Hi I'm also new!

[TheOtherStu]

Hi all,
New to hamsters entirely. We are very much pet people and have had all sorts - from Giant rabbits to birds to dogs, cats, Guinea Pigs and the wife had Hamsters in the past.

We have a white syrian with beautiful pink eyes called Merlin who's been with us a week or so. He's definitely the laziest animal I've ever owned. He generally gets up around 10pm. He's incredibly nervous and other than taking food off us, we're being patient with him. Already doing the tissue trick and he must be OK with it, because he took my tissue to bed with him last night. We're a long way from being able to touch him, however. We're working and cleaning around him.

He has plenty to do and seems to be enjoying himself mostly. He's also eating well (and drinking plenty) and stools seem firm - we're clearly looking out for any issues.

Couple of questions I guess.....

Firstly, is 10pm a fair time to be waking? He's always asleep by 7am. When he is awake, he's absolutely bonkers - I can watch him for 20 minutes non-stop on the wheel, for instance. He'll go for a little walk and a drink, then get straight back on it!

Food. We've been feeding him the Harry Hamster mix (which I notice a lot of people like here too and it gets great reviews). He's been having the odd teeny bit of Turkey (Well, there's a lot of it about ) and mealworm.
Problem is, he always leaves the large dark green pellets. My worry being is that to get the balanced diet, he needs to eat all of it. Any idea if this is OK?

We'll continue to be patient with him. I spotted the thing about using a jug to entice him out of the cage. We have some other toys for him to play with whilst outside and about. Problem is, when you need to be up at 6:30 for work, it doesn't give you much time with him.

Any pointers on how to get him up a little earlier?