Our Adoption Story... - Page 8

ScoobyWoo · 05-30-2016, 01:34 PM

And here are a couple of photo's- finally some not too blurry ones

Pebbles82 · 05-30-2016, 01:52 PM

She is very sweet. She looks more relaxed now somehow. Glad the taming is going well. I wouldn't worry about the wee until you can smell it lol! Best she has a couple of weeks to settle in anyway and I'm sure it will start getting whiffy at some point - then you can spot clean. Are you sure she isn't using the sand bath and covering up the wet bit with more sand? The poops aren't dirty or smelly - they are just like little black seeds and they like to keep them with their hoard sometimes in case supplies get short then they can eat them for extra vitamins!

Coco61 · 05-30-2016, 01:57 PM

Lovely looking Hattie, lovely photos. Don't worry about the wee corner. Serendipity is right, your nose will detect it in the end. While she is settling in it is best not to disturb anything as the cleaning will only stress her.

cypher · 05-30-2016, 09:51 PM

She's doing so well, sounds like such a lovely little character, nice photos too.
I agree about the pee spot, it's still early days so don't worry, she may well be going in more than one place to begin with but I'm sure you'll sort it out between you soon enough!

ScoobyWoo · 06-02-2016, 12:48 PM

I didn't manage to get to online yesterday- almost unheard of for me!

Anyway, thank you as usual for your comments and advice- much appreciated!

I cannot believe it is a week today since our beautiful little girly came home- on one hand it has gone incredibly quickly and on the other- I can't remember a time when she wasn't here! She has settled in so well- we're both amazed!

She hasn't really needed any taming and we know we're very lucky with that, she's getting herself into a bit of a routine now...

At 7pm(ish), we hear her pottering about in her hoard which is in her house so we know she's awake. We change her water and us rattling about usually brings her out to see what's going on, she has a bit of a wander around and stretch- usuallly a drink and then she comes to the door for us to open it.

Clever girl!

We usually give her a small treat- a seed or small bit of mealworm and she either crawls out onto our hand to eat it, in which case we sit down and let her crawl over us or we put a treat in her mug and she crawls into there to eat it and we transport her to the sofa in that for her to crawl over us.
She usually stays on us for a few minutes at a time before she gets a bit too excited and we can't safely keep her out without loosing her- she's fairly speedy! So then she will go in her playpen, and have a little explore in there.

She isn't overly keen on the play pen we don't think. She's happy in it for a little while, we will scatter some of her muesli in there so she will potter around a bit finding that and then she usually goes for a dig in the sand box for a few minutes and then after that she starts to get a bit agitated and looks for a way out- trying to clamber up the sides or digging/chewing the corners at which point we usually tempt her back into her mug and back into the cage. Whilst she's in the pen, we put her fresh veggies in the cage.

Hopefully the more she goes in her playpen, the more she will like it and the longer she'll want to spend in there.

When she's back in her cage, she goes straight to the house (I'm assuming to empty her pouches) and then she stays in there for another hour or so. She usually comes back out then, around 9.00- 9.30ish and goes about her business of tunneling, chewing, drinking, veggie hunting and washing (she does a lot of washing!). We're not sure when she goes to bed again as we go to bed 11ish and she's still up but she's asleep when we get up at 630ish in the morning.
She doesn't use her wheel much at all whilst we're here- the odd few seconds here and there but nothing major. Whether she uses it much overnight or not we're not sure.

So yeah, overall she seems happy which means so are we

Once we've worked out the ongoing wee wee spot issue- all will be well, although as you guys have said, don't worry about it till it starts to smell and so far it isn't so we're not worrying

ScoobyWoo · 06-02-2016, 12:52 PM

Little poppet looking for a way out of her playpen:

cypher · 06-02-2016, 09:24 PM

It can take a while for them to get used to a play pen so I'm sure she'll enjoy it more with time, just try to make it as interesting & fun as you can with lots to do in there, trying to escape is part of the fun, it's just what they do!
Some hams prefer to run on the wheel in private lol! so she may well be using the wheel mostly while you sleep, you can always try putting some substrate on top & then looking to see if it's gone in the morning, a sign it is being used.
It is still very early days but she sounds as though she's coming on fine.

SKB_Hamsters · 06-03-2016, 02:57 AM

Hattie is so sweet, all the pictures of her are just lovely.
All my Syrians past and present all like to climb up and out the playpen, I think they get some fun and enjoyment out of it, but with some of them it's because they wanted to be cuddled to as once they got out they came and sat on my lap. But I find if you place loads of toys such as rat tunnel and cardboard boxes in the playpen, it gives them something to do and boxes provide something to climb up onto.
Some hamsters are more active when they know that no one is around, so they like to use there wheel in private.
But Hattie sounds like fairly tame, friendly and intelligent. It seems like she happy with her home.
I always find time flies by when you have a hamster for a pet.

Thin Lizzy · 06-03-2016, 08:11 AM

She's so lovely! You've made really great progress with her, I love the cuddles but, the whisker kisses are the best.

ScoobyWoo · 06-04-2016, 10:34 AM

Thank you all, she seemed a little better with the playpen yesterday- still trying to climb out but less chewing at the corners so that's good although I'm pleased to see that others seem to find that their hamsters try to escape the pens too.

She does have lots of tunnels and boxes etc in there and a couple of chewy things and bendy bridges aswell as her sand box so there is quite a bit to do for her- obviously not as much fun as escaping though! Haha

BREAKING NEWS- we have found the wee wee spot! I noticed yesterday a slight whiff and again this morning and as I run a business from home and have clients coming occasionally, I can't be having that really so we had a bit of prod about and discovered she is weeing in her plantpot! Not ideal as it's not the easiest of things to clean but much better than weeing in her house so I'm happy with that!

We must have disturbed her a bit whilst we were sorting that out (about noonish) so she seems a bit confused with times today and woke up about an hour ago and came out for a cuddle, then went back in and now she's up again- bless her!

Anyway... think she can have a veggies a bit early tonight so think I'll go and have a browse of the fridge and decide on what she's having...