We recently went on holiday and I was super stressed over who would look after Hams and whether he would stay in our home or potentially go to a family member and in the end I decided he would go to my mums, she is not so steady on her feet anymore so coming to our house everyday was more risky than attempting a cage move and thankfully all went really well
Mum is often at our house several times each week and when she’s here, we’ll often still be chatting whilst I’m sorting Hams out and he’s having a roam, so I guess he was already kinda used to hearing her voice and in the 3 weeks up to our hols, she took over some of the feeding and spot cleaning so he could become more used to her hands and scent in his home.
We moved him 2 days in advance of our 10 day hols so I could go to mums each evening and keep our routine consistent which mum then did her best to copy whilst we were away. She did an amazing job! and although he was a little shy he still came out in his playpen every night whilst we were away.
I was so excited to get him home and I kinda think this was reciprocated, as he was really wiggling as he was walking around sniffing my hands as I stroked him, made me feel quite tearful that I’d left him. I offered him his travel jug and he hopped straight in, which I then placed in his proper carrier. The drive is only 10mins so we were back home quickly and I can honestly say he just knew he was back, I had to do some cage tidy so he played in his pen and when I put him back in he just went straight to his main platform for a clean and for me to give him a stroke and say night night and switch of the main light as I normally would.
Although this went pretty seamless, I’m thinking he’ll be older next year if we do go away and in my heart I’d rather not move him. I then find out that my niece (in her 20’s) has had three hamsters, her current one being Ted, (who I’ve now met, another super cute Syrian) so I now have a hamster sitter (as does she) who’ll pop in to look after him, phew no more cage moves
Although we were chuckling about making sure we wash our hands well with unscented soap just in case they can smell each other? I guess for those of you who keep multiple hamsters this is not an issue. Is that because they can scent each other in the house or just because they are happy as long as not placed together?