Advice please for new hamster owner!

merita · 08-22-2009, 03:35 PM

Hi there, I'm new here and new to hamster owning. I bought a syrian male a week ago, having been told by the woman in the store he was "about 6 weeks old". I live alone in a small flat, have no family and few friends, I cannot afford to keep a dog or cat as vets fees are too high and so I got a hamster as it's cheaper to keep. I wanted him to be a friend I could interact with and enjoy, but he is extremely nocturnal, only appearing after 11pm. As I go out to work, I have to be up early in the mornings and cannot change my own habits and stay up at nights to spend time interacting with him. This means I'm unable to have any interaction with him and he isn't really fulfilling the role of pet I can interact with and enjoy. I feed and water an empty cage each afternoon, and I feel like a landlady. Is there a way of changing his nocturnal habits so that we can have a fulfilling friendship?

If not, is there anyone who would like to adopt a young male very nocturnal hamster?

suga · 08-23-2009, 04:16 AM

Hamsters are nocturnal and really do venture out at night. I would get into a routine of changing food and water in the early evening. That should encourage him to come out a bit earlier. Call his name, rattle some treats and hopefully he will start to wake earlier. Then you can start taming and interacting. Hamsters often wake and then go back to sleep. Ours comes out at around 6pm and then goes back to bed till 7pm and then is up. This is when we interact. Have a try and see how you get on. Its early days and as the hamster is still so young, they do sleep a lot.

Good luck

Bunsey · 08-23-2009, 07:49 AM

forgive me for just copying and pasting from my own website, but it's quicker than re-typing

6. WHY DOES MY HAMSTER SLEEP SO MUCH?/CAN I WAKE HIM UP?

Hamsters are nocturnal, meaning they sleep in the day and are awake during the night. This is because in the wild they live in deserts, which are hot during the day. Therefore, hamsters stay underground to keep cool during the day and come out at night, when it's cooler, to hunt for food.

It's not a good idea to wake a hamster up during the day, as this is like waking a human up in the middle of the night - they wouldn't be very happy! If a hamster is startled or poked at during the day they may even bite.

If you wish to train your hamster to wake up earlier, you can try putting food in and tapping on the cage about 15 minutes earlier than he would normally wake. Once he has got used to getting up 15 minutes earlier, start waking him 15 minutes before this... gradually, he will be getting up at the time you desire. However, it is unrealistic to expect a hamster to get up before the evening.

merita · 08-23-2009, 02:14 PM

Thanks for the advice. There has been a very interesting development in this issue. His cage is plastic, with a barred grill in the top that lifts up. Also the top half unclips off the bottom half and there is an 'upstairs' at one end. The set up came with a little plastic 'house' to sleep in, which I filled with his bedding material and which he used happily every day. Because of his nocturnal habit, I hadn't been able to clean or empty this little 'house' to change his bedding. Cleaning the main cage is fine, I just lift out the little house and other bits and put them in my deep sided washing up bowl (just in case he should wake up and go exploring) and do the cleaning. Friday night I can stay up later as I don't work at weekends and I was able to be up when he was awake and took the opportunity to clean and change his bedding. I took the top off the little house and the smell nearly knocked me out - not only had the little so and so been storing his food in there, but he'd been peeing in there too. After a thorough wash I put it back and decided I'd better change his bedding daily if he's going to pee in there all the time as I don't want his skin suffering. Last night I again changed the bedding but the smell was still strong and I decided to ditch the little house and give him a handful of bedding tucked up in one corner under the upstairs. I can put a fresh bed in the other corner each thus, alternate corners daily and he gets a fresh bed and doesn't have to suffer by lying in his own pee.

Sorry to waffle so but I'm getting to the point lol. Because he's no longer so 'hidden away' in his little house, when I take the cage apart for cleaning or whatever, he wakes up and comes to investigate. It's a simple job to then make full of this by interacting with him for a few minutes. I can now easily encourage him awake by just taking the top off the cage and removing his toys and bits and bobs, we can then have our 'together time' and then he can get back to bed for several more hours sleep. We've had two sessions today, he's taken his big ball out for a spin around the sitting room and he's getting on great with being handled. He hasn't bitten me once (yet) unless I approach with a finger while he's asleep, which I quickly learned not to do lol.

He's curious as the proverbial cat, has a bit of a strong will but with a small change in his living arrangements, we're quickly becomming fast friends.

souffle · 08-24-2009, 03:23 AM

I think you may have discovered the key to taming is to not give a house at all! We don't and it is easy then to take of the whole lid and by the time you have done that hammy is usually waking up. Then you can take him out for taming and playtime.
Personally I have no issues with waking hamsters. It is really important especially if they are kiddies pets. Hamsters do get up during the day for a drink and a wee anyway and do not sleep right through. We get ours up when we want to at a time that suits us and have never had any trouble with them.
Try and tempt him to use a potty and keep up with the waking him when you want. There is an article in the WIKI that we wrote on taming.
Sounds like you are doing well so keep at it
XX

merita · 08-24-2009, 09:30 AM

I've seen things posted about potties. How on earth would I train him to use that? I've house trained dogs and cats but a hamster??????? LOL

Bunsey · 08-24-2009, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by merita

I've seen things posted about potties. How on earth would I train him to use that? I've house trained dogs and cats but a hamster??????? LOL

almost all mine use potties, including older rescues and i've never trained them per se... just notice which corner he wees in and stuff a corner potty filled with chinchilla sand in that corner. 90% chance he'll just start using it

merita · 08-25-2009, 11:56 AM

I've put a bowl of sand in the corner opposite where he sleeps. He loves it but I don't know if he'll wee in there or not. He took to it straight away and loves to dig in there, spraying sand everywhere lol. I don't know where he wees, I've not seen him do it and there's no obvious wet patches around. I'll keep a check on the sand and I'll have to get a corner thing to put it in.

souffle · 08-25-2009, 12:05 PM

Baby hamsters wee only tiny wees! Usually by the time they do another it has dried up so you hardly notice it! When you clean him out (only do this about every 2 weeks with a baby so he keeps his scent which helps them settle) look for a sort of white staining on the cage and this will likely be his wee spot with the dried urine crystals on it. Hammy urine is quite thick, opaque and strong as they are desert animals.

merita · 08-26-2009, 01:47 PM

Ok thanks for that. I'll not clean him out so often then, I've been doing it twice a week, thinking I'm helping keep him clean and healthy. Anything to keep him happy and stress free, and that may help with his taming too.