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xiaojie1 · 09-16-2020, 10:52 PM

Hi! So we recently got our dwarf hammy a big new cage (the prevue 52

. He made the transition on Sunday (three days ago); I transferred over all of his old bedding, wheel, house, food bowl, etc. in the same positions. The only thing I had to switch was the water bottle, as his old one wasn’t compatible.

Here’s a picture of the setup: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c96...nazmg9OUqRWbD6
I put in a new wooden house and sand bath, which are in the picture.

I guess I have two main issues:

1) he is still incredibly scared and timid. His new cage is wayyy bigger than his old one (like over twice the size; his old one was way too small), so I expected an adjustment period, but I honestly can’t tell if he’s getting more comfortable? The first night he was kind of frantic stressed but since then he’s just been scared. Every time I check on him at night he is holed up in his wooden house and won’t come out unless I’m offering him food (he will still take food from my hand, but I either have to put my hand in the cage or stick it through the bars right by his face). Today I saw him come out, grab a piece of food, then sprint back into the house to eat it.

Is there anything I can do to help him adjust more smoothly? I’ve read that it can take a long time, even up to two weeks, but it just hurts my heart to think about him being so scared all the time.

2) his new cage has an upper level, which is accessible via the ramp (see pic). The first night, when I went to check on him he was already upstairs. He seemed to have forgotten where the ramp was, because he kept looking over the edge on the other side and was clearly thinking about jumping, but then kept deciding it was too high. Eventually I managed to direct him to the ramp and he stepped on it, but then slipped and just slid down the rest of it like a slide. I’m pretty sure this spooked him, so I adjusted the ramp to make it less steep. I haven’t seen him use it since so I don’t know if that fixed the problem, but today I saw him look over the edge and think about jumping again. He eventually decided not to and went back into his house.

I will probably lower the platform eventually, when I can take him out of the cage again, but my dad also suggested gluing a piece of cloth to the ramp so that it’s less slippery. Would that be okay, or would there be a risk that he’d chew threw the cloth to the glue or something? I would really like to solve this ramp problem but don’t know what the best thing to do is.

Sorry for the long post! If it would be more appropriate to take the second half to the supplies forum, I’m happy to do that too.

09-16-2020, 10:52 PM
xiaojie1 Newborn Pup Join Date: Sep 2020 Posts: 13	scared in new cage Hi! So we recently got our dwarf hammy a big new cage (the prevue 52. He made the transition on Sunday (three days ago); I transferred over all of his old bedding, wheel, house, food bowl, etc. in the same positions. The only thing I had to switch was the water bottle, as his old one wasn’t compatible. Here’s a picture of the setup: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c96...nazmg9OUqRWbD6 I put in a new wooden house and sand bath, which are in the picture. I guess I have two main issues: 1) he is still incredibly scared and timid. His new cage is wayyy bigger than his old one (like over twice the size; his old one was way too small), so I expected an adjustment period, but I honestly can’t tell if he’s getting more comfortable? The first night he was kind of frantic stressed but since then he’s just been scared. Every time I check on him at night he is holed up in his wooden house and won’t come out unless I’m offering him food (he will still take food from my hand, but I either have to put my hand in the cage or stick it through the bars right by his face). Today I saw him come out, grab a piece of food, then sprint back into the house to eat it. Is there anything I can do to help him adjust more smoothly? I’ve read that it can take a long time, even up to two weeks, but it just hurts my heart to think about him being so scared all the time. 2) his new cage has an upper level, which is accessible via the ramp (see pic). The first night, when I went to check on him he was already upstairs. He seemed to have forgotten where the ramp was, because he kept looking over the edge on the other side and was clearly thinking about jumping, but then kept deciding it was too high. Eventually I managed to direct him to the ramp and he stepped on it, but then slipped and just slid down the rest of it like a slide. I’m pretty sure this spooked him, so I adjusted the ramp to make it less steep. I haven’t seen him use it since so I don’t know if that fixed the problem, but today I saw him look over the edge and think about jumping again. He eventually decided not to and went back into his house. I will probably lower the platform eventually, when I can take him out of the cage again, but my dad also suggested gluing a piece of cloth to the ramp so that it’s less slippery. Would that be okay, or would there be a risk that he’d chew threw the cloth to the glue or something? I would really like to solve this ramp problem but don’t know what the best thing to do is. Sorry for the long post! If it would be more appropriate to take the second half to the supplies forum, I’m happy to do that too.