*waves* Beginner Needing Advice Please

[_Lu_]

Hi all,

This is my first post, so be nice please :)

(... although I did post this same thing within the Syrian group, but it hasn't appeared?)

My partner and I got our first Syrian hamster, Humbert, on the 12th October. He's 4 months old.

We bought him from an independent pet store, and they sold us a cage meant for a dwarf hamster (little did we know). We have since purchased a temporary larger cage from a second-hand website while our new preferred cage is being delivered.

Humbert is the tamest little thing. We let him settle for 24 hours before we attempted to handle him (yes, we know we should have waited longer - but it was a struggle to wait 24 hours!). He runs onto our hands and lets us pick him up, stroke him, kiss him - and hasn't nipped us once :)

However, I do have some concerns...

#1: He's massive. He's bigger than most of the pictures of other Syrians on this site. I know my profile doesn't make him look that large, but he's too big to fit on one of my hands - and can't even fit through most of the cage furniture (I'll upload another picture soon, if I can ever figure out how).

2#: Due to his large size, we thought it would be a good idea to buy a massive cage (before purchasing the one we have in the post). So, we went out and bought a cage suitable for rats from Pets At Home for £85.

We got it home, assembled the shelving and popped Humbert in to make sure all was okay.

Unfortunately not. It seems we have a little climber on our hands, and the cage was totally unsuitable and dangerous because Humbert could climb all the way to the top on the side wires - get stuck - and if we weren't there to catch him, he would plummet! We immediately returned it.

Is this climbing behaviour normal?

#3: He doesn't like his wheel. We bought him a much larger one than that provided in the dwarf cage (which was obviously far too small). The new wheel is a perfect size and easily turns in the cage, but he just doesn't seem to care about it. Is this an issue in regards to his exercise? He loves his ball and we get him rolling around every evening for half an hour - along with 'floor time'.

#4: He makes strange noises. We think it is when he is introduced to new smells. It sounds like a breathing in noise/chirp. It doesn't sound distressed - but then we don't know what distressed noises sound like. He rarely makes the noises, and I haven't heard any since the weekend - but I am concerned something may have been bothering him. Any ideas?

Well, that was a long post and I think I've just about covered everything. Any suggestions or advice from you knowledgeable lot would be greatly appreciated. We love our little (well, not that little) Humbert and want to get things right :)

Thanks in advance for any response!

Lu

(oooh, look - I figured out how to add a picture!)