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Old 03-12-2020, 05:19 AM   #1
Hammy_Newbie
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Default New Hamster - hiding, potty training & food

Hello,

2 weeks ago I purchased a hamster for my daughter's birthday and she is lovely but we are hamster newbies and have a few questions!

She is spending a lot of time in the middle of the tube at the moment but I can't prevent her from going in there as there are holes in the cage if the tubes aren't attached (they run outside the cage). Do you think she will spend less time hiding in the tube as she gets to know us? She is only 11 weeks old and very nervous of us. I am not trying to pick her up at the moment as she is so timid but she has eaten from my hand a couple of times.

I would like to try and potty train her but I haven't identified a corner where she is doing most of her business. She seems to do it all over the cage and poos a lot in her nest. I thought hamsters didn't like to defecate where they sleep?! In these circumstances will it not be possible to potty train?

With the food, I understand about replacing fresh food daily but how often should dried food be replaced? Daily or every few days?

She has a shelter with bedding that she used for the first few days but now she has dragged out all the bedding and built a nest at the foot of her tube. I think this is so she is in closer proximity to the tube should she want to dart into it! When I cleaned out the cage I put bedding in both the shelter and the foot of the tube but she has dragged it all to her chosen place, at the foot of the tube!

This isn't really an issue though I would've though the shelter is a more suitable bed as she's pretty much sleeping out in he open at the moment!

Any advice anyone can give would be gratefully received!
Thanks!
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Old 03-13-2020, 11:36 PM   #2
cypher
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Default Re: New Hamster - hiding, potty training & food

Hiding in tubes is a common problem with the cages that have them attached, with some cages you can buy tube blockers which allow you to remove the tube, unfortunately they will often sleep & pee in the tubes which really isn't good for them at all & the tubes make it very difficult & stressful to get them out of the cage too.
If you can't get blockers I would consider getting a different cage, most of that type of cage that come with the tubes tend to be too small anyway.
It can take them a while to settle on one place to pee so it may be better to wait a while & see if she chooses just one spot then try putting a litter tray there.
Poo in the nest isn't unusual & they do eat some of it so don't be in too much of a hurry to clean all that away, it's dry & not a problem to leave for a while.
Dried food can be left for a few days, after that time it's best to replace anything that's still left or you can feed smaller amounts daily.
If you begin to clean the cage too early she will take much longer to settle, apart from spot cleaning any pee you can find it's best not to clean at all for the first month, when you do clean never do a whole cage clean at once, just do maybe a third or a half with a small cage, basically only clean what really needs cleaning which usually isn't that much! Don't use any scented cleaners either, it's very important to keep their scent around the cage as much as possible.
When you do clean try to leave the nest & food hoard alone as much as possible, if you cleaned her house out so soon that may be why she moved out.
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Old 03-14-2020, 06:03 AM   #3
Hammy_Newbie
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Default Re: New Hamster - hiding, potty training & food

Hi Cypher,

Thanks for the advice - that all sounds sensible. I wish I’d read it before I cleaned her out again today! I did keep a lot of bedding and put it back though and am using a pet-friendly, unscented cleaner. I will hold off for a couple of weeks now and just try to spot clean.

I’ve noticed she seems to have started peeing in one corner behind her coconut so that should help with trying to clean the cage lightly without doing a full clean. You might be right about the coconut. I am going to persist and have put her old bedding in there to see if it encourages her to move back in. She does go in sometimes but won’t sleep there at the moment.

Thanks for the tips about the food.

Re the tubes, I will see how it goes. The cage is a decent size and she seems to like it but I’ll have to see how problematic the tubes are over the next few weeks. She doesn’t sleep in them, but hides if she’s scared. She seems to enjoy scampering through them for fun too.
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Old 03-14-2020, 12:16 PM   #4
Geo92
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Default Re: New Hamster - hiding, potty training & food

My hamster has a shoebox house with a potty inside, however he just sleeps in the potty in the house.. so he just does his business there.. convenient lol
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Old 03-14-2020, 01:31 PM   #5
Pebbles82
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Default Re: New Hamster - hiding, potty training & food

Good that she now has a pee corner. Pop a potty litter tray in that corner with chinchilla bathing sand in and put a bit of the smelly pee substrate in top first time so she knows it is still her pee corner. Then you can just empty the litter tray every few days and the rest of the cage should stay clean and dry for quite a long time.

They do need a house/nesting box that’s big enough to build a large nest and is dark inside. Some of the little plastic houses don’t work well and they can’t have normal behaviours like burying their hoard under their nest. When you ask about how long to leave dry food I think cypher means food in her bowl. Dry food that is hoarded can be left - again for quite a long time and even then just “pruned “. Removing their hoards really stresses them so if you ever do have to (eg if it is pee’d on) then try and leave a bit of the old hoard behind and add new food to replace it in exactly the same place.

They are very fussy about nests and boards and prefer to forage first the nesting material to take to the nest so best not to put it in a house. Just put a pile of it in the cage somewhere and she’ll take some (pouch it maybe). Just keep topping it up if it goes down. Plain white toilet paper torn into strips is the safest nesting material (no fluffy bedding - it’s dangerous - if you were sold any then bin it).

As Cypher said - internL tubes aren’t good and if you can remove them it would be good or look at upgrading her cage. Assume it’s a Syrian hamster - popular cages that have the right size floor area are the Alaska, Barney and Alexander from Zooplus, the Hamster Heaven (with the tubes and penthouse removed! And ideally most of the plastic contents removed!) and the Savic plaza from pets at home.

A good budget set up is the Alaska cage and 28cm Trixie wheel plus adding a good sized house. If you put hamster potty into the Amazon search box you’ll find the trixie corner litter tray - about £5 which is ideal. Some are too small.
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tube, food, cage, moment, shelter, bedding, foot, hamster, potty, daily, days, dragged, nest, train, lot, hiding, weeks, time, built, closer, dart, proximity, training, dried, fresh

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