Hi there. It's all been said really. If you've had him over a week then gradual taming sessions could start. Normally the recommendation is not to clean their cage at all for the first 2 weeks to give them time to feel established in their new home and mark everything. If you get him out into the playpen I would stick to doing this once a week at the moment unless he is actually coming to the cage door and wanting to come out.
As Coco says, a potty litter tray means very little cage cleaning needs doing and less often. I have this one - it sits neatly in a corner. I put it in our hamster's wee corner after we'd had him a couple of weeks and he started using it straight away. His cage stayed so clean that I had to just give the toys a wipe now and then as they were gathering dust ha ha. The other thing is to make sure there is plenty of depth of substrate in the cage - the more you put in, the less there is to remove and the bottom of the cage stays clean and dry. This is explained better in a video on cage cleaning tips by Erin's Hamsters - I found this really helpful and have been doing it her way for some time now and our hamster is much less stressed about cage cleans.
Once they find someone has been doing stuff in their cage when they were out of the cage, they can get reluctant to come out as they are kind of guarding it. Just give him longer to settle in and get things how he wants in his cage, and maybe just feed him the odd treat through the bars and talk to him for now, then try him in the playpen again in about a week (unless he is showing signs of wanting to come out). That way he will get familiar with your scent and voice and be less anxious around you. By doing Erin's method I just used to empty the potty litter tray once a week, wash it out with fairy liquid, rinse it, dry it, refill it with hamster potty litter (or you can use Chinchilla bathing sand) and apart from that there wasn't even any spot cleaning to do. I'd check his house/hoard once a week to make sure there was no rotting veg in there. Now I only need to do a full cage clean about 3 or 4 times a year.
As long as you have the basics - a cage that has enough floor area, 3 to 4" minimum of substrate/litter, food, water bottle, a hide/house for him to build a nest in, strips of torn up white toilet paper for nesting material (put a big pile in for his nest building) and a wheel the correct size, then anything else is a bonus - some toys, hidey places or a rat chew tube on the floor to hide/play in.
Their nest is their number one most important thing in their lives. They don't like it being removed or messed with. If it isn't wee'd in it is best to leave it. Even if it does get wee'd in, always leave a bit of the old nest behind and put out more strips of white toilet paper so he can rebuild it. So it's best to not remove the nest during any cleaning sessions - unless absolutely necessary.
Not sure what cage you were sold but most pet shops sell you a cage that is way too small for a Syrian hamster. The RSPCA minimum recommended size is 75cm by 45cm continuous floor space, so there are a fair few 80cm x 50 cm cages around to meet this requirement, although many people think 100cm x 50cm is a better size for a syrian. They also need a wheel which is 27cm to 30cm in diameter - most pet shop cages come with a very small 6" or less wheel which is only big enough for mice or dwarf hamsters. So if a 27cm wheel won't fit in the cage, the cage is too small. They need a wheel that size so they can run with a straight back, or they develop spinal problems. We started out with something too small and a small wheel and then I found this forum!
Anyway here's the link to Erin's cage cleaning video. I can't connect to Amazon right now but if you type in 'Hamster potty tray' it's just a basic corner plastic tray about 16cm size.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jVnEjrXbww
Re: Play pen freak out
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