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Hamsterita · 11-09-2016, 08:11 AM

CHAPTER TWO - THE FIRSTS SWEET WEEKS AS A ROOKIE

Two days after Blacky arrived home I started to talk to him and to give him treats. He always came to my hand, grabbed the treats and then went back to his nest. He made an open nest with tons of toilet paper and hay.

The firsts days we had a chew problem. I noticed that he was chewing the cage bars, but I solved the problem as soon as his new big wheel arrived and I put it on his cage (the one that came with the cage was ridiculously small, and I had to order one on line because I couldn’t find one big enough on physical stores).

He is really smart, and he learnt how to use the potty really quick. Well, let’s say that he’s very clean and he always pees in the same corner, so as soon as I put his potty on the corner where he was peeing, he self trained, and I didn’t have to do anything.

I also introduced him to new food. He’s a picky hamster, and usually he only likes things that he shouldn’t eat very often, as apple, sunflowers seeds, pumpkin seeds, nuts, spinach, banana… Healthy things as celery or boiled eggs are a nono for him. Thank god that at least he likes a good variety of foods and I can choose one or the other.

First time that he had broccoli

I never saw him around with daylight, but I heard him at night. He was (and is) very skittish. Five days after he arrived I started to use the play pen. When I heard him, I woke up, and I used the ham ball to transport him from his cage to the playpen. It was relatively easy to make him enter the ball. Then in the playpen I could tell that he was a little bit scared, because he was still most of the time. I think that he doesn’t like open spaces. I think that he prefers the bathtub rather than the playpen and maybe it’s because the bathtub is smaller. But sometimes I think that he simply would prefer to stay on his cage.

He roaming around.

I was worried because sometimes when he was on the playpen I checked his cage to spot clean, and I realized that his nest had strange stains. That was the first time that I posted here, asking what could it be. Serendipity and Cypher were really kind and they tried to calm me down saying me that it probably would be wee. Now that I know how peed toilet paper looks (one day I put him on the playpen too soon after he woke up and he peed on the floor, so I had to clean it with paper towels) I’m 99% that it wasn’t pee. Anyway I’m happy now because the stains disappeared soon after that. If I had to bet I would say that it was pus or some kind of discharge from his ears. I think that my poor little hammie was attacked at the pet store because his ears aren’t round, they have like bite holes , when I first noticed them after two days of being home I didn’t know that they weren’t normal, but now I’m certain that something like that happened to his ears. Maybe the wounds were fresh or not totally healed and that was what was causing the stains. And maybe that’s the reason why he is so mistrusted.

Here you can see his poor ears. Btw, I think that his nails are super long. What do you think?

I used his mix as treats (hazel hamster mix), and after a lot of efforts and “food bribes”, a week later he started to improve his behavior. He even started to crawl over my legs and my chest without luring him with food. I was soo happy. But the improvements were slow, and soon we would have a lot of set backs.

NEXT CHAPTER - CHANGES AND SET BACKS

11-09-2016, 08:11 AM
Hamsterita La loca de los hamsters Join Date: Oct 2016 Location: A Coruña, Spain Posts: 1,693	Re: Blacky's Thread - The Black Spanish Syrian Hamster CHAPTER TWO - THE FIRSTS SWEET WEEKS AS A ROOKIE Two days after Blacky arrived home I started to talk to him and to give him treats. He always came to my hand, grabbed the treats and then went back to his nest. He made an open nest with tons of toilet paper and hay. The firsts days we had a chew problem. I noticed that he was chewing the cage bars, but I solved the problem as soon as his new big wheel arrived and I put it on his cage (the one that came with the cage was ridiculously small, and I had to order one on line because I couldn’t find one big enough on physical stores). He is really smart, and he learnt how to use the potty really quick. Well, let’s say that he’s very clean and he always pees in the same corner, so as soon as I put his potty on the corner where he was peeing, he self trained, and I didn’t have to do anything. I also introduced him to new food. He’s a picky hamster, and usually he only likes things that he shouldn’t eat very often, as apple, sunflowers seeds, pumpkin seeds, nuts, spinach, banana… Healthy things as celery or boiled eggs are a nono for him. Thank god that at least he likes a good variety of foods and I can choose one or the other. First time that he had broccoli I never saw him around with daylight, but I heard him at night. He was (and is) very skittish. Five days after he arrived I started to use the play pen. When I heard him, I woke up, and I used the ham ball to transport him from his cage to the playpen. It was relatively easy to make him enter the ball. Then in the playpen I could tell that he was a little bit scared, because he was still most of the time. I think that he doesn’t like open spaces. I think that he prefers the bathtub rather than the playpen and maybe it’s because the bathtub is smaller. But sometimes I think that he simply would prefer to stay on his cage. He roaming around. I was worried because sometimes when he was on the playpen I checked his cage to spot clean, and I realized that his nest had strange stains. That was the first time that I posted here, asking what could it be. Serendipity and Cypher were really kind and they tried to calm me down saying me that it probably would be wee. Now that I know how peed toilet paper looks (one day I put him on the playpen too soon after he woke up and he peed on the floor, so I had to clean it with paper towels) I’m 99% that it wasn’t pee. Anyway I’m happy now because the stains disappeared soon after that. If I had to bet I would say that it was pus or some kind of discharge from his ears. I think that my poor little hammie was attacked at the pet store because his ears aren’t round, they have like bite holes , when I first noticed them after two days of being home I didn’t know that they weren’t normal, but now I’m certain that something like that happened to his ears. Maybe the wounds were fresh or not totally healed and that was what was causing the stains. And maybe that’s the reason why he is so mistrusted. Here you can see his poor ears. Btw, I think that his nails are super long. What do you think? I used his mix as treats (hazel hamster mix), and after a lot of efforts and “food bribes”, a week later he started to improve his behavior. He even started to crawl over my legs and my chest without luring him with food. I was soo happy. But the improvements were slow, and soon we would have a lot of set backs. NEXT CHAPTER - CHANGES AND SET BACKS Last edited by Hamsterita; 11-09-2016 at 08:17 AM.