My first hamster

[harmless]

I did it! My first Hamster. No name yet.

I'm trying to attach a photo--another first.

[Petite]

Congratulations! - Have fun with your new furry friend.

[Charlie Dunn]

Aww such a beauty - congratulations x

[Ria P]

What a cute little hamster! Congratulations!

[harmless]

Aw, thanks!
I'm glad I got a photo just when I let him out of the box, because I haven't seen him since. He dived under the white fluff where it's piled high. But it was a big day for him, being handled by several people.
I was lucky enough to find a pet store where they would talk to you about the individual animals they had and their temperaments. They said he/she was the calmest and the one most likely to come to the front of the tank and observe people.

[harmless]

Trying to attach photo of the whole tank

[NibbleeTheHamster]

Oh my a robo. So cute! Enjoy your long long life journey together! <3

[Pebbles82]

Adorable! Robos do that - they dig tunnels and burrows. But pop up now and then. It can take a couple of weeks for them to settle in and gain confidence. One thing you might want to do is add a few more hidey places. It encourages them to be out more if they have lots of enrichment at floor level and places to dive into. But I'd wait a week before adding anything and not move anything else around or it;ll stress him/her out. They spent the first two weeks acclimatising and scent marking everywhere.

Things like a sqaure tissue box or even a cardboard egg box can do as extra little hideouts and a child's shoe box can make a good subterranean house with a lift off roof (you just cut the base out and a cut a hole for a door and the lid makes a lift off roof.). I was thinking of the area of white paper. They like something to sit under as well.

[harmless]

He's a Robo? His enclosure at the pet store was labeled Winter White (which I knew from reading he probably wouldn't be entirely). Whatever he is, he's cute, and he's staying. I'm saying "he" because it's short; I still don't know.

Anyway, thank you for the comments. Right now I'm only seeing him in the early morning. I slip into the room where his tank is and he'll be out in the food/toy area and he'll freeze and look at me. If I put my hand in the tank (with a sunflower seed in it; I pick them out of his food mix) he dashes off to his burrow, although once I dropped the seed near him and he cracked and ate it before he ran off. Well, it gives me something to look forward to--the day when he actually takes the sunflower seed from my hand.

I'll give him more hiding places soon, as suggested--thanks again.

One bright spot is that the Kaytee white bedding seems to be holding his tunnels okay. The openings have been in the same place for about 2 days, 2 of them, rather large. Also, at the beginning, he would only take a couple of kinds of seeds from the mix I set out, but last night he cleaned out the whole thing. A lot of it's probably stashed somewhere, right? But I consider it as a sign he thinks of this as home now. He's stocking the pantry.

[harmless]

A happy update: Today, the 19th, Bean (short for bean blossom) took a sunflower seed I was holding out with my fingertips.

How I've been handling him is that I've been just standing by the aquarium when I saw that he was out, and after about a minute dropping a sunflower seed from high up, and then standing there another minute and slowly leaving. He's seemed less and less afraid, so this morning after 2 seeds I lowered one into the tank in my fingertips and he snatched it! He didn't go immediately to his burrow, but he did soon after.

Still don't know if he's a robo, but he has no stripe in the middle of his back. I looked at some robos in a pet store and he seems larger than that, but then, the pet store lady said he was the larger of the two in the enclosure when I bought him. A large robo? Even if so, after this morning, this being only day 9, I'm thinking he's going to turn out to be a pretty calm pet eventually.

The idea that he might be a robo and need extra patience was helpful and well worth the price of being on this forum. {there wasn't a price}