liam4mail
10-26-2008, 05:46 PM
I should thank my lucky stars for Toby. He is eating all foods and not reacting to any of them. He eats all of his mix so I know he is having a balanced diet. Unfortunately he poos in the same place as he stores food so this I need to keep an eye on. He is not at all nervous. Nothing phases him. I could put a dinosaur in the cage and he would slowly approach it.
Within the cage he has a wooden playbox. When my laptop is sorted and when I have added the second layer to his cage I will show you the mansion in full. Anyway this box was bought on eBay as a hamster box, sealed. It is a lovely thing really. There is a hallway, three chambers (one of which I thought would be a perfect bed and he has turned it into just that!) and a ramp. Underneath the ramp is a hiding place.
The box had a lid but after a number of days I removed it because I thought he would hide inside the box way too much. He now looks out from each chamber at me since I removed the lid. I sometimes think he is playing hide-and-seek with me! He also uses the pieces of wood that seperate the chambers as planks to walk on. So I feel I made the right decision to get rid of the lid.
There was one night, and I describe it as our 'argument'. I took the box up to check on his store. His expression said it all. He was shocked. I then removed the bedding because I wanted to give him new paper. He was in shock again. It was funny in a way as he started to rush the few scraps of bedding that were left into his pouch. Since then he moves all his food from the dish into his store as soon as I give him fresh food.
Is this normal? I feel it is just him. He does not like to be handled. But he takes food from my hand. He never runs away from me when I change water or anything like that. So I cannot say he feels threatened by me and that is why he rushes to stash his food.
One night during the week I checked on the store. He rushed to add it to his pouches. But did not mind me otherwise.
I put him in his playball earlier and cleared the whole cage. I cleaned out the poo, washed the box a little and gave him new paper. I rubbed my hands in the latter before tossing it all over the box (and I can hear him nest-making as I type). I cleared all the Carefresh from the wee corner and anywhere else it could be especially dirty but I did leave a small portion behind and mixed it with the new. I have noticed he (very recently) mixes some Carefresh with his bedding. Is this OK? Maybe it is because the nights are getting colder. Perhaps I should give him a second type of bedding. I give him the Wilkinsons white paper bedding now. I decided against the wool after ami_j said it is reported it blocks hamster pouches. I keep meaning to pick up the bedding that looks like J-Cloth and give him a mixture of the two types.
Fresh food goes straight to the store as well but I am not in much of a panic about it as he seems to have the sense to finish it quickly.
There was so little left in the store tonight. My goodness that guy know how to eat! There was one third of a Bonio left after I gave him a fresh one on Friday. I threw it out because of the poo. He can have a new one some time this week.
So is this just him, something he does, move all food to the store immediately? I cannot really associate this action with the night I caused him to panic because around this time he was only getting the know that box properly. I can get away with doing odd jobs and small clean-ups when he is in the cage but maybe to avoid drama I will leave doing a complete makeover until he is in his playball (which he loves too!) The handling, maybe it will happen in time. If not, as long as he is happy I am.
Within the cage he has a wooden playbox. When my laptop is sorted and when I have added the second layer to his cage I will show you the mansion in full. Anyway this box was bought on eBay as a hamster box, sealed. It is a lovely thing really. There is a hallway, three chambers (one of which I thought would be a perfect bed and he has turned it into just that!) and a ramp. Underneath the ramp is a hiding place.
The box had a lid but after a number of days I removed it because I thought he would hide inside the box way too much. He now looks out from each chamber at me since I removed the lid. I sometimes think he is playing hide-and-seek with me! He also uses the pieces of wood that seperate the chambers as planks to walk on. So I feel I made the right decision to get rid of the lid.
There was one night, and I describe it as our 'argument'. I took the box up to check on his store. His expression said it all. He was shocked. I then removed the bedding because I wanted to give him new paper. He was in shock again. It was funny in a way as he started to rush the few scraps of bedding that were left into his pouch. Since then he moves all his food from the dish into his store as soon as I give him fresh food.
Is this normal? I feel it is just him. He does not like to be handled. But he takes food from my hand. He never runs away from me when I change water or anything like that. So I cannot say he feels threatened by me and that is why he rushes to stash his food.
One night during the week I checked on the store. He rushed to add it to his pouches. But did not mind me otherwise.
I put him in his playball earlier and cleared the whole cage. I cleaned out the poo, washed the box a little and gave him new paper. I rubbed my hands in the latter before tossing it all over the box (and I can hear him nest-making as I type). I cleared all the Carefresh from the wee corner and anywhere else it could be especially dirty but I did leave a small portion behind and mixed it with the new. I have noticed he (very recently) mixes some Carefresh with his bedding. Is this OK? Maybe it is because the nights are getting colder. Perhaps I should give him a second type of bedding. I give him the Wilkinsons white paper bedding now. I decided against the wool after ami_j said it is reported it blocks hamster pouches. I keep meaning to pick up the bedding that looks like J-Cloth and give him a mixture of the two types.
Fresh food goes straight to the store as well but I am not in much of a panic about it as he seems to have the sense to finish it quickly.
There was so little left in the store tonight. My goodness that guy know how to eat! There was one third of a Bonio left after I gave him a fresh one on Friday. I threw it out because of the poo. He can have a new one some time this week.
So is this just him, something he does, move all food to the store immediately? I cannot really associate this action with the night I caused him to panic because around this time he was only getting the know that box properly. I can get away with doing odd jobs and small clean-ups when he is in the cage but maybe to avoid drama I will leave doing a complete makeover until he is in his playball (which he loves too!) The handling, maybe it will happen in time. If not, as long as he is happy I am.