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elaraks · 11-07-2019, 10:31 AM

Hi,

I adopted a hamster the other day that had been previously neglected. It had been returned to the breeder by the person who had bought it after a month or two in a TINY cage, with no toys, no WHEEL even. The breeder suspected they'd been bullying it as well, or at least agitating it a bit. It had previously been quite calm, but now was very timid and would screech anytime people came near. While finding it a new home she worked with it, so could stroke it for a little bit or come close without it screeching but he's still very timid.

I brought him home on Sunday to an ikea detolf, with a lot of things in the cage etc. He doesn't use the wheel massively but I suspect he's getting used to it. He spent a lot of the first two night rearranging the cage - I suspect settling in? I'd wake up and he would have taken things from one side of the cage to another, moved massive amounts of bedding to pile up in certain corners etc. He's still very shy but seemed to be getting more inquisitive - he'll often come out to sniff now if we're in the room/near the cage before running back to his nest, and then repeating the whole time we're there, whereas before just completely hid if we were in the room.

However, he seems quite inactive? I wake up a lot in the night, and last night I couldn't hear him at all at any point and neither could my boyfriend. In the morning it didn't look like he'd moved much around the cage and very little of the food had been eaten (before he'd been eating a lot though). I went to change his water before I went to work (I thought he was in his nest as couldn't see him right away). When I put my hand in with the new water however, i realized he was behind the wheel, and he was awake but his eyes were closed. He ran into the nest and then started growling. As I was going to work i couldn't check him properly (for the eyes), but could the closed eyes be him just waking up and the growling be annoyance at being disturbed? Or should I be worried.

Could the inactivity as well (more generally he's a lot less active than other hamsters I've had) be him getting used to a MUCH bigger cage? He tends to do everytthing on one side.

11-07-2019, 10:31 AM
elaraks Newborn Pup Join Date: Sep 2019 Posts: 15	Rescue hamster - is this normal behaviour / settling in Hi, I adopted a hamster the other day that had been previously neglected. It had been returned to the breeder by the person who had bought it after a month or two in a TINY cage, with no toys, no WHEEL even. The breeder suspected they'd been bullying it as well, or at least agitating it a bit. It had previously been quite calm, but now was very timid and would screech anytime people came near. While finding it a new home she worked with it, so could stroke it for a little bit or come close without it screeching but he's still very timid. I brought him home on Sunday to an ikea detolf, with a lot of things in the cage etc. He doesn't use the wheel massively but I suspect he's getting used to it. He spent a lot of the first two night rearranging the cage - I suspect settling in? I'd wake up and he would have taken things from one side of the cage to another, moved massive amounts of bedding to pile up in certain corners etc. He's still very shy but seemed to be getting more inquisitive - he'll often come out to sniff now if we're in the room/near the cage before running back to his nest, and then repeating the whole time we're there, whereas before just completely hid if we were in the room. However, he seems quite inactive? I wake up a lot in the night, and last night I couldn't hear him at all at any point and neither could my boyfriend. In the morning it didn't look like he'd moved much around the cage and very little of the food had been eaten (before he'd been eating a lot though). I went to change his water before I went to work (I thought he was in his nest as couldn't see him right away). When I put my hand in with the new water however, i realized he was behind the wheel, and he was awake but his eyes were closed. He ran into the nest and then started growling. As I was going to work i couldn't check him properly (for the eyes), but could the closed eyes be him just waking up and the growling be annoyance at being disturbed? Or should I be worried. Could the inactivity as well (more generally he's a lot less active than other hamsters I've had) be him getting used to a MUCH bigger cage? He tends to do everytthing on one side.