[ichijyushi]

Hello! I am new to both this website and owning hamsters. I had gerbils when I was a kid but I've already noticed a lot of behavioral differences.

I have two Chinese hamsters, I'm still trying to tame them but they are very nervous animals.

I started to try to do playtime with them, every other day or so; one hamster at a time. This post is about my less nervous hamster, Ichi. Today was the second time I took him out and put him in a decent sized area with barriers so he couldn't escape, a few items for him to hide and climb on, and a wheel.

The first time I took him out he looked for a way to escape and hide under the items I had out, then after a while ran on the wheel the rest of the time.

Today he was running around in a manner that seemed panicky, when he wasn't on the wheel we was constantly trying to climb up a towel I had and squirming quite a bit when I tried to get him down before escaping the play area. He would go back as soon as I put him down and this went on for most of playtime, the other half having a blast on the wheel. I was afraid I was gonna drop him with how squirmy he was.

Long Story Short: Was his frantic running and climbing repeatedly because he was scared or in a playful mood? I mostly think he's scared but I've read how they like to climb and I've seen other small animals run laps when they're happy.