New hamster!

[Bosse]

I finally got my new hamster.. She's a chocolate teddy, which is kind of rare around here. It was available because the original buyer canceled the reservation. I personally don't care about the color and fur type, but my gf loves the brown fur

I've had her for three days now (excluding a three days settling in period which doesn't really count ). She's quite tame but sleeps a lot. While not fully comfortable with being picked up, I can tell she's got much more used to it since I got her.
Yesterday while out of the cage for taming, I was able to stroke her gently without her trying to evade.
Today she ate a piece of chicken from my fingers (until now she's only taken food from my hand when she was in her nest - peeked out and took it reluctantly and only if it was really tasty!) This very morning I sat by her cage while she was in the wheel. She stopped running and I decided to stay where I was until she started running again - then I'd be sure she had learned something about not fearing me. To my surprise she didn't start running again; she came over! So I opened the lid and let her sniff my finger.

It's our third hamster, but the only one which is officially just mine.

The cage is the Ovo Loft. It's a little too small, but within a few days she will have access through a short tunnel to a 80 x 80 cm area, which will be filled with toys. Right now she has a 15 cm thick layer of shavings (I will buy one of those waste-paper products later - the shavings were some I never got to use for a guinea pig who died two years ago), the wheel, two rodent sticks, two cardboard tubes, toilet paper and a rope hanging from the ceiling.
I do not use the water bottle, since I feed her cucumber instead. The cage will be expanded with one or to Den-modules and the outside wheel called "Trainer". And of course the tunnel to the play-area.

Taming is done by taking her out of the cage and letting her run from hand to hand for a few seconds, putting her down and then repeat. It works wonders. If she's sleeping, I just open the nest and let her wake up. We did this with the two other hamsters too, and they get used to it very quickly and I've yet to see one get scared from this (although one must never touch them until they're up - they will still bite).
In-cage training is simply offering tasty treats whenever she decides to make contact.

I have a couple of pictures but my phone won't send them to my computer! Will upload soon though..

[evel_lin]

she sounds lovely, look forward to seeing pics of her

I'd probably still put the water bottle in the cage and then she can decide whether she wants to use it or not

[Poptart]

She sounds lovely! I can't wait to see her.

It'd probably be best if you gave her a water bottle or water bowl. She needs access to water at all times and by giving her cucumber instead she doesn't really have that.

[Bosse]

I see, I will reconnect the water-module

This evening I could hand feed her easily. She obviously loves the hamster-mix I bought - it won't be the primary food though, as I plan on buying some pellets which also maintains her teeth. She will also have meal worms, chicken, vegetables, boiled egg, rodent sticks and the occasional piece of fruit.
She was also quite OK with being picked up, though she stills zooms around in my hands a bit. I'm looking forward to having the play pen ready so she can stretch her legs a bit more now she's beginning to feel safe.

[Bosse]

Oh, I've called her Chibi by the way. She's about 8 weeks old

[christine11276]

Congrats! Can't wait to see pics.

[njwilde]

Aw, it sounds like you ve already made great progress and put so much thought into everything. I cant wait to see her pictures

[Bosse]

Just a quick update: This morning the water module was filled with wood shavings and all the water had been drawn out of the bottle.. I guess she thought it was a leak and not a bottle to drink from...
Reminds me of when I had ants - they also cover moist spots, but with sand... :P

[StuCil]

She sounds lovely! looking forward to seeing pics of her

[Bosse]

Here's the best picture I was able to take The colors are so detailed, that the image had to be cut quite a lot as well as re-sized down to almost nothing :/

Tonight (and yesterday) she was in her makeshift playground - a large bed roller. The sawdust from her cage was put in the playground to dry, 'cause she had drained the water module my filling it with shavings again, this time causing the water to being absorbed into most of the shavings making them moist.
This evening they had dried and she could play in them. She loved digging, running through cardboard tubes and crawling on different objects.
I also manned myself up to picking her up with two fingers under her chest and she was fine with that (to my surprise). I would even say she prefers it over the cup-technique.
When she stopped playing and burrowed herself, I thought it was time to put her back in her cage again - once she reemerged.

She's always so tired after play time, she sleeps well into the night. Playtime is about 8 pm and today she awoke and began running in her wheel at the right time

In the picture she's on the top of her house nipping away at a round chewing toy.

Edit: You can press "ctrl+" to zoom in on the browser window to have a better look at the picture. "ctrl-" zooms out