Help, I don't know what to do.

summerdaze · 02-12-2013, 11:07 AM

My mum bought me a hamster as a surprise Christmas present.

The problems I'm having are:
1. noise - I live in a small flat and I keep waking up scared in the night thinking someone has broken in when it's the hamster banging. Some nights I'm woken at 1am, 3am, 4am etc. I honestly can't cope with it.

2. Allergy? It seems like I'm allergic to something to do with the hamster and I'm getting dry eye and pain in my eyes that's quite severe. I considered swapping substrate/bedding but if the noise prob isn't solved there doesn't seem a point.

I don't know what to do because I love her but I don't even know if it's fair for me to keep her. E.g. I've taken stuff out of her cage because of noise. But then I'm worried if I give her away (e.g. to the RSPCA although I don't know if they take hamsters) I'll be totally devastated.

I have my own health problems. I'm kind of angry with my mum for not asking me first and doing it as a surprise, I don't think it is fair on either the hamster or me. But like I said I do really love her...

POLAR WHITES · 02-12-2013, 11:40 AM

What is banging is it the wheel off the bottom of the cage ? What bedding is the hamster on ? alot of people have allergies to woodchips.

summerdaze · 02-12-2013, 11:48 AM

Thanks for your reply. She was pulling the water bottle and letting it go so it would hit the side of the cage. It was really violent. I replaced the water bottle with a water bowl. Then she was chewing on the bars so I changed the cage for a plastic tank one. Now I think she is either bouncing on this mini level thing or banging bits of wood around. I don't understand how she's able to make so much noise. It sounds like someone breaking in.

She was on wood shavings. I threw them away, so I don't know what make, sorry. I also have an un-opened thing of:

"small woodshavings" (this is different to what I had before)
dust extracted and absorbent Pets at Home brand. It smells a bit and didn't look that good so I haven't opened it (my mum got the hamster from a breeder btw not from a pet shop - this had come free with the 2nd cage). Maybe this is worth a try in case it's different to the previous one? My eyes really hurt.

My hamster is beautiful, really. She has deep black eyes, and she is brown, white and black in a pattern. She is really big too.

**kyrilliondaemon** · 02-12-2013, 12:20 PM

1. Quiet wheel, careful choice of where some things go in the cage e.t.c should fix that

2. I'd start by changing susbtrate, if I were you I'd skip straight to one of the low-allergy ones though. Carefresh, finacard and fitch are the top three I can think of for that.

What cage is she in? Could you post a photo of her layout? Maybe we can help with ideas

summerdaze · 02-13-2013, 02:49 PM

Hi,
Thank you kyrilliondaemon for your reply.
I tried the Pets at Home small wood shavings. OMG. They were really, really irritating to my eyes. It stinks. To anyone who wondered how this turned out or who needs any information on substrate, this is what I did that helped me:

I threw away all wood shavings. I then hoovered all the rooms in my flat, opened the windows and damn clothed the surfaces with cold water.

I went and bought Carefresh Natural. This says on the packet that it's dust free and no aromatic oils. It's about 6 hours later and my eyes feel better already. I don't know what it was about it but the sawdust/wood shavings caused SEVERE irritation to my eyes (as in, it wasn't a mild bit of irritation). My eyes still hurt a bit because I was crying last night and today cos I thought I'd have to give her away. I even phoned the RSPCA but the one near me doesn't accept small animals.

I think I solved the substrate/allergy issue.

As for the noise, I bought a "super silent spinning saucer" - flying saucer which she seems to love. I threw the wheel away.

I bought a cube with holes in it and a small new water bottle and put it in that so the whole thing is inside the cage. This way she can't pull on it and bang the side of the cage. I also gave her a toilet roll and some new nest material. I also gave her a green leaf, a raisin and some butternut squash. I'm a bit scared cos I read someone found larvae in hamster food which I'm phobic of but I hope there's none in mine (my mum is coming tomorrow and I'm going to get her to check. It's called deluxe hamster food 750g. It's in the food cupboard (I'm really limited on space) so I hope it's OK.

I'm pretty confident that the allergy/eye irritation thing has gone and I really hope tonight the noise will go too. If not, I spoke to my mum and she had contacted the breeder and they said (because she had signed some document when she got Hammy) that my mum can return Hammy and they will quaranteene her and then re-home her.

I can't believe how upset I've gotten over all of this. I just want to do everything right. I also think the lack of sleep (I've had her for 7 weeks and pretty much each night apart from about 1 or 2 I've been up most of the night sometimes til 6am) has played a part in me feeling a bit horrible.

summerdaze · 02-13-2013, 02:55 PM

BTW I should add I don't think I would've had the noise problem if I lived in a house or even a large flat. Where my friends live they could put her on a different floor or something or in a room no-one could hear. It's that Hammy is really close to me where I sleep. The wall is really thin! There's nowhere else to put her. One of my friends suggested to put her in the corridor overnight but there's no way I can do that cos I feel too guilty (I share this floor with 3 other people - they are nice and I don't think they'd mind but they have friends over and stuff and I don't want Hammy just out there where anyone could walk past). So I definitely want her to be in the flat overnight it's just it's small and the noise really carries. She has built a massive nest out of loo roll! I hope she is OK. I think she may have picked up on me being upset but she has eaten LOADS (she's really big especially as she's so young).

**kyrilliondaemon** · 02-13-2013, 03:33 PM

It sounds like you're working hard to try and keep the ham

I hope the noise stuff is sorted, we keep all our hams in our bedroom so I can sympathise with noisy stuff - we've had the odd thing thats made a racket but fortunately most of the time we keep things near-silent and it doesn't mess with sleep at all. I'm sure you can manage the same now the allergy is sorted

happysaz133 · 02-14-2013, 04:08 AM

Don't worry, even gets like this sometimes, for such little animals they can certainly be frustrsting! I find flying saucers tend to make more noise, because they bounce about the cage. If you do find she starts with all her noises and banging again, it might be worth looking into a bigger cage for her, mine were quite noisy like she was, but I upgraded cages and they seemed much happier and quieter!

HollyHamster · 02-14-2013, 04:33 AM

Try having multiple hamsters in the bedroom with you. Makes for a very interesting nighttime experience!! Thankfully I am a night owl so I stay up really late most nights.

AliKati · 02-14-2013, 04:34 AM

hey you, first off... I know that having a prolonged allergic reaction is mentally and physically exhausting (non-stop sneezing, itching, tearing eyes etc etc). I want to say well done that when things were going rough, you didn't have a knee-jerk reaction and treat your hamster badly or leave her somewhere. Instead, you had the wisdom to seek help and advice from people here.

For substrate, I use Carefresh and Megazorb. They're much better than woodshavings which I found dusty and prickly. Megazorb also comes in a large sack which means it's not as expensive.

With noise, yeah, it's tricky. Our bedtime is their up and partying time. I can hear mine nibble and play all the way from the living room to the bedroom. How about earplugs? My partner is a big snorer too so I use them and they shut out all the noise!