He's here! I took a long train journey down to the breeder today to collect my little boy. He was born 24th February 2016 so is currently 6 weeks and 2 days old
. He is long haired and golden with a white band. The breeder was calling him Fuzzbutt!!
I have a previous thread sharing my excitement about going to get him:
My New Baby Fluff!. He is being called Baby for now until we settle on a name, which probably won't be for a few days yet.
I was worried about the train journey but he managed it like a champ! He spent a good 10 minutes exploring the carrier once we were on the train. Once he established he could neither climb nor dig his way out he decided to dig UNDER the hide I had put in for him and promptly went to sleep
. He did get a bit stressed at Edinburgh Waverley station where we changed trains but it's a large, crowded, noisy, smelly station so I'm not surprised. He calmed right down once we were on the train again though. I took a water bottle and home made bottle stand with but left it out the carrier. When he came out at one point on the ride home I put it in for him and he had a good drink. Wouldn't attempt it on a bumpy bus but a train is pretty plain sailing, I took out the bottle again once he decided to go back to sleep
.
Once he was home I popped him into his cage. I expected him to go and hide in the house but he had a proper look around first! He was most excited about his big litter tray full of sand. He had a proper dig, went to have a look around, came back to dig some more - and then did that three more times
. He inspected the wheel and had a little run (wheel seems wobbly though so I need to take it out and look at it). I wish I had thought to make a video but I only remembered at the end, I did get a cute video of him in his litter tray though. He seemed completely and totally relaxed, ears were right up, not frantic at all just having a good look around. He wasn't even fussed with me picking him up out the carrier and putting him in the cage so he seems to be a pretty chill little fluff (and oh my goodness so fluffy!). Once he was done exploring he went inside the house and didn't seem to be coming out so I partly covered the cage and let him be. I decided to take a page out of his book and went and had a nap myself.
When I woke up I checked on him. He had completely raided the food bowl and made a large tunnel in his digging area, where he is now sleeping
.
I have given up arguing with photobucket and the like so have made a youtube channel for my videos. I took 2 videos on the train and then 1 when I got him home.
On Train Home Part 1
On Train Home Part 2
In Cage - Must Dig
Here is the cage setup I have for him:
Overview
Left Side
Right side
Middle left
Middle right
This is a close up of his digging area before he got a hold of it.
I'm going to leave him to settle for a few days but I'll let him dictate how long. If he keeps being so relaxed it'll probably be sooner rather than later. I did also do a large Zooplus haul and ended up buying a
Skyline Ranch Arizona playpen just for taming as I can't use my bath and I don't fancy chasing an energetic baby hamster around my albiet hamster proof conservatory. Once I'm satisfied he's properly tame I'll let him free range there.
And now I'm off to bed, sternly reminding myself that it's not a good idea to peek in on my baby!