Sleeping under her wheel.

[Lei]

We adopted an 8 month old Chinese hamster called Charlotte a few weeks ago. She's quite timid but seems to be healthy enough. However she's recently spurned her bed and started sleeping underneath the base of her flying saucer.

Is this okay? Will she be getting enough air under there? I've bought a silent spinner since she keeps kicking bedding all over the saucer anyway. I could take the saucer out if it isn't safe for her to be sleeping under it. I don't want to change anything if it isn't necessary, because she's still getting used to us and don't want to upset her.

Any advice is much appreciated.

[racinghamster]

Hi Lei, congratulations on your new girl, Chinese hamsters are lovely. I would say that what she is doing (digging down and under things) is a natural thing for the Chinese, so I wouldn`t worry at all. They do tend to dig down and make lovely ball shaped nests sometimes. My female used to do this which is why I never liked messing around with her bed area because whenever I did lift off the tea box she made her home, there would be a lovely nest built so I would only remove some of the nesting and replace it with fresh and replace the box again!

If she actually uses the flying saucer to play on, I would just leave it in. But if she never uses it, or the wheel won`t turn because she`s tilted it or moved it, you could try giving her the silent spinner as well if the cage has space for both? If not, see if she is using the flying saucer and just take things from there.

The weather is extremely warm at the moment so she may want to nest in various places rather than her actual bed, so I would just leave her to do what she wants. x

[Lei]

Thanks There's plenty of room for both so I'll leave both in for now. She does use the flying saucer, but I have to clear the substrate off it for her before she can run on it, which I guess means she can't use it all the time.

The digging under things does sound a lot like her actually. She's got a really deep layer of substrate at the bottom of her cage and she moves about under it rather than on top. She just sticks her head out of it occasionally to have a look around, which is really cute.

[racinghamster]

My friend`s Chinese hamster does this as well. They do seem to like to dig down under things! Little and often with Chinese hamsters is the approach I take. I always let the hamster dictate things and my female was a dream to won, she really was. Such a character. They are very shy by nature, but that does get better with time and patience. x