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Pebbles82 · 04-06-2016, 11:15 PM

A 40 gallon tank would be great for a Syrian! Set up can make the most of floor space as well. I think Syrians can be cuddly, if you get a lazy one lol! It's a bit of a big generalization but girls tend to be more active than boys (unless you have a yellow one apparently and they're supposed to be a bit wild!) Taming really helps and it is probably easier to tame a Syrian. I would love to have a Robo and a Syrian - best of both worlds.

Getting a Syrian from a breeder sounds good as they will probably have been handled from birth and be easy to tame. Our Syrian was from a pet shop and I don't think he had ever been handled - they used to get him out in a tube. He was wild lol - unhandleable. It took two months of bathtub taming before we could pick him up, but boy when it happened it happened instantly! Once we could pick him up he was SO handleable. In terms of being cuddly I find it depends what time of night we get him out. Late at night or early evening he is quite active and doesn't want to sit for a cuddle, but between 8 and 10pm when he's a bit dopey, he is happy to sit for a cuddle

Also if something has recently changed in his cage (eg a bit of cleaning) he won't sit for a cuddle and wants to get straight back to his cage to guard it! But mostly he is quite chilled.

In terms of hamster-proofing a room - it's a great idea to have a room for free-ranging. I can't manage it in ours as it's an old house with floorboards and although I blocked up any holes I could find (eg where radiator pipes go down), the first time we had our hamster in the room he headed straight for the gas fire

Like a lemming he wanted to get up inside it! It is a non working one and disconnected but even so he could have got stuck up there. So a bedroom is probably better than a room with a fire or chimney and solid floors are better than wood floors. Bathrooms aren't good usually as there are always gaps a ham can find, where pipes go down or the toilet pipe goes out, and one member's hamster got under the bath and disappeared into the wall (she did get him out but it was a few anxious days).

So if you have a bedroom, and concrete floors, it's probably fine under supervision (to make sure they don't climb the curtains and jump from a height). You might need to find a few things to block off gaps under doors and so on as they go straight for any gap they find lol.

Our first hamster, many years ago, was free ranging. I cringe to think of the little rotostak cage he had (3 round things on top of each other) but it was left open all the time and he developed his own routine. He'd come out about 6 or 7pm and run all over the room (he regularly climbed the curtains and we'd see his little head pop up at the top of them - didn't know it was dangerous back then!) He must have had a charmed life. We had to keep an eye out for tv cables and so on and keep him away from there, and you have to make sure you know where they are so they don't get accidentally trodden on. But he ran around the living room every night for about two years. He was never tamed but he did bond with me and used to sit on the back of my dressing gown while I walked round the room lol. Although maybe that was just a clever plan to get out of the room as I felt something dragging as I walked upstairs one night and there he was on the end of my dressing gown

He would go back in the cage of his own accord around 11pm and then run in his wheel all night (noisily).

I would love to do that again now if we had a ham-proof room, but as our kitchen and living room are open plan and there are too many nooks and crannies upstairs I daren't risk it. Some people use the hallway. But you do need things to block the bottom of doors

Diy cages are great and they are a great option, but we all have different preferances. Some people would only ever use cages, preferring the greater ventilation and set up options. Some prefer tanks, some prefer diy cages, some like bin cages. Some people make diy cages that are terrible! Or unsafe. The detolf is very popular as a diy cage on here, if people have the space for it.

04-06-2016, 11:15 PM
Pebbles82 Hamster Antics Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 23,533	Re: Robo Vs. Syrian and Hamster Proofing A 40 gallon tank would be great for a Syrian! Set up can make the most of floor space as well. I think Syrians can be cuddly, if you get a lazy one lol! It's a bit of a big generalization but girls tend to be more active than boys (unless you have a yellow one apparently and they're supposed to be a bit wild!) Taming really helps and it is probably easier to tame a Syrian. I would love to have a Robo and a Syrian - best of both worlds. Getting a Syrian from a breeder sounds good as they will probably have been handled from birth and be easy to tame. Our Syrian was from a pet shop and I don't think he had ever been handled - they used to get him out in a tube. He was wild lol - unhandleable. It took two months of bathtub taming before we could pick him up, but boy when it happened it happened instantly! Once we could pick him up he was SO handleable. In terms of being cuddly I find it depends what time of night we get him out. Late at night or early evening he is quite active and doesn't want to sit for a cuddle, but between 8 and 10pm when he's a bit dopey, he is happy to sit for a cuddle Also if something has recently changed in his cage (eg a bit of cleaning) he won't sit for a cuddle and wants to get straight back to his cage to guard it! But mostly he is quite chilled. In terms of hamster-proofing a room - it's a great idea to have a room for free-ranging. I can't manage it in ours as it's an old house with floorboards and although I blocked up any holes I could find (eg where radiator pipes go down), the first time we had our hamster in the room he headed straight for the gas fire Like a lemming he wanted to get up inside it! It is a non working one and disconnected but even so he could have got stuck up there. So a bedroom is probably better than a room with a fire or chimney and solid floors are better than wood floors. Bathrooms aren't good usually as there are always gaps a ham can find, where pipes go down or the toilet pipe goes out, and one member's hamster got under the bath and disappeared into the wall (she did get him out but it was a few anxious days). So if you have a bedroom, and concrete floors, it's probably fine under supervision (to make sure they don't climb the curtains and jump from a height). You might need to find a few things to block off gaps under doors and so on as they go straight for any gap they find lol. Our first hamster, many years ago, was free ranging. I cringe to think of the little rotostak cage he had (3 round things on top of each other) but it was left open all the time and he developed his own routine. He'd come out about 6 or 7pm and run all over the room (he regularly climbed the curtains and we'd see his little head pop up at the top of them - didn't know it was dangerous back then!) He must have had a charmed life. We had to keep an eye out for tv cables and so on and keep him away from there, and you have to make sure you know where they are so they don't get accidentally trodden on. But he ran around the living room every night for about two years. He was never tamed but he did bond with me and used to sit on the back of my dressing gown while I walked round the room lol. Although maybe that was just a clever plan to get out of the room as I felt something dragging as I walked upstairs one night and there he was on the end of my dressing gown He would go back in the cage of his own accord around 11pm and then run in his wheel all night (noisily). I would love to do that again now if we had a ham-proof room, but as our kitchen and living room are open plan and there are too many nooks and crannies upstairs I daren't risk it. Some people use the hallway. But you do need things to block the bottom of doors Diy cages are great and they are a great option, but we all have different preferances. Some people would only ever use cages, preferring the greater ventilation and set up options. Some prefer tanks, some prefer diy cages, some like bin cages. Some people make diy cages that are terrible! Or unsafe. The detolf is very popular as a diy cage on here, if people have the space for it. Last edited by Pebbles82; 04-06-2016 at 11:37 PM.