Beginner here in dire need of help and advice !

[Mocha]

Hello everyone ! As the title says, I'm a complete beginner and Pêche is my very first hamster and despite reading all the advice I can find on the internet and also reading again and again the small book I have on caring for hamsters, I'm at a loss at what to do... Also English isn't my first language so apologies in advance if I make mistakes in my post...

So, I've had Pêche the Syrian hamster for nearly three weeks now, I know it isn't a long time and he's still adjusting but I feel like I'm not making any progress at all and I suppose I also need the reassurance as I tend to stress over pretty much anything. ^^' So Pêche is absolutely adorable, first week he explored his new home rather gleefully, was very curious and is playing with his toys, wheel, drinking and feeding without any problem. Thing is, I noticed he adopted his house right away to build his nest. So far no problem. But as I did the first weekly cleaning, I noticed he uses his nest to store his food AND also as his toilet corner... Which means I have to rummage through his nest even if I try to salvage at least part of it. :// But I think he's doing that because after that first week of settling in, he stopped coming out of his house whenever I'm around and if I happen to catch him when he's out he scurries back inside to hide.

And it's been like that ever since, so I'm a bit dejected. .-.' I had already started getting him out a few times for playtime using a cup to transport him and he even got used to my hands, but I realize now it was perhaps too soon to start this. Since, for example, he doesn't go near the cup anymore if I try to use it... So for now I stopped getting him out of his cage unless it's cleaning time because I can't do otherwise, but even then I barely see his adorable fluff as he hides from me all the time. I tried different methods, like giving him treats, speaking softly to him, and I only got so far as he (sometimes) accepts treats given from the tips of my fingers and may step with his forepaws on my open palm to pick up seeds. But I always have to present the food at the entrance of his house or else he won't come out, as he wants to hide in his house right away. Which he does once he's got the food in his mouth. I also tried leaving tissues with my scent on it, twice, but it tends to drive him away. These two times he didn't come around his food bowl and the food in it was left untouched, so I decided not to do that anymore either.

I really don't know what to do to make him trust me enough so he at least comes out while I'm around, as, since he doesn't do that, I can't try to set a playtime or anything... And it's very frustrating not to even be able to see him. ^^' It tends to worry me too as I'd like to check up on him as well, to see if he's healthy and all. Although so far he seems okay since I hear him play when the lights are out and he picks up the food I leave for him and he drinks his water regularly.

So yeah... Any advice would be very very helpful and reassuring so thank you very much in advance to anyone who's willing to take some time to answer me !
(And sorry for the long post also .-.')

[velma]

Hello, welcome to HC. Your English is much better than my French! Actually, your English is probably better than my English

You're right, 3 weeks isn't long. I think maybe that trying all these different things is confusing him. He might be better with a little routine & consistency. I'd go back to the start and treat him like you just got him. A few days of peace & quiet & them gradually start again.

A lot of hamsters pee and hoard foodin their nest. Cleo, my Syrian did when I first got her. You can try & encourage him to adopt a toilet corner elsewhere. For ease of cleaning if you use something like a biscuit jar or a ceramic dish it makes life even easier. I use chinchilla sand in mine (but NOT chinchilla dust, it is bad for their breathing) some people use children's play sand they have baked in the oven to sterilise. I put her sand jar in the corner of her cage and added a bit of the pee'd on substrate to it & cleaned the rest from her nest. I did this til she naturally started using the jar anyway. The it's just a matter of changing the jar & less upset to your hamster as it don't have to fiddle with their best too much. Also, if your cage is big enough, then you don't need to do full weekly cleans. "Spot cleaning" is fine & doesn't remove their scent which they find stressful so changing their toilet corner & removing soiled bedding, that sort of thing.
I hope that helps for now

[Mocha]

Haha, thank you very much for the compliment, I try my best ! But I'm sure your French isn't bad either !

And thank you for all the advice, it is very helpful !! I think I'll do as you say and leave Pêche alone for a few days until he's comfortable coming out when I'm around. Honestly I hope that won't take too long. ^^' But I'll wait and probably keep you updated if you don't mind that is ! What do you think would be the best next step to do after he's comfortable enough to be out wandering in his cage when I'm around ?

It's true there are so many different advices out there on the internet I might have tried to follow them all and obviously it didn't work out too well. ^^' I wanted to do so good that yeah, obviously Pêche is very confused now about my random behaviour, haha. But yeah, I did read that a full cleaning isn't necessary and might be stressful, especially at the beginning so I only do spot cleaning once a week ! As I said, the only problem is since he hides in his house I have to put him in a playpen (where he doesn't play much...) while I try to clean his nest from the pee and poop while preserving it as best as I can.

I did try to potty train him as I read about that too, I'd actually bought a little toilet container (or whatever it is called ^^') when I first got him. So far I managed to get him to pee and poop in another corner of his cage but he still poops and pees in his nest on his food hoard ! I only noticed today he's using that other corner as his toilets while I was spot cleaning, and so I placed the toilet bowl in that corner underneath new bedding and a bit of soiled bedding. He noticed it right away but I dunno if he used it yet, that corner is covered by a bridge 'cause I know else he won't go there without something to hide. But do you think it's preferable to use a container with sand in it, like a sand bath he could use as his toilets, or can the little toilet bowl with bedding suffice ? I don't have any sand available right now sadly, although I did order chinchilla sand online but it'll take a little while until I receive the package...

Also, as I got him out today to clean (since I clean every sunday), keeping the interaction at a minimum, I noticed something he never did before and that he makes littles noises so I'm a little worried ?? While he was exploring the playpen and even after I got him back in his cage he made that small sound, something between a huff and a sneeze and I just dunno if it's a bad sign, like the beginning of an illness or something else or well... He stopped for now and hasn't made that noise since, but it was very surprising ! Is it a bad sign ? ^^'

Sorry for all the questions, I hope it isn't a bother !!

[velma]

The poop isn't a problem as it's dry so I wouldn't worry about that. It's trying to get them to pee in one place that can be hard but it sounds like that is working. I like sand as they seem to quite like a dig in it but bedding in his toilet is fine too. Some of the hamster toilets you can buy are a bit small so just make sure Péche can fit in it comfortably or he may not want to use it. And as the area is covered by the bridge he should feel comfortable and not too exposed so that is good.

While not noisy like Guinea pigs, some hamsters are more vocal than others. Sometimes they make excited "chittering" noises, sometimes they can huff a bit if they've been disturbed. They can catch a cold from people and dusty environments also affect their breathing but you get a sort of clicking whistling noise with sneezes when it's that. Péche was probably just a little bit grumpy at being out of his cage

I'm sure that he'll settle in soon enough. When he's used to your hand in his cage, try offering him a treat. With Cleo who was very nervous, I started by holding something like a stick of red pepper, that way she could hold one end and nibble away while I held the other. Got her used to being near me without having to take something straight from my hand. And then I started offering her small treats for her to take from my fingers. So I didn't over feed her bad things, when I refilled her food bowl I picked out her favourite bits (usually the sunflower seeds and sweet corn) and offered her those and then some days I gave her extra treats.

Let us know how it goes

[Pebbles82]

Sometimes you can get into an itch/scratch cycle with cleaning out houses. I had this a while ago. If you remove some of their hoard due to the nest being wet, they tend to wee on the hoard to scent mark it! They scent mark things to stop people stealing their food! I think you are doing the right thing by providing a potty in the corner he has chosen as a toilet. Our hamster rarely pee'd in his nest until he ran out of space for his hoard and started putting his hoard in his potty (he had a big house with the potty inside it). So every time I emptied his potty, I had to throw away some of his hoard. I always replaced the thrown away hoard with new food, next to the potty rather than in it! (It's important to replace the hoard). Nothing seemed to work until I changed his house - I ended up getting him an even bigger one so he had room for his hoards and his potty! That seemed to do the trick.

Like yours he initially had a potty corner in the cage, but when I got him a new bigger house he moved his potty corner into the house - so I moved the potty into the house - which worked well for quite some time until he ran out of space for his hoard!

Not sure what cage you have, but a bigger house might help. You can make one out of a shoe box with a door cut out - if you have two shoe boxes, even better, because the first one will get wee soaked until you work out which end he is nesting and which end he is weeing in. Then you can replace it with the new shoe box house and put the potty in the wee corner inside his house.

But as Velma says, 3 weeks isn't long and generally it's best not to do any cleaning for the first couple of weeks until they have scent marked the cage. During that time a bit of spot cleaning is ok - ie taking out the off handful of wee'd on substrate and replacing it with a new handful.

I agree with starting again and giving your hamster a few days on his own to settle in again. You could try putting the shoe box house in and then leaving him on his own for a few days.

After that, some people do the tissue trick so the hamster gets familiar with your scent. Put some white toilet paper up your sleeve for a few hours, then tear it into sheets and tear each sheet lengthways into 5 or 6 strips and put the pile of paper strips somewhere in the cage so your hamster can pouch it and build up his nest with it (this is the best/safest type of nesting material). He will get used to your scent from the paper.

Meanwhile just talk gently to him through the cage. After the few days, move on to offering him a treat through the bars. Then a few days later, offer him a treat on your hand - but best to do this through the open door rather than putting your hand right in the cage. You could then move on to getting him out in a tube with a treat at the far end. He needs a bit of time to build confidence. We used to get ours out in a tube and put the far end of the tube in his ball, and use his ball to transport him to the dry bathtub for taming. We had some toys in the bathtub, let him run around in there and got him used to being handled while in there. It took a few sessions. If he's a dwarf hamster then balls aren't good for them to run in, but a ball can be useful as a safe way of transporting them somewhere.

I've added a link to a good video on cage cleaning routines, by Erin's Hamsters - it worked well for me I've also added the link to a little video I did on bathtub taming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jVnEjrXbww

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjyEme2xcq4

[HenriandHobieHammies]

Hello and welcome to HC!!!! When it comes to taming, taking it slow is definetly a must. What I would suggest doing is (if you have a bathtub) putting your hammy in the bathtub with no water and letting him run around. After 1-4 minutes of him getting used to the tub (you can put some familiar toys to help) place your hand in the bathtub with his favorite food in it. Wait for him to come and don't try to grab him. Repeat this process until he is at least mildly hand tame or has no problem being near your hand. If you want to take his tameness to the next level, lay in the bathtub and let him crawl on you. It may seem strange, but if he has no other place to crawl, he will have to get used to your scent
As for the toilet question, like Velma said, it is possible to potty train. What I tend to do though, instead of saving the nest, save the bedding from it. Discard any bedding that he has gone to the bathroom on and keep some of the clean bedding. He will still remember the scent and be able to feel at home.
When your hamster makes a huffing noise it tends to mean that he has been disturbed or is annoyed. Don't worry about this, just don't do the behaviour as often.
I hope I helped Good luck taming

[tonimilw]

Hi. You've had lots of good advice but I would add that maybe try giving him a treat when you put your hand in the cage. He may learn to associate you with something nice. I did this with my boy and now he happily lets me stroke him and pick him up even without a treat but when I out him back down I do give him a treat as well. Good luck x

[Mocha]

Thank you everyone for all the wonderful advice, it's very much appreciated and I'm very thankful to you all !

Thank you Velma for your answer about the toilet, it is true it didn't cross my mind to check if it's big enough, which seems really silly of me now... I'll make sure to check that and see how the potty training goes, as I started it not too long ago. So far Pêche pees both in his nest and in that toilet corner but I hope with time and all of your advice guys he'll stop doing his business in his nest so I don't have to disturb it (and him !). Also I'm glad to know the noise was just annoyed huffs rather than a sign of sickness ! It was just so odd. XD

Also thanks Serependipity for the videos, they were very educational ! ^^ I think I might even check out ErinsAnimals other videos later. (Also I must say your Charlie is absolutely adorable and that tree looks like a lot of fun !) It's very useful to know and I did replace some of his hoard I had to throw away because of the pee, I hope he slowly feels less territorial now so Pêche doesn't feel the need to mark it anymore. XD I think the idea of a bigger house is great but as you said since Pêche's still settling I don't want to change the setting of his cage too much and especially his house he seems very fond of for now since he's still so skittish. Also the biggest obstacle is indeed the size of his cage. ^^' I think it'll be very difficult for me to squeeze in a house the size of a shoebox... Not to worry, I made sure the cage is at least the minimum for a Syrian hamster to feel comfortable in, but seriously, it is a real pain to find a decent sized hamster cage in France in petstores... I bought the biggest I could find at the petstore and sorry I don't know the name of the model but I think the size is the same as the um... "Alaska" ? if I remember well, that can be ordered on Zooplus. With the few toys I put in his cage, it's already pretty cramped, that's why I don't think I could put a bigger house for now... (The wheel in particular is taking like, 1/4 of the space.) His current house is a decent size but he only uses half of it, the one farthest from the entrance of course. I'll make sure to follow the rest of your advice though and if he stills pees on his hoard and part of his nest I might try to find a way to give him a bigger house.

Thanks again for all the wonderful advice everyone, it's especially useful and reassuring for me to know now each step of the taming process I should go through and how to proceed, I feel a bit more confident now. ^^ I just need to remember to be patient and take it at Pêche's pace ! I was very stressed out and confused so receiving all your support is awesome.

I'd like to ask one more thing again, sorry I know my post is already gigantic but Serendipity, you talked about the tissue trick, do you think I should try it out again (after leaving Pêche alone for a little while that is), since my first two attempts he didn't like it at all and avoided going near his food bowl because of the tissues ? What do you guys think ? And if I use the tissue trick, how often do I put in a new scented tissue ? Should I persist if he just keeps avoiding them ?

Thank you all so very much again, also for the warm welcome, I'll make sure to keep you updated on my progress with Pêche !!

[Pebbles82]

You could try it again. Did you tear up the tissue? Plain white toilet paper is best. Then I tear it into sheets along the perforations and then tear each sheet lengthways into 5 or 6 strips. Maybe put it away from his food bowl next time. You might find the pile of paper doesn't go down much at first, but suddenly one day it will look smaller I think it's best to put the paper in the cage and let them take it, rather than put it in their house as that could be annoying. Like if someone lent you a spare duvet and left it out for you if you needed it, but if they came in your bedroom and put it on your bed for you that might be annoying - invasion of space!

I'm sure he'll settle in soon And if he likes his house, that's just fine.

[cypher]

I usually keep the tissue trick up for several days when I first get a ham & it's never too late to take that step back & begin again.
I generally put a fresh piece of tissue from my sleeve in each day for a few days, in any clear area, it just needs to sit in the cage really so your scent becomes more familiar, I really don't think it matters if they use it to nest or not although it's always nice if they do!