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Old 08-29-2021, 10:20 AM   #1
harmless
Newborn Pup
 
Join Date: Jul 2021
Location: South Carolina, USA
Posts: 45
Default Bean, adopted August 12--Sort of a Journal

Hi... I keep adding on how Bean's taming is coming along on other people's threads so I thought it would be better to start my own. I see that there are other people with new Robos who ask questions here, and my experiences may be interesting or even helpful to them, as theirs may be to me.

By "taming," I mean getting him to relax around me, which I started by just dropping a sunflower seed in front of him (I remove them from his seed/pellet mix, so they are a treat), then offering one from my fingertips, then putting one in the palm of my hand. It took about 10 days before he would get into my hand.

To start at the beginning, I adopted Bean on August 12, thinking he was a Russian dwarf as labeled on his enclosure at the pet store. When I posted a photo here, some people said he was a Robo. I looked that up. Since he doesn't have a stripe down his back, he does have white "eyebrows," and I just got my first clear daylight look at him yesterday, I agree. He is TINY.

I was disappointed because I thought I would probably never have much contact with a Robo, but now, there is some contact, and there may be more to come.

The taming has been slow and sometimes there will be several days on which I only see him for a couple of minutes before he runs back to his burrow. The last few days there seems to have been more progress. Yesterday I came into his room when he was out in the the middle of the day, and he didn't seem to be afraid of me. He wanted his sunflower seed! He's gotten used to hopping onto my hand to get them. I had just put out his seed/pellet mix and he went over and sorted through that after the sunflower seed. I quietly left so as to give the episode a peaceful ending. Then last night he was out earlier than usual and that went well too. At night he just keeps playing on his flying saucer when I come up to the tank, although he stops for the sunflower seed. I don't stay with him extremely long, maybe 5 minutes, in case it's stressful for him. I've been lengthening it some as his fear level has seemed to go down.

This has been 17 days and I think we've made a lot of progress, but I still don't think he's really thrilled with the contact, just okay with it. I may be wrong though. He just doesn't jump up and down like a dog.
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Old 09-02-2021, 01:31 PM   #2
harmless
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Join Date: Jul 2021
Location: South Carolina, USA
Posts: 45
Default Re: Bean--Part 2

Several days later, there's been one day when I didn't see him at all, and a few days of 5 or 10 minutes of contact, getting seeds from my hand and just being around each other while he played or ate.

Last time he was in my hand I got a good idea of his size, since the sections of my middle finger are very close to an inch in length apiece. Bean looks to be 2.5 inches long. I looked it up and that's large for a Robo, since they're said to be up to 2 inches long (how do they measure them anyway, drug them?) He's definitely more than that. However, I've also noticed in pictures that Robos have the same kind of boxy muzzle that Bean has. So I'm back to thinking that he's just one of the larger Robos.

The only other thing to say is that I've been thinking about where I want our interactions to go from here. If I could choose, I'd like to be able to hold him, and even pet him, but I'm not sure that wouldn't be unkind if he's very scared, and unwise due to the risk of falls. At the least I'd like to put him in the bathtub and let him zip around over a longer distance than is available in the aquarium, and investigate some boxes and tubes I'd put in. Maybe if I did that a few times, then got in the tub with him and let him get more familiar with me, I'd have a better idea about what else could be done.
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Old 09-02-2021, 01:55 PM   #3
Ria P
House of Hamsters
 
Join Date: Mar 2019
Location: Wiltshire, UK
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Default Re: Bean, adopted August 12--Sort of a Journal

My Robo Monty is a very large Robo. He also has his own thread. They get more used to handling the more you handle them. Robos are surprisingly easy to hold but its important to always hold them over something soft like a cushion inside a playpen in case they jump.
I set up a hamster playground in the hall and let Monty run around sometimes. He was hard to catch at first from inside his cage but was fine once out.
As for a bathtub. Put a blanket down and toys. You can hold him over your legs if you sit in with him or let him out from his hamster taxi onto your lap. I found that its the bright light in a bathroom hamsters dislike so i leave it off and use the hall light.
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Old 09-02-2021, 04:41 PM   #4
harmless
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Join Date: Jul 2021
Location: South Carolina, USA
Posts: 45
Default Re: Bean, adopted August 12--Sort of a Journal

Thanks for the great tips!

I'm afraid to use anything but the bathtub because the little mite might find a crack in the woodwork to disappear into.

I didn't see Monty's thread--where is it?
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Old 09-03-2021, 08:55 AM   #5
Ria P
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Default Re: Bean, adopted August 12--Sort of a Journal

Type Meet Monty into the search top right and the thread will come up.
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Old 09-04-2021, 03:50 AM   #6
Petite
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Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Scotland
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Default Re: Bean, adopted August 12--Sort of a Journal

Quote:
Originally Posted by harmless View Post
The taming has been slow and sometimes there will be several days on which I only see him for a couple of minutes before he runs back to his burrow. The last few days there seems to have been more progress. Yesterday I came into his room when he was out in the the middle of the day, and he didn't seem to be afraid of me. He wanted his sunflower seed! He's gotten used to hopping onto my hand to get them. I had just put out his seed/pellet mix and he went over and sorted through that after the sunflower seed. I quietly left so as to give the episode a peaceful ending. Then last night he was out earlier than usual and that went well too. At night he just keeps playing on his flying saucer when I come up to the tank, although he stops for the sunflower seed. I don't stay with him extremely long, maybe 5 minutes, in case it's stressful for him. I've been lengthening it some as his fear level has seemed to go down.

This has been 17 days and I think we've made a lot of progress, but I still don't think he's really thrilled with the contact, just okay with it. I may be wrong though. He just doesn't jump up and down like a dog.
It's reassuring for me to read this. We've had Holly for around 6 weeks now, and taming has been very hard. I knew to expect this with a robo, and actually thought we were making a little progress when she finally took a sunflower seed from my hand, albeit through the struts of her bridge. But that's only happened once, and some days I don't get to see her at all. If I get closer than around 3 inches to her, even armed with a treat, she zooms off, apparently terrified. I'm trying to teach her that I'm not an ogre and I don't eat hamsters, just feed them, but she doesn't seem to be getting the message.

Fortunately our dwarf, Enigma, who we brought home with us at the same time, is now proving to be less enigmatic, and can usually be relied upon to turn up for food. He will happily take treats from the palm of my hand, and is gradually getting used to being stroked a little, although he tends to be slightly suspicious of this.

Aren't hams just gorgeous?
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Old 09-04-2021, 06:09 AM   #7
Ria P
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Default Re: Bean, adopted August 12--Sort of a Journal

Quote:
Originally Posted by Petite View Post
Aren't hams just gorgeous?
LOL!! So true. Our lot ranges from one who demands me to pick him up as soon as he sees me to one who disappears down the nearest hole if i even look at him for too long!
All are tame in their own individual ways.
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Old 09-07-2021, 02:09 PM   #8
harmless
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Join Date: Jul 2021
Location: South Carolina, USA
Posts: 45
Default Re: Bean, adopted August 12--Sort of a Journal

Yes, they are gorgeous. Sometimes I get discouraged with Bean, but then I see him in daytime and he's so perfectly tiny and beautiful I don't care what he does.

I'm going to work right now on getting a photo from yesterday on here; please excuse any resulting hugeness or whatever since I hardly know what I'm doing.
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Old 09-07-2021, 02:13 PM   #9
harmless
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Join Date: Jul 2021
Location: South Carolina, USA
Posts: 45
Default Re: Bean, adopted August 12--Sort of a Journal

Did it work?

The Niteangel log he sits next to sometimes in the middle of the day is 2.25 inches across, so that's about how long he is. I'm not sure if they measure them when in egg mode, though. He's a bit longer than that when he's stretched out trying to tell what's in my hand, for instance.

That log was a good buy for him. It's his second favorite thing, after the Flying Saucer.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg beanmedium.jpg (235.9 KB, 10 views)
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Old 09-07-2021, 02:27 PM   #10
harmless
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Join Date: Jul 2021
Location: South Carolina, USA
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Default Re: Bean, adopted August 12--Sort of a Journal

beanonly.jpg

How's this? I didn't know about the paperclip thing--until I looked it up.
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