How to enrich the cage of a hamster who hates my guts..?

[Merle]

Thanks alot for your input Sendipity and Ria!

I don't think that the cage cleaning is causing his attitude towards me. I never change out all of the substrate at once during the lifespans of my hamsters. I mostly replace 1/3 at a time and leave 2/3 of the old substrate in the cage.
Maybe it's cleaning out the nest and hoard that's causing the issue because I have to take everything out since he seems to be sleeping in poo, mixed with pee and food. I always try to save as much bedding as possible but when it comes to his house he truly is a nastly little thing.

The thought that comes to my mind then is. Why is he only desinterested in me and not my boyfriend? We both clean his cage and try to get him out everytime so he should be mad at the both of us. He even takes food from my mom, so the women-excuse only works that far...

As for having more substrate in the cage. I currently have almost double the amount of substrate in the cage as is shown in the photos and a while ago even more than that. The only thing Whiskey does is walk over it to harden it up and form his pathways. No digging. So there's that!

Next week we'll go to Ikea and I'll look around for one of those dishracks to put in as a small level for him to hide under.

And if IF I get him out of his cage, I'll try the bathtub method again, because sadly we don't have a room where he can roam freely since it's an old building and we once already had a hamster sitting in a hole behind a radiator. So, no more of that please!

Serendipity, I can totally relate to your hamster tricking you. Guess what happened last night? I have a hamster house with sloped edges that works as a "bowl" where the hamster can walk in one side, I close of the pathways and he clims out into his travelbox on the other side. So it works like your tube method. This time though, he tricked me. Took his treat and in less then a second he jumped out again an vanished into his house before I could blink.

I'll try everything I can to make sure though that he's happy!