheel except as a nest
When you move her hoarded food or mess with her nest. Aka clean her cage. While she doesn't bite or become upset/stressed when you touch her things she will throw a tantrum afterwards, throwing things all over her cage if you don't put everything back to her liking.

[SKB_Hamsters]

Stella sounds like a very sweet girl.
Looking forward to reading more about her and possible seeing some pictures.

[Pebbles82]

She sounds to be an adorable character Sorry about the fall mentioned on your other thread. Also maybe avoid doing too much in the way of clean outs as it can stress them quite a bit. Full weekly clean outs aren't necessary. You can easily go 3 months if you have plenty of depth of substrate in there, a litter tray, and just spot clean when necessary (take a handful of substrate out and replace it with another one and mix it in). Both our Syrians have been easily toilet trained and use a litter tray - I empty that about every 5 days and the rest of the cage stays clean!

Also don't clean everything at the same time. So the wheel one week, any toys another week and the substrate a different week again - replacing some of the old and mixing it in (I only remove the top half and keep half and mix it in with the new so it still smells familiar). The deeper the substrate the easier this is to do and the less time between clean outs - you also go through a lot less substrate.

Finally - best to leave her nest and hoards alone. Unless they are pee soaked, then try and replace a bit of it that is dry, then put a big pile of new torn up strips of plain white toilet paper out so she can rebuild it. With the hoard, replace any soiled food you've had to remove with new food in exactly the same place.

They are quite clean little things really.

[kesaiserris]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

She sounds to be an adorable character Sorry about the fall mentioned on your other thread. Also maybe avoid doing too much in the way of clean outs as it can stress them quite a bit. Full weekly clean outs aren't necessary. You can easily go 3 months if you have plenty of depth of substrate in there, a litter tray, and just spot clean when necessary (take a handful of substrate out and replace it with another one and mix it in). Both our Syrians have been easily toilet trained and use a litter tray - I empty that about every 5 days and the rest of the cage stays clean!

Also don't clean everything at the same time. So the wheel one week, any toys another week and the substrate a different week again - replacing some of the old and mixing it in (I only remove the top half and keep half and mix it in with the new so it still smells familiar). The deeper the substrate the easier this is to do and the less time between clean outs - you also go through a lot less substrate.

Finally - best to leave her nest and hoards alone. Unless they are pee soaked, then try and replace a bit of it that is dry, then put a big pile of new torn up strips of plain white toilet paper out so she can rebuild it. With the hoard, replace any soiled food you've had to remove with new food in exactly the same place.

They are quite clean little things really.

We haven't tried a litter tray. Are they easy to train? She uses her sandbox sometimes so it does seem like she might take to a box. My 10 year old daughter cleans her cage usually so I am not sure where specifically she has designated her toilet (it's not near the food because I sometimes feed her, I am assuming on the opposite side of her food area). Whenever I do see a poop it is buried down, covered up. We save her nest as much as possible each time, she only ever got upset when my daughter accidentally threw her nest out the first time she cleaned the cage. We don't clean the toys so often and honestly she doesn't go to the bathroom on her toys. She is usually very relaxed about us doing things in the cage and when I clean her cage she usually just hangs out, sometimes sits on my lap even though that makes it harder for me to move lol. Sometimes she even eats calmly while we figure things out. I tell my daughter to put everything back as closely as possible to Stella's specs. I am glad she isn't skittish because I have almost no depth perception so I bump things and you know kids. I will investigate the cage next week with my daughter and see how she is using the toilet and see about reducing the cleanings.

Originally Posted by SKB_Hamsters

Stella sounds like a very sweet girl.
Looking forward to reading more about her and possible seeing some pictures.

I will try to get some photos =) She is a sweetheart. I had two hamsters in high school and I was devastated when they passed so I was nervous to get a hamster because they don't live long and you get so attached to the little guys. Also I tend to get emotional when I see innocent creatures in general.

[CMB]

Stell sound lovely. Hopefully she will learn to love running on her wheel.

[Drago]

Congrats on little Stella! She sounds like a sweetheart. Reminds me of my first ever ham, who was tame almost immediately. Hope she's settling in well, and remember to share some pics

[Turrican]

Aw, Stella sounds so sweet. My last hamster, Crumble was tame from the start as well and it was so great, we all built up a lovely bond with her very quickly. Still miss her! May you have many wonderful times with your Stella x

[kesaiserris]

Originally Posted by Turrican

Aw, Stella sounds so sweet. My last hamster, Crumble was tame from the start as well and it was so great, we all built up a lovely bond with her very quickly. Still miss her! May you have many wonderful times with your Stella x

For X-mas I got a pair of flannel pajamas. She loves them as much as I do. She cuddles up in my lap or hand and her whole body just gets so relaxed. She is like a little hamster blob.