Circling hamster

[cypher]

Don't mean to be splitting hairs here or anything but OCD & obsessive behaviour are two different things RH, these days the term OCD is often used quite flippantly & misunderstood which is one reason I don't find it helpful to label hams that way, my point anyway was just to give a little more thought to what might have caused him to begin getting a bit obsessed & what might help prevent it from happening again with something else.

[racinghamster]

The term OCD probably doesn`t exist in the animal world but animals do exhibit similar repetitive behaviours so OCD possibly best describes it even though it may not be the best title to use. It is used in the mouse world for obsessive itching. What I`m trying to say is, if the robo is using a `tool` like the log toy to obsess over and show repetitive behaviour, changing the logs position, or removing it for a while to see if that behaviour changes is the only way to test whether the robo still exhibits the behaviour, or if the log is the stimulation for the behaviour. Larry did seem to improve when the log was removed, which is why I suggested keeping it out for 24 hours or so to check on his movements.

I seen my own robo do this with a toilet roll tube and when I took the tube away, he still circled. But moreso when the tube was put back again. Fred was a normal, older roborovki with no indications of this condition/behaviour before he was given a flying saucer wheel. For me, this was the trigger. For other robos, it could be a toy or a small space.

As I said, OCD usually starts (in humans) by an action that becomes addictive. In hamsters, it could be a learned behaviour, who knows. All I know is, Fred would spin and when he stopped, his head would have a `twitch` favouring one side and then the spinning would start again. You could actually see this.

Anyway, I can`t explain any more than I have done and I hope Larry is okay. How is he today Larrymom? x

[Larrymom]

Hello, sorry for the delay, I've been super busy house hunting. It's actually Winston (Winnie) that is the hamster in question, Larry is my russian baby.
He's improved quite a lot. I was watching him earlier and I put a digging box in his cage and he seems to be having a lot of fun with that. Running back and forth through his tubes on to his wheel and back again to dig. I will eventually put the log back in but for now I'll see how he gets on without it and then after a couple of weeks reintroduce it. Maybe I'll give it him for out of cage playtime.

[cypher]

Sounds good

[Piebald]

That's really great and interesting how it worked. Well spotted too Larrymom.