Princesses tube

[Princess]

hi im new to having a hamster and i have got young female called princess and she has been in he tube that gose around the outside or her cage for 2days apert from when i have taken her out myself. and as soon as i put her in her cage she goes back in this tube and stays in the same spot in the middle and dosnt come out not even to play ob her wheel or with outher toys is this normal?

[Hope]

They like tubes as they are small and inclosed and they feel safest in there. However it is not good for them to be inthe tubes all the time, it can become stuffy, damp, and smelly in there, especially if they pee in there too.

Whats generally reccomended is that you remove the tubes for a while (a week or 2) and encourage her to establish a nest eslewhere in the cage, perhaps in a box, or a hamster house. Removing the tubes for a while also helps with taming, as they cannot hide up the tubes where they know you cant get to them!

Welcome to the forum

[st4r_grl]

Congratulations on getting Princess, such a pretty girly name

[Katarina]

the same thing happened to me with my dwarfs few years back! I took the tubes out for a week, and gave them a box from pg-tips tea bags - I've put a tube from toilet paper through a cut out hole leading in to it, and after they established their nest in it I have put the tubes back. But, to be honest, they decided that the tubes are great to use as a loo and I've never managed to stop them - I had them in rotastack so had to keep the tubes in. Well, they loved it, but it was a pain to clean - had to do it every 2 days otherwise my whole house smelled of hamster wee.

BTW, I still have one of the dwarfs, I bought them over 3 years ago!!! =)