New ham lives in burrows

[meganm]

I've had baby Lilac (~9 week old Syrian from ethical breeder) for 3 weeks now and she seems to come to the surface only to get food and play in her sandbath and only when I am away. She has 14 inches of bedding and basically lives in her burrows. I'm wondering if she is content to be down there since she isn't getting any exercise on her wheel or other enrichment. Also wondering ways I can help her adjust and hopefully spend a little more time above ground. I've recently started to scatter feed, so hoping that may help.

[souffle]

We don't give young hamsters that amount of bedding until they are tame as they do exactly what yours are doing. We teach ours to come out by ruffling the bedding when we feed them and then start with a lift and lay down. Take them out to a safe place over a taming box and lift and lay down then eventually lift and run through the hands like a tunnel so they feel your hands around them. Once they are confident with this you could return the deep bedding but till she is tame I would remove most of it leaving a corner with a deep pile. Many people wouldn't agree but we have successfully tamed hundreds of hamsters Did they breeder offer any advice and was she tamed before coming to you? If already tamed they can be skitty for a bit in a new home but you need to keep up handling or else they will regress again.

[meganm]

Thank you so much for the reply! She was tamed and I didn't ask the breeder cause I wasn't too concerned.

I did think that removing the bedding would be harmful, but I think you may be right that it is for the best. I just removed so there's about 6 inches all around and a pile in the corner.

I appreciate the taming advice. It's something I can combine with another method I've seen.