Moo sounds well settled with you now Serendipity. He has his own mind and clearly approves of his food routine. As for his wheel sticking- he knows how to give you ‘the look’!
Here is Moo. He was in the playpen while I had to do some adjustments to his house. He carefully pees in a little back compartment of the house which is very difficult to spot clean, and ignores the litter tray! So tonight I had the house out, managing to keep his nest in tact, cut out the divider to the little compartment so it's now one big compartment, a bit of a clean up of the pee area, and put the litter tray where he's been peeing. Hope he uses it!
He is approximately 15 months old now (I think). He explored the playpen, pouched some pumpkin seeds and then stayed in the hay house, and scratched off quite a bit of the hay.
40 second video of him
A little bit of time on the sofa before going back to his cage where he had a few treats to forage for to make up for the upheaval of having his house messed with. A little bit of cheese, a blueberry, half a pecan and some more pumpkin seeds.
Love that little nose peeking out of the hay house!
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Slave to Zak.
Always loved, never forgotten, forever in my heart
T'ycor, Ziggy, Zephyr, Flynt, Mickle, Little Whisp, Zen, Zeki, Tinwë, Zylvan, Míriel, Calyanwë, Gusto & Meri ❤️
Moo had his first taste of free roaming the other night. I thought he had seemed a bit older and slower recently and reckon he is at least 18 months old. Anyway he proved me completely wrong and was extremely active out of the cage and did some very vigorous attempts at scaling my barriers (there was another line of defence behind it!) and climbing up onto his cage stand (which is quite low) Much more active than Pickle actually. So he still has plenty of energy! He enjoyed it so much he keeps coming to the door for more - but then sometimes changes his mind when he smells food - so that will be a regular thing.
He got very interested when Pickle was trying out his new cage before I moved Pickle. I had it on the floor near the other two cages - it was quite close to Moo's cage and Pickle was running around inside it. Moo came right to the bars and sniffed a lot, got a bit excited and seemed very keen to get out. Not sure if it was - hey pal - or - I want to get out and have a fight. So I moved Pickle further away in case it was the latter!
Moo and Pickle were both out at the same time snacking and drinking last night. Here's Moo. I am absolutely sold on front opening door cages again - you can get so close to the hamsters in their environment and they get used to it.
Potty update. After removing the small compartment inside Moo's house so the litter tray fitted in his pee area, I found he had managed to push or pull the litter tray right over to the other end of the compartment. He seems to use it as a footbath (I walks over it and then pees in the old spot). Clearly he doesn't like using a litter tray! He had maybe got into habits before he came to us. He is very neat and tidy with his peeing though and his chosen spot is well away from his nest and hoard. I still can't believe he managed to drag the litter tray so far though!
Love that second photo, he's a very handsome little man! Good to hear he's so active & enjoying some time out & about.
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Slave to Zak.
Always loved, never forgotten, forever in my heart
T'ycor, Ziggy, Zephyr, Flynt, Mickle, Little Whisp, Zen, Zeki, Tinwë, Zylvan, Míriel, Calyanwë, Gusto & Meri ❤️
Thank you for the photos of the lovely Moo. I had to laugh at Moo dragging his potty to the other side. He made it crystal clear that it was in the way to get to his peeing spot. Impossible to change a hamster's mind, we just have to roll with it.
Lovely update about Moo and his antics. Sounds as though stretching his legs out of the cage on occasions meets with his approval. Like cypher, I love that second photo. As for his determination to pee in the manner he wants - typical ham!
The continuing saga of Moo and his potty tray. I had to spot clean his neat pee area the other night, so decided to bury the potty with the sand in under his pee area - partly. He had a good look round at what I had done and seemed a bit fussy. It occurred to me that his pristine sand filled potty may have been being used as a sand bath. Originally it was in the middle compartment of his house. So decided to add a second corner litter tray with sand in back in the empty middle compartment, just in case he liked just using it for that.
In a few days I will find out if the buried potty is still there! Or if it has been removed again from the pee area.