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Old 06-24-2021, 07:10 PM   #1
Hammy_Newbie
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Default Hamster sleeping at night

We adopted a Syrian hamster, Cookie, from an animal rescue centre 2 weeks ago and I am a bit worried about some of her behaviours.

She is in a hamster heaven with trixie 11 inch wheel, ferplast guinea pig house, lots of chews, hides and hanging boredom breakers. However, she has been biting the bars a bit (I was warned she was a chewer) and I’ve noticed a few times when I’ve checked on her in the middle of the night that she has been sleeping. She is always asleep during the day unless she is roused so we can clean her cage or something but usually wakes up at around 7pm and is active from then in - going in her wheel, exploring the cage, eating or occasionally chewing the bars. When I go to bed around 11pm she is always awake and I’ll usually let her out for a run around at this point, but a few times if I’ve woken in the early hours and checked on her, she is fast asleep. Is this normal? I’m worried she might be a bit bored/ depressed.

She won’t sleep in the ferplast house and instead has built a nest in the open, underneath the lower of the two platforms. Her coconut, she has completely filled with substrate so that she can no longer go in it and she did the same to her toilet, which had sand in it.

She is doing a lot of rubbing against things, especially when I let her out of the cage, which I’m guessing is her marking her territory but I’m not familiar with that as our previous hamster never did it. She’s still a little wary of us but if I’m in the room she’ll often wait by the door and once I open the door, she’ll climb out.

I have a hammock and more toys on order but is there anything else I could be doing to keep her busy and entertained? I might try and add a sand bath to see if she likes that and I’ve started scattering half her food so she can forage.

She came to the animal rescue centre in a small cage with little enrichment and had apparently been staying with a friend of the original owner for a couple of weeks before being given away. She was then with a fosterer for 2 weeks in a big, well set-up cage so we are her fourth ‘owners’ in the space of a couple of months. I imagine she’s probably feeling unsettled and half expecting to be moved again soon.

Does anyone have any ideas about how to make her more settled or is it just a case of giving it time?
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Old 06-24-2021, 11:08 PM   #2
LunaTheHamster1
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Default Re: Hamster sleeping at night

Yes, just give her time, thats a lot of changes for a little one. Although, she sounds qiite tame already.
Yes, the rubbing you see is just her marking her territory
And yes, hamsters sleep during the night as well.. All hamster vary in their sleep/awake patterns, I wish mine would wake up at 7
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Old 06-27-2021, 02:44 AM   #3
Hammy_Newbie
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Default Re: Hamster sleeping at night

Thanks. Yes she is much tamer than our previous hamster who hid in her tubes for weeks when we first got her! I checked her at 3am this morning and she was up and scurrying about so I think you’re right and she just needs a little time to realise that this is her forever home and she won’t be being moved again.
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Old 10-07-2021, 04:31 PM   #4
GhostBella
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Default Re: Hamster sleeping at night

Sounds normal mines the same she will get up at 5:30pm at 9pm she comes out for free roam for a couple of hours then when she gets put back in she will eat, drink, wheel and play with her beloved boxes! Its now 12:15am and shes gone to bed probably for a couple of hours as usual then she will get bk up and do her hamster thing! Usually 4/5am she will be back in bed untill i get up a 8am when shes still up waiting for her bit of toast from me (her favourite) then she"ll mooch around for half hr, then get ready for bed by having a good long drink, back up 5:30pm!
You will soon learn whats normal for urs regarding her times.

The sleeping arrangement belive it or not is normal too! Hamsters like switching and changing where they sleep thats why Bella now has 3 beds to choose from. Last week i found her asleep outside in her run in a box smaller than a can of coke! no bedding just a few pieces of care fresh she took in, made me laugh. I didnt want her to get cold so i got all her bedding she heard and smelt it woke up (11:30am) and as i started giving her the bedding she got excited and run 2 laps of her pen then was literally taking the bedding out my hand and making her own bed. I also put her big plastic hut over the top so she had a bedroom as the box shes choose is ridiculous!
Make sure the bed yours has isnt to small! Sounds contradicting after what Bella now sleeps in but if they only have 1 choice of bed and its to tight for them or they get to hot in there they wont use it!
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Old 10-07-2021, 10:32 PM   #5
Ria P
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Default Re: Hamster sleeping at night

I'd put a big heap of torn into strips, plain white toilet paper near her house for nesting material which may encourage her to make a nest inside the house.

All our hamsters have the Ferplast guinea pig houses but only the Syrians sleep in theirs and nowhere else.
The dwarfs change sleeping locations. Hamsters are very individual with different sleeping habits and patterns.
I sometimes get up during the night and cannot see one awake hamster.
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