Repetative behaviour. Is he bored or stressed? Please help

[Kirsty09]

Hello.

I have 2 Robos that I had to split up due to fighting earlier in the year. I have posted before on here as I cant seem to get either of them tame (Although they will take a mealworm out of my hand) and i feel sorry for them as they are now living alone.

They have been ok since i split them up however, one of them has started to act strangely in the last 3 days.

He is in a mini Duna but has lots of toys and 2 floors, a sandbath, wheel etc and has been fine up until now but he has moved his bed to sleep out in the open under the waterbottle and not under the shelf as he has always slept.
Since his bed is now there, 2 nights ago i noticed him running back and forth from one side of the cage to another over and over again. When i got up in the morning all his bedding (megazorb) was all in a corner due to him running back and forth.

I am worried he may be bored, lonely, stressed and im not sure what to do about it. I woudl love to have them back in the same cage but i dont want them fighting again. They have been seperated since Feb this year.

Due to them being very flighty and not tame no matter how hard i try i cant get them out to handle them or play with them.

Any advice greatly appreciated please.

Kirsty

[Member_12600]

Do you allow them out for play time outside of the cage? I find when Nova and Nemo appear to act bored, taking them out for a run or something helps their boredom :)

Robos are naturally more of a 'look-see' hamster, they aren't overly cuddly and are super fast. I think that's probably why you haven't been able to tame them very well.

[shiny]

The repetitive behaviour you describe could be stereotypical behaviour caused by being bored or maybe he was just having a funny evening :) Has it happened again?

Have you tried rearranging his cage for a bit of variety? It would give him more to explore & investigate. Try rotating the toys you have in his cage every few days so there is always something 'new' & he doesn't get bored of them. Try getting him out of the cage into a secure playpen with different toys for an hour in the evening.

Good luck :)

[kyrilliondaemon]

When one of our robos did that the best temporary solution was getting her out for lots of playtime. The permanent solution ended up being getting a bigger cage though.

[Kirsty09]

Hello everyone.

Thankyou for your replies. I cant get them out for playtime as much as id like to as they arent tame atall and whenever i have tried in the bath it scares the life out of them! I do feed them a mealworm from my hand every eve and always have done but they wont sit on my hand, come near me or allow me to get them out for playtime. If i put them into something else for playtime they spend their whole time being scared half to death and stay in a toilet roll tube :(

I know playtime out of the cage would be good but it just doesnt seem possible with these 2... I have spent so long trying to tame them but to no avail. It makes me really sad they cant be in together which would at least give them company...I got 2 so that they would have company and not be lonely but due to them fighting they had to be split up months ago...

I am at a loss of what to do really :(

[vanilla-yazoo]

i know some hybrids start spinning or pacing due to bad breeding, if these two where from a pet shop they could have been inbred at some point, It can effect robos in the same way, im sure i read it somewhere.

It could be that, but it could well be that he is bored.
maybe as kyril said change it about, maybe try a new bedding or something really new, you if both are in a duna you could even swap bases around if you have a carrier to use in the swappng stage (careful not to put two in one) then the smells of the other would keep them company, without the fights, or at least the smell will break the habit so they focus on scenting and going back to the toys.

what wheels do they use? i know sometimes a change of wheel helps syrians with issues :D

[Kirsty09]

Hello,

I got them from the adoption part of Pets at Home but they had been brought in as part of an unwanted litter so i guess they well could have been.

He is still doing it, although going in corcles a different way now so thats the last 4 nights he has been doing it. The other one isnt in a duna he is in an imac fantasy so he does have a lot more room. Unfortunately i never intended the duna to be used as it is a little on the small side, but i had no other choice when i had to split them up as that was the only other cage i had.

I may try swapping the wheels though as one has a flying saucer and the other a Savic Rolly wheel so perhaps ill swap those and some toys around and see if that helps.

Do you think they will ever be able to go back in together? I am guessing not if they used to fight really bad. Its such a shame as they were litter mates...

Thankyou everyone for your help.

[Kirsty09]

Hello everyone. Just an update to this. I found an extra 2 layers to my Immac Fantasy cage so added that to the one i already have so the one that is going round in corcles is now out of his mini duna and has 2 large floors of the immac with wheels, toys etc etc. The other one is still on the same 2 floors he was on and is fine. The "spinning/circling one" is still running round in circles though even though he has a larger cage! So maybe he is poorly rather than just bored...

[shiny]

At least you know it doesn't seem so much to be a cage size thing if he's still doing it in a bigger cage. I would still try for good enrichment activities though to try to distract from this behaviour if possible.

[fluffymunchkins]

Behaviour like 'circling' is usually down to stress, ear infection or a neurological problem.
Merry appeared to 'star-gaze' as a pup, but it stopped once he was seperated from his dad who was causing some stress.
If its neurological unfortunately nothing can be done but to try and deal with the symptoms (keeping his environment calm and easy for him to move around).
Otherwise an ear infection could be treated, but as hes not tame it would be difficult to diagnose and treat.

Pacing i would think would be more down to boredom and I would try and give him playtime outside the cage. You can do this by giving him a mug to climb into so you can move him in that x

[LoveMyHams]

Try a small ball for him. My robo does run in his every night and he enjoys it. It would give him something new to do and see.

[Kirsty09]

Thankyou everyone. I will try those suggestions to see if they help :)