Hello everyone! This is my first post so I apologize if I was supposed to post elsewhere first, but I am looking for some advice. I adopted my first hamster yesterday and I am super excited. As of right now I have him in what I’m calling a starter cage with all of the essentials that help him acclimate to his new home. I have not bothered him at all since placing him in his new home except to make sure he has fresh water and to get a larger piece of substrate out of his food dish.
Although I have done what I felt was a great amount of research to prepare myself to be the best hamster parent, I am having some concerns that I hope someone can help me with.
It seems silly, but my little guy has spent a lot of his time (when not running on his wheel) sitting in his food bowl. Sometimes eating, sometimes not. He frequently cleans himself while in there and could possibly even be going to the bathroom which also causes me to worry. I tried to research if this is normal as I know they rely heavily on exercise and like to explore, but I feel as if the internet is making me more paranoid than I should be.
Not only this, but after returning from work today I noticed he must have done a lot of burrowing and rearranging of his bedding while I was gone. I assumed this was alright as I want him to be comfortable, but a lot of the bedding had made it’s way under his wheel and I was worried that it would keep him from his track career. Because of this, I very slowly and carefully reached in to brush some of it away and he seemed very very frightened and started to kind of run around quickly. I also made sure that he was aware I was there so he wasn’t blindsided. Since then, he seems very hesitant to go to that side of the cage and returned to his hideout after just officially waking up for his day.
I feel awful but I had good intentions and I’m not sure what I should have done differently. I washed my hands before reaching in as I had just been at work so I’m not sure if maybe there is a slight lingering scent he hates or what.
I sincerely apologize for the long post but even after just one day I feel like I am messing up and I just want him to be as happy as possible. I had planned on not bothering him at all for at least a week and then attempt to introduce myself a bit more but not push it. Did I potentially delay any build up of trust? Hopefully I don’t sound too dramatic.
I’d appreciate absolutely any help. Thank you all so much.