Custards Thread

[Hammy992]

Hi, my name is Custard!
I am about four months old and have been with my owner for 6 weeks now. Sorry I'm late to the forum but I've been taking some time to get used to my new home.
I was busy playing with my brothers in a big see through box, climbing on the bars and falling down a lot which is very fun - when a big pink lady came up to us and said she wanted to take me home, wherever that is! The man who looks after us here said that I ate a lot of the food that I'm supposed to share with my brothers, and that's why I'm bigger than they are. She said it was cute that I was the fattest one - I think that's a compliment. I was put into a small cardboard thing called a travel box, and then I was put into another box because they said I might chew a hole in it. I took this as a challenge and halfway to the pink lady's home I had chewed my way out of both boxes and had to be put in a big empty plastic box that the pink lady said was my new cage. It doesn't seem very comfortable to me, there's nothing for me to dig or hide in and no tasty treats. So I just sat on my travel box and looked around for a bit. When we got to the pink lady's house I was put back in my travel box and there was lots of rustling and clanging going on. I was a bit scared and didn't like being in the small box so I started chewing some more holes in it. After a while I was put back into my cage except this time there were things in it! There was lots of papery stuff for me to dig in and a wooden tunnel just like I had with my brothers. And there was a grass house that I like to run in and out of that the pink lady says is my bed. I don't think I will sleep in it though...there's a nice dark space under a plastic level in my cage where I can make a nest instead. There's lots of things to chew on as well and a bowl with some yummy things in it. There's a little tube that water comes out of which I like to gnaw on in the middle of the night, even though I have lots of nice things to help me wear my teeth down. I like the clangy sound it makes when everything's quiet. The pink lady put a stick of tasty seeds in the top of my cage but I didn't want to eat it up there so I pulled on it until it came off and then took it down to my nest to munch on later.

I'm liking my new home but the pink lady keeps saying "it's too small". I do think it would be fun to have some more space to play in. I get a little bit bored when the pink lady is sleeping and I'm up all by myself at night.
My wish came true! The pink lady has put some tunnels in my cage that go into another big cage that's the same, except this one has toys in it! There's a big round thing called a 'wheel' and a ladder to climb on that the pink lady says I can eat too. I love climbing my ladder because it makes me taller and I can see when the pink lady is coming to visit or to bring me food.

I don't like when the pink lady tidies up my cage. I get a bit cranky because I have to put everything back the way I want it and it doesn't smell like me as much. Also I have to rebuild my nest and that takes a long time to get right because I'm very fussy.
There's a small box in my cage now with little bits of wood in it that's called a 'potty'. The pink lady says if I go to the toilet in the potty she won't have to take out all the nice papery stuff with my smell on it as much. This sounds good to me so I think I will try and use it.
When she cleaned up my cage the pink lady found I had been stashing away all the bits of my food I don't like as much so she's started mixing some small brown things in with my normal food to make sure I stay healthy. I don't really like them and leave them in my bowl. When I've been a good boy she gives me pumpkin seeds as a reward and I like those very much. One time there was a big whole peanut in its shell in my bowl and I got very excited and pouched it straight away to eat in my nest.

I've been getting used to the pink lady taking me out of my cage and holding me. At first I was very nervous and didn't want to come out, but I was still happy to play in my cage while she was there. Sometimes I would run in my wheel and then stop to see if she was watching me. She would say that I'm a good boy and so I would run really fast on my wheel to show her how fit I am. But I still get a bit tired from too much running and have to lay down on the floor to get my breath back.
Since I've been happier to come out of my cage the pink lady takes me out for adventures more and more. I have a plastic ball that I can run around in but don't like to use it that much so luckily she doesn't put me in there unless I want to use it. I get to run around on this big soft thing that I think is the pink lady's nest, because it smells like her and also another one who smells different and is a boy, but I don't like him too much yet.
The pink lady made a big fun thing for me to play on with lots of cardboard boxes and tunnels with papery stuff inside, and I played on it a bit but my favourite thing to do is to try and run off the edge of the bed! The pink lady has to watch me because I'm very fast and a couple of times I've fallen off on purpose. She gets very worried and says I could hurt myself but I just want to explore some more and it's not that far to the ground. Still, she won't let me off the bed so I run into her hands a lot and then climb around in the air for a bit then she puts me back down. I'm a very good runner and like to climb things too so if you're not watching I can cover a lot of ground. The pink lady coos as me and says I'm a cheeky boy when I go where I'm not supposed to. I know she means well but I want to look at everything!
Maybe tonight she will let me explore off the bed!

[velma]

Hello Custard! Sounds like you're settling in well with your pink lady

[Pebbles82]

Hello Custard. What an adventurous time you've been having! Looking forward to seeing photos Is custard definitely a boy? Just wondering when you said about being a bit large! Although our hammy is a very large Syrian, but not fat, just big all over!

If you have a bathtub, that can be a good place to get used to handling and taming at first so custard can't fall. I remember the leaping in the air thing. You put the plug in the dry bath and a couple of towels on the bottom and the odd tube or toy in there and let them run around. A lot of them time they slither up and down the side of the bath trying to climb out. But hiding the odd treat in the tube or toys distracts them so they explore a bit. We tamed ours in the bathtub, a couple of nights a week, with advice on here. He was impossible to hold before that and would "ping" 2 or 3 feet in the air if you tried to touch him.

Glad he is using the potty. Cleaning can stress them out a bit too so it's best not to remove the nest - unless it is pee'd in and wet, and even then leave part of it behind (there's usually some bit that's dry even if a bit whiffy) so it still smells familiar. Likewise with their hoards. It's best to leave them unless wee'd on and then if you have to remove any, replace it with new food in exactly the same place. Otherwise they start scent marking everything to deter predators from stealing their food and could start peeing on everything

Just linking Erin's Hamster's 8 cage cleaning tips, as this really helped me! And I now do "partial" cleans and less often with a lot more substrate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jVnEjrXbww

Also here's a little video I did about our bathtub taming Not the greatest quality, but it's quite short and has a few tips that might help

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjyEme2xcq4

[Hammy992]

Hi! Yes I'm pretty sure he's a boy because he has pretty prominent looking testicles under his tail. He isn't a huge hammy exactly but he was bigger than all of his male litter mates. The pet assistant said he noticed Custard often ate the lions share of all food that was put out so perhaps he grew faster. He's not fat either he's grown mostly in length since I've had him and his scent glands are visible all the time through his fur whereas they weren't to begin with.

With his cage cleans he has only had 2 full cleans, once after his first week - I regretted this as he became noticibly stressed - and the second time I did a few days ago after leaving it for a month. I did daily spot tidying and emptied his soiled bedding 2-3 times a week during this time, and his cage never stank or became dirty at all. I do put some of his old bedding back in the cages but didn't leave his nest because i can't wash the base with his bedding still in it. He seemed more relaxed with this method and was more curious than stressed and settled more quickly.

He seems to be fairly tame now and will walk on my hands and run into them when he's trying to escape the bed playground I set up for him. He lets me stroke him sometimes as well but he's always on the move when out of the cage so I can't look away for even a second, he's a cheeky thing!

I haven't tried the bathtub play area yet, I think I'd like to make a big hammy proof tub as a special space he can play in during his out of cage time, something permanent that I can put different bedding textures and toys in for him to explore. I've read that a lot of people buy chinchilla sand for their Syrians not for washing but because they love to dig in it. Would it be safe for him to have a big container of deep sand to dig around in at playtimes? They don't get it in their eyes or nose do they?
I'm also looking into getting him a bigger cage as he seems a bit bored and two smaller cages joined together make it hard to put toys in there without taking up all the room.

[pinkneon]

Hello Custard!
My name is Sweep. I am also a Syrian hamster. I too have a pink human lady. But I wanted to ask, is yours as weird as mine? Mine only walks on two paws even though she would get around much quicker on four paws! She also STILL doesn't have any nice white tissue to suggle in in her bed. She eats all this food that smells yummy but looks silly, and uses these weird things to eat with instead of her paws! She also changes the color of her fur, and puts things on the paws she walks on when she goes out! Oh, and she doesn't speak Hamster! Sometimes she listens to something named "music" but it is in a funny language and I don't understand it! I had also been snugged up with my brothers when suddenly I wasn't. I haven't seen them since. And apparently I am not allowed a friend, not even the thing named C-A-T! My most favoritist treat EVER is half a walnut, but last night I got a whole piece because I was so good. I like to sit inside my coconut house or thing named "Sputnik" to eat sometimes! Oh, and my favorite hobby is digging! I could dig all day! Well apparently I am supposed to be asleep, so I will talk to you later!
Sweep

[Hammy992]

Hey Sweep, nice to meet you! Yes, my pink human lady is exactly the same! Sometimes when I wake up during the day to dig or have a snack she isn't there to play with me! And then she comes home complaining about something called "work", which she says is why she's away during the day. Why would she go somewhere every day that makes her sad and tired when she can stay at home and play with me instead? Silly pink human lady!
She ALSO eats lots of yummy smelling things that look weird and won't give me any because she says it's not good for me. I should be the judge of that I think!
The other day I had my first taste of the thing called 'nana' and it was very good but made my paws all sticky so I had to wash my face for a while afterwards. I also love to eat the big green pumpkin seeds but I can't have too many because it might make me get fat. I thought my pink human lady thought me being pudgy was cute, it's why she picked me out of all my brothers after all. Its nice having all this space to myself but sometimes I wish I had a friend here that could speak hamster because my pink human lady can't! It's a shame your human lady won't let you play with the one called C-A-T, he might speak Hamster! Of course we still understand what they say to us but humans aren't as smart so they don't know when we talk to them. It's a good thing this 'Hamster Central' is here so she can read all the things I post on here to help her out!
I'm supposed to be sleeping too but I think I might go and sit on top of my ladder for a bit and put some more tissue in my nest to make it extra snuggly.
Talk to you later!, Custard

[pinkneon]

Custard, have you noticed this place is named HAMSTER central, not human central! Why don't they let us have more time on here! It's for us, surely?!

[Hammy992]

Sweep I agree! But we have to at least let them read our conversations, otherwise how else will they know what we're thinking? There has to be something on this thing called "internet" that can teach them how to speak hamster....then we could have this whole place to ourselves!

[Hammy992]

Hey, Custard here!
Here's some pics of me having one of my out of cage adventures!

**Photos are kind of grainy as they were taken in low lighting

[Pebbles82]

He looks adorable! Love the last one - the butt shot lol.