Zeki's Thread - new man in my life

[Thin Lizzy]

Oh the little soul, maybe the number of giraffes made him feel his cage was being invaded lol!
Maybe he needs time out with it for short periods of time to get him use to it.

[pinkneon]

That little giraffe hammock is just darling! I want a big one for me!!

[Pebbles82]

It probably just scared him a bit that something had changed along his route Hope he accepts it next time! I bet he'll love it once he has tried it out.

I had a bendy bridge shelf from Ranchhouse cages - I'm not sure if it's the same one as your bendy bridge - but I think it could be used as a bendy bridge. I had it screwed to the bars just under one of the small front doors in the Barney so Charlie could get in and out easily. It did slope down slightly when attached to the bars but then I didn't use the big washers lol so maybe it wasn't fixed on properly. Sadly with my big cage clean I managed to soak all the colour off and spoiled it a bit (mind you I did pour boiling water on it!) so have a different ranchhouse cage shelf under the door now - just one of the "leaping ledges". They are nice little shelves too.

I got carried away looking at the new Fuzzbutts stuff and ordered a snooze cube for Charlie and thought I'd try him in it for out of cage time and see if he still tries to chew. Too early to tell yet. Just realised it's the same one you have

BRIDGE HOUSE SHELF RAMP CHIPMUNK,HAMSTER,RAT,DEGU CAGE | eBay

[cypher]

I think maybe he's just not a hammock kind of guy! He seems happy with the way things are, pretty much the same as before I started messing with his space lol! he likes his snoozecube & his corner crushes so I think I'll leave it at that for now at least, maybe if he had a bigger cage & I could make a proper hammock level it would work for him but I'm just going to let him settle back down & enjoy things the way they are.
I'm happy to have a spare hammock or two anyway, never know when I might need them!

Serendipity that is the same as the bendy bridges I have, I've got a few, some screwed to the bars in Whispers cage & a few I just took the screws out to use in various other ways.

Pinkneon me too lol! She does make big ones but not quite big enough for us I don't think

[Cinnamon Bear]

A new addition would maximize the excess hammie supplies

[cypher]

Way too soon.

[Piebald]

Lol. He'll probably decide in middle age he loves that hammock.

[cypher]

No updates on Zeki for a while mostly because I've hardly seen him
To say I've been feeling a bit despondent about him is just a bit of an understatement!
He's been getting up later & later & going to back to bed much earlier (about 3am as far as I can tell), I missed him a few nights as I struggle to wait up, I have such a weird body clock that insists on waking me up by about 4am if not earlier so I can only stay up so late without being totally wrecked or just too tired to even interact with him much.
I really prefer to let them have a bit of time to themselves when they first get up but I was getting a bit desperate so tried gently encouraging him out once I'd heard a bit of underground rustling & digging, did that a few nights in a row & I think it was a big mistake as he just seemed to get more nervous each time.
He was still coming & taking a few seeds from me but then he'd just run & hide & not even come back out to run in his beloved wheel until I'd gone to bed.
So I got him some curtains!
His end of the room looks out onto the garden & I've only ever had voile curtains there so it is very light in the evenings & early mornings now so I bought some black out curtains to make it really dark!
Not much of a success last night, he was still very late coming out & just looked at me before running off to hide in total silence again, not even a rustle underground, after waiting about an hour & doing a little coaxing I just gave up & went to bed!
For some reason I did wake up about 1:30 so I crept into the living room knowing he'd be running in his wheel & there he was so I gently opened the door & offered him his chicken which had been ready waiting for him earlier in the evening which he took happily enough then I just left him & went back to bed.
I actually slept to 4:30 this morning got up & heard a wheel going, that doesn't sound like Whisper…. what's going on?!
He was still racing away in the dark totally oblivious to the fact it was actually getting light outside!
I offered him a few seeds which he took happily & greedily, must be hungry after running all night long lol!
Went to give Whisper her morning tofu then went back to him & he was climbing onto the door before I even managed to get it open properly & was all over me then, no fear or nerves whatsoever lol!
We actually had about an hour together with me being more worried about an escape as he was so keen to get out to me than him being nervous, cheeky little man, he was in & out of his pouch which he's been pretending to be scared of for quite a while now no problem at all even when I picked him up in it!
So long ramble over, short version I'm a happy ham mum once again & the curtains were well worth the investment!
If he turns out to be more of a morning person that suits me just fine

[Pebbles82]

Excellent idea to get the curtains! It's funny how lighter nights affect them one way or the other. At first I thought he was sounding like an independent boy like Charlie but the curtains seem to have done the trick Charlie is the opposite for some reason - he comes out much earlier looking for his food now the nights are lighter. He never wants to interact though lol!

[cypher]

I think the dwarf hams respond to light a lot more than temperature & maybe syrians are the opposite?
In the wild dwarf ham burrows have an average temp of about 16C, cooler in summer & warmer in winter than outside, so they aren't so bothered by cooler temperatures, not that I'd let them get cold but I do find they just get on with things in the winter & sleep a lot more in summer!