Nutty Marbles + Pics

[SocksnPheobe]

What a cutie! Love his pictures

[DanniDorrito]

Thanks! He's looking a little more plump this week, weigh day tomorrow! Looking forward to seeing how different his weight is from last week.

[DanniDorrito]

He started doing this really strange habit.
It began with him leaving his house, climbing up his tube to the platform where his toilet is kept, and either napping on the platform or in the toilet itself then about 5mins later peeing and going back to bed. Now, he doesn't even manage to make it up the tube! He'll leave his house looking all sleepy, get into the tube, stretch and fall asleep! It'd be really cute except his massive balls are hanging over the edge of the tube. After about 5mins he'll back out of the tube and go back to bed! He doesn't even make it to the litter, lazy little git. Here's the photos I managed to get of him doing it:

Toilet time.


Sleepy Marbles yawning.


Nap time. Couldn't even make it to the toilet... this is not cute.


I tried having the toilet on the base level where his home is and as soon as the wood substrate gets into the sand he wants nothing to do with it. I might consider moving his home onto one of the platforms.

Today after play time outside his cage, I actually caught him sleeping at the top of his tube. The top half of his body is sleeping on the platform, and his bottom is hanging in the tube. So funny, I couldn't believe he managed to nap like that!

I know he sometimes naps in weird places, but I've honestly never seen him napping while half his body is hanging in a tube before!


I am pretty sure this confirms my ham is a weirdo.

[cypher]

lol! aren't they all weirdos? That's what makes them so endearing
I love it when they yawn like that it looks so funny
My baby Mickle has taken to having sudden naps lately during her exhausting evening run/play/climb routine, she just fell asleep half in half out of her sand bath!

[Willow Wisp]

LOL love it
Hehehe picture number 4, that's why I have females

[amie]

I have really enjoyed seeing all the fabulous photos of Marbles in this thread, DanniDorrito, plus all the comments you have made about each photo.

Thank you for sharing them. He is a very handsome young man.

[DanniDorrito]

So today was shopping day! While I was waiting for my phone screen to be fixed, I had time to visit the local pet shops! I posted my haul here: Shopping Haul
Spent an hour or so rearranging Marbles cage to fit in his new toys, its looking great!

Here's the overall thing


On the base, I placed his wheel, the slate slab, plant pot, carrot, millet seeds, apple tree twigs and wooden toy. I've hidden some of the corn in his plant pot, that will keep him busy!


On the top, I placed his house, his wooden bendy bridge between platforms, wooden treasure chest tube, sand bath toilet, Hide N See TV, food dish, water bottle, hanging wooden chews, bird basket and trixie hanging ladder.
You can see he's already on his bridge investigating the new bird basket!


My SO also brought him a harness, I've had them in the past with other hamsters and they hated them, so I never bothered. There's also a controversial topic about them being bad since there's ones out there that are literally just string you wrap around their neck, I saw some of those today :/ (Definitely did not buy one of those!)
Thankfully, the one we picked up goes around the neck and waist. Once he had settled into his re-organised cage, I got him out and placed it on him since I was worried about it hurting him. To my surprise he seemed to really enjoy it, he went off to explore, we just followed him around and stopped if there was a place we didn't want him to go, I would pick him up and move him elsewhere (Never tug or pull while they are wearing a harness!!!). It was a short journey to see how he was with it, when we placed him back in the cage he has been going nuts wanting to come back out again. Sitting by the door with his sad puppy eyes and when that didn't work he started bar chewing.

I'll get some photos and maybe a video of him in his harness so you can see what he's like better, I didn't bother this time since wanted both hands and my full attention on him for his first time, just in case!

So far so good, one very happy hammy who hoovered up a small handful of sunflower seeds out of my palm

[DanniDorrito]

Been meaning to post this for a few days now, but never seemed to get a good enough photo/video!

Play time on the bed!


Marbles had some garden time today in his new harness, I know what you're thinking! There's a controversial topic regarding harnesses, and honestly I wasn't planning on getting one, my SO did. I've had hamsters in the past and tried a harness and they hated it, so never bothered again. It doesn't help there's some really bad harness designs out there which can strangle the hamster rather than support its body. The harness we got seems to be the best out there, designed by Living World, it goes around both the neck and body.

Ok, so for 'walking' Marbles on the harness, its not so much walking him, but more of me just following him around the house so the lead is always slack. I stop short of an area I don't want him to go, when he realizes pulling wont get him to that area he changes direction. I never pull the lead or direct him to an area using the lead, if I want him in a different area I will go and pick him up to move him.

The past few nights he has been on the harness, and he seems to really enjoy it. As soon as we put him back in the cage he is going nuts to come back out again. He gets play times too, but once he's placed back in the cage after them he doesn't seem as interested to come back out. He is very much an explorer hamster, during playtime he has a complete free run of the bathroom, but once he's 'explored' it all he will hang around by the door and climb up it, sticking his nose under the crack. I have a nice video on my phone of him exploring on his harness, I will have to upload and show it sometime.

Today was the second or third time he has been outside, I sit down on the grass with him, so he can hide in my lap and munch grass, or explore the surrounding area.







We were outside for about 30mins, he climbed onto my lap a few times to get a better view of the surrounding area. He was pretty pooped out once he got back home, so decided to nap in his toilet.





Lately he has really been going to town on his dog bone treat, which is what I was hoping for! When I first put one in he wasn't so interested, but now he pretty much uses it as his go-to snack. I've seen him drag it to his toilet, then back to his house. That little treat has been all over his cage with him.

[HuanLang]

Marbles is such an adorable fella!

Even if he naps in the weirdest of places

[cypher]

The snooze in the tray is so cute!