Hello, I've had Frodo for just under a month and I just wanted to share the his and mines progress on here for my own documentation and also if anyone else wants to see our progress over the next few months.
Frodo is a longhaired black Syrian hamster and I'd say he's roughly around 3 months old. Although when I got him they told me he was a boy I'm not 100% sure as his hair seems to hide that area and he doesn't really let me close examine him but for now I am just going to assume that he is.
When I first got him he was incredibly shy, he didn't come out at all while I was awake and would never let me even look at him. His progress over the last month has been amazing and now he recognises my voice and my smell and doesn't view me as a threat.
Anyways, we haven't gone under a lot of bonding so far, he will happily take treats from my hand and sit in my palm and eat snacks if I put my hand down into his cage - but outside handling is a big no no so far.
I took him out into my bathtub the other day which is when I realised he may have a dental problem and one of his teeth got stuck on the blanket I had put down and when I looked closer he seemed to only have 1 really white tooth on his bottom jaw. I've been checking over him and he seems to be eating fine but I have a vets appointment on Monday just for an all round health check up as I am a paranoid mother.
Tonight I spot cleaned his cage for the first time and rearranged the layout and he seems to be coping with it very well. As I am writing this he is currently training for a marathon on his wheel. While having a little explore he let me pick him up and he sat pretty chill in my hands just for around a minute and then he demanded to be put back home again. On each side of the cage there is mesh that he likes to climb up (I'm planning on either buying a different cage or replacing the mesh with plexiglass as I don't want to encourage that behaviour) but he isn't a bar chewer, my bed is directly next to the side that he always climbs up so I kind of feel he is just a little curious but if anyone thinks differently feel free to let me know what you think the issue is.
Anyways I took this cute video of him, it is bad quality and it is dark but this is Frodo. He is the first hamster I have had in around 4/5 years so if anything in the cage seems wrong/dangerous please let me know
Link to video of Frodo:
Frodo 25/04/23 - YouTube