New hamster help

[Kshez127]

Hello everyone! I’m new to this so here’s a small introduction, I have a 7 week old female Syrian golden hamster. I have had her around 3 weeks. She was brought from a breeder and brought ‘tame’ even though she is very very shy atm but that is understandable. She was originally in I would say a medium cage and as I have seen so much online she needed a lot bigger so I have just recently brought her a huge cage which i have added a photo of. As you can see the cage is huge and actually slightly above the minimum in the UK. Since she has been in this cage she is still biting the bars she has plenty in her cage a large wheel and lots of hideouts but just bites the bars of one side of the cage. I’m going to add another platform to her cage on the other side as she keeps climbing all the way to the top and then falls quite a distance. I also scatter feed her I’m just getting really frustrated because I’ve spent so much money I can’t afford a tank cage I just want her to be happy I have brought another wheel which stands up instead of being attached to the cage so I’m going to try free roaming her obvs in a safe room and start bonding with her more. I’m just lost of what else to do.

[cypher]

Hi & welcome to the forum
I don’t think you can upload photos until you’ve done a few posts (can’t remember quite how it works now) so we can’t see your cage unfortunately, which cage is it?
If it’s tall do put plenty of shelves & ledges in to prevent falls & you can also cushion hard surfaces like the top of a house with a piece of hemp mat.
If she’s just chewing the bars on one side could you put cardboard or a grass mat or hemp mat over the bars in that place, it may need renewing now & then if she chews it but better than chewing the bars! Is there anything near the cage there that could be either attracting her attention or disturbing her do you think?
Female Syrians can be quite demanding but try not to worry too much, if she has lots of enrichment & a wheel that works well & is big enough for her she should settle down, it can just take time to figure out what works for them as they’re all different.

[Maker]

It will take a little time to work out what she likes.
Made sure her flooring is lovely and swap, about 5 inches or more so she can dig
I agree use some hemp or grass matting to the inside of the bar where she chews, it also makes the space darker and makes them feel safe.
A sand pit is lovely for her, start with a bowl of sand and see if she likes it, if she does you can go bigger.
Here’s my Syrians home - ignor the black bowl. I give her fresh food in this - she put her dried food in it herself I think because she wanted to keep it lol
F0A774A4-3AC9-46B9-941C-79B78C1A242D.jpeg

[Kshez127]

Originally Posted by cypher

Hi & welcome to the forum
I don’t think you can upload photos until you’ve done a few posts (can’t remember quite how it works now) so we can’t see your cage unfortunately, which cage is it?
If it’s tall do put plenty of shelves & ledges in to prevent falls & you can also cushion hard surfaces like the top of a house with a piece of hemp mat.
If she’s just chewing the bars on one side could you put cardboard or a grass mat or hemp mat over the bars in that place, it may need renewing now & then if she chews it but better than chewing the bars! Is there anything near the cage there that could be either attracting her attention or disturbing her do you think?
Female Syrians can be quite demanding but try not to worry too much, if she has lots of enrichment & a wheel that works well & is big enough for her she should settle down, it can just take time to figure out what works for them as they’re all different.

Hello!!
Yeah silly me it didn’t upload, I’ll see if I can upload one today and show u all I made another platform for her cage out of cardboard haha it’s pretty neat! She only chews the bars on one side and there is nothing but my wardrobe on that side?? I’ve put a hanging chew toy and she has been manically chewing the mental on that so I’m taking it out. I also made a play pen which was huge but she just try’s to escape it and like scratches at al the walls so I’m going to try the bath tub trick later so what happens. Where can I get the grass matts or a hemp Matt from for cheap as I’m on a budget. Thankyou so much for all the advice!!

[Kshez127]

Originally Posted by Maker

It will take a little time to work out what she likes.
Made sure her flooring is lovely and swap, about 5 inches or more so she can dig
I agree use some hemp or grass matting to the inside of the bar where she chews, it also makes the space darker and makes them feel safe.
A sand pit is lovely for her, start with a bowl of sand and see if she likes it, if she does you can go bigger.
Here’s my Syrians home - ignor the black bowl. I give her fresh food in this - she put her dried food in it herself I think because she wanted to keep it lol
Attachment 51636

Hello!
Thankyou for your reply! Where did you get all your wooden things from they look so cool, what fresh food do you feed your hamster? Thinking of doing that today

[Maker]

Most from amazon or ebay in the U.K.
or you could search for Degu shelves and trixie ladders - I think it’s the trixie natural living range. And they are trixie grass mats/hammocks on the sides. Whatever you choose make sure it doesn’t have gaps legs could fall into - for example you can buy bridges that are ladders but I don’t think they are safe.

Fresh food - go careful of how much you start to feed, think about how big they are for example don’t give them a piece of broccoli the size of their head - imagine what would happen if you ate a piece of broccoli the size of your head lol
Polo likes broccoli, carrot, sweet corn, cucumber, Brussel sprout, Peas, cauliflower- all those things raw
You can also give a few seeds like hemp, flax, linsead, or oats, barley again all raw.
A tiny tiny bit of cooked potato or cooked rice
Just remember not too much a very small amount you want them to eat all this food rather than horde it away.
Still feed them their dry mix
Hope you can post a photo soon

[cypher]

I think the grass mats are reasonably cheap & widely available from Amazon & pet shops or most online pet supplies, if you’re on a budget I wouldn’t go for cheap hemp mats, the good quality ones aren’t cheap but worth getting if you can afford them, the cheap ones tend to be very thin & just shed fibres everywhere!
It’s quite normal for them to go to the sides of the playpen like that, especially at first, put plenty of toys & hides to explore & maybe scatter some treats around, if your playpen has a base rather than just the floor I scatter some substrate from the cage around so it smells familiar.
If you do use the bath put towels in the bottom & toys & hides in the same way.

As Maker said start slowly with fresh food, maybe one piece every few days to begin with then build up until it’s daily, most people say a thumbnail size piece is about right, I don’t find my hams tend to over eat any veg though so once they’re used to it I don’t worry too much.
You can give a wide range of veg, broccoli is often a favourite, kale, spinach, lettuce, green beans (I cook those) courgette (raw or cooked) sweet corn or baby corn, peas, carrots & beetroot are all popular, it’s good to give plenty of variety rather than sticking to one or two things,