Cinnamon

Hello! It's been awhile. I have been a bit MIA due to an incredibly busy work schedule during the past 2 weeks and a more relaxed schedule with Cinnamon. He ungraciously has been coming out well past 10PM on most nights and refusing to come out earlier even when being tempted by food, so we've only been taking him out every 2-3 days. He is so nice with us when he's out, but I don't think he cares a lick about getting time outside of his cage, or at least he never seems to ask for it. :LOL: Since we still get to see him more than we saw Wally (before we got Wally coming out earlier), we don't mind. However, last night we had a nice play session. We gave him this little mini corn cob with a few popped kernels that we found at a pet store. He loved it. Video below. Also, I took some pictures of him on our Build-a-Bear chair. They're not perfect parallel pictures with Wally's, but I've included a couple for fun comparison.
 

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Aw he's gorgeous. He seems to have grown a bit, has he? And seems quite confident. To be honest every 2 to 3 days is about right for most Syrians. They sometimes like a night in :-). Unlike mine who is maverick and wants out every night!
 
Maz said:
Aw he's gorgeous. He seems to have grown a bit, has he? And seems quite confident. To be honest every 2 to 3 days is about right for most Syrians. They sometimes like a night in :). Unlike mine who is maverick and wants out every night!
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You're so right! It's much easier to "relax"into 2-3 nights once I know we've bonded! I definitely want to weigh him again soon to see how much he has grown. He is hilariously like a tale of 2 hamsters. He will be very shy about coming out of his house early and almost skiddish as he pokes his head out, but then once he finally comes out he's very confident.

I keep thinking about a second hamster and it's really hard to decide if I want another Syrian or a dwarf of some sort because I like the Syrian size and softness so much but a dwarf or winter white would give a daytime/ nighttime balance, potentially.
 
I found when I had two Syrians - I couldn't give them both enough attention easily. Whereas when I had a Syrian and a robo, they needed different kinds of attention at different times. The robo would be out in the afternoons. Getting a russian dwarf or robo doesn't guarantee they will be out during the day though. Some will be daytime hamsters, some won't! A robo is generally known as more of a "watch" pet. You can have quite nice conversations with them and they get to know you, but they're not as easily handleable and hard to tame. So I found that a good balance. The Robo does have playpen time, but not as often.
 
Maz said:
I found when I had two Syrians - I couldn't give them both enough attention easily. Whereas when I had a Syrian and a robo, they needed different kinds of attention at different times. The robo would be out in the afternoons. Getting a russian dwarf or robo doesn't guarantee they will be out during the day though. Some will be daytime hamsters, some won't! A robo is generally known as more of a "watch" pet. You can have quite nice conversations with them and they get to know you, but they're not as easily handleable and hard to tame. So I found that a good balance. The Robo does have playpen time, but not as often.
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That's completely what I've thought about. I love handling a Syrian, but I worry that with their schedules, it might be hard to give 2 enough time. I might have to sacrifice some snuggling with a smaller breed, but I might be able to enjoy seeing them more (though as you say, one never knows! )
 
i think most robos come out during the day - if you see them. ie if the cage is in a place where you'd notice them out during the day. With a Russian dwarf you'd probably get more handling but not guaranteed they'd come out in the day. Although if you adopted one, the previous owner might be able to let you know their habits.
 
Aw, Cinnamon is so beautiful! He has settled in so well with you.

I agree with Maz as with hamsters you can never be sure if they will come out in the day. I have a robo and he started coming out in the day after 8 months. He often does not want to be interacted with and will make it clear. :LOL:
 
Cinnamon is lovely.
I'd get another hamster from someone who rescues and rehomes where the personality is already known.
Going by my own hamsters, female dwarfs are the most likely daytime hamsters but you could end up with a demanding diva like my Clarissa and now Lilly, lol.
 
Beryl said:
Cinnamon is lovely.
I'd get another hamster from someone who rescues and rehomes where the personality is already known.
Going by my own hamsters, female dwarfs are the most likely daytime hamsters but you could end up with a demanding diva like my Clarissa and now Lilly, lol.
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Last night Cinnamon twice poked his head out of his chamber before deciding to return to his den. We talked to him from afar but he clearly wasn't interested in interaction, as each time he chose to stay inside. Totally comfortable with us when he IS out, but no interest in going out of his way to interact!
 
None of our Syrians has ever made the effort to interact with Me, their human. It's more a matter of me enabling them to get something they want. Beryl the taxi, elevator to the groundfloor, digbox refiller etc. The attraction here is a fairly large freeroaming area with lots of floor toys. They come back to me and climb onto me when their pouches are full, they are thirsty or tired or they want to go home. When they are tired is a good opportunity for me to get what i want and i stroke and cuddle them for a while, lol. They tolerate their annoying human better then and don't wriggle too much or try to get on the floor to play and run around.

I have heard of Syrians who seek out their humans to cuddle up with them or go to sleep on them so they do exist.

It's too early to say what kind of personality Cinnamon has but will be interesting to find out. Takes time though. Often a few months.
 
It does take time - they do recognise you as the provider and look to you if they have a problem. Cinnamon is clearly enjoying his cage. I think it takes regular handling for them to be tame enough but until they get a bit older they're not so interested in settling down so to speak. Some Syrians are never keen on coming out of the cage but once they're out they behave differently. They're interested in having fun and like you around (sometimes). Once I've got them tame enough to pick up in a playpen, I sometimes move onto having them out on the sofa. Where you can pick them up and put them back where you want them if they climb the back too high. Then it's easier to hold them for a stroke for a minute or two and they can just crawl off and explore the sofa again. The messier the sofa the better! (ie with stuff all over it) as then it's like a bit of a playground - things to climb over and go behind. When having a stroke on the sofa I pick them up and kind of nestle them in the crook of my arm for a stroke. They will sometimes sit and accept that - maybe they feel secure in the crook of an arm.

Bit of a demonstration here (crook of the arm). This is the only really cuddly Syrian I've had. He would actually go to sleep on your knee under a blanket and sit for a stroke for quite a while. He was a very shy boy and never wanted to come out of his cage - it took tricking him out usually with a treat at the end of the tube. But once he was out he enjoyed himself. It depended what time of night I got him out. If it was early evening or later at night he was too whizzy to sit for a stroke. But around 8pm to 9pm he was quite dopey. I think that's quite common.

 
But you need to get them really hand tame first. So they are chilled about being picked up. Have a read of the taming article on the home page - a few sessions of doing that taming method in the bathtub and you should get there. You can do it in a playpen but sometimes a more enclosed area helps for actual taming. It can seem like it's not happening and then suddenly it just happens and they are chilled about being picked up.
 
Thanks Maz and Beryl! Those responses make a lot of sense (work has been so crazy recently I haven't been able to get on the forum regularly and am catching up now. Thankfully, even though Cinnamon doesn't often come out until later, and we only take him out every few days, we see him enough that I don't even keep the video camera on regularly. His behavior patterns are so much more reliable than our last hamster's (Wally) were, that I feel much more relaxed about not seeing him much for a few days in a row.

Last night we were up extra late and so at some point he'd fully emerged to check out his food bowls. I put his transport in the cage, and he walked into it almost immediately. I sat in the playpen with him for awhile. My daughter had pulled the kernels off a mini corn-cob and sprinkled them around the pen and I gave him a peanut in the shell, too. He enjoyed breaking up the peanut and gathering the seeds. He let me massage his sides/ back while he was gathering food and sat cupped in my hands briefly a few times before moving about again (I think it's a kindness that he allows me to do that- like, "Okay human, I sat nicely for a few seconds, that's enough now, I have places to explore.")

Recent wheel video below. What are opinions on the wheel? Last time with Wally, who was larger, we eventually upgraded from the 10-inch Bucastate to the Silent Runner. Cinnamon is still using the Bucastate, and I think his spine looks straight, but I'd love second opinions.

Photo from last night coming soon... having trouble with phone upload!

 
It's great things are coming along so well, and I can completely understand concern after what happened with Wally, and wanting to check on him, and relaxing about that a bit. He seems a healthy active boy so hopefully that is giving reassurance. Really lovely he let him hold you :) Each time he will get more and more used to it.

Agree with the others about the wheel - I think his head is maybe slightly tilted up actually, but more than that, they run so much easier and better in the larger size. I don't find 10" quite as relaxed for them to run in well. I'm sure swapping the wheels out will go down fine now - will it fit ok? I would put a treat or two in the silent runner if it goes in the cage, to distract from the change, but I'm sure he'll love it. You could keep the 10" one in the playpen now, for familiarity, maybe - so he knows it's still available and smells of him (ie don't clean it too well!).
 
New wheel update! We didn't see him before we went to sleep last night, but I put the new wheel in before we went to bed and set up our camera. The first video is about 1 minute after he first stepped into the wheel, and the second video is about 15-20 minutes later, when he starts to get a rhythm on it. Also adding the photo I couldn't upload the other night in which his cheek pouches are stuffed with mini kernels and whatever other seeds were in his playpen.




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Additional tidbit: he sometimes will take to making little puff squeaks when he first emerges near his chamber opening at night if we are around. He doesn't seem upset and it's a very light/ mild sound, but I figure maybe it's defensive- like he's not sure if there's a threat so he's preemptively huffing until he knows no one is coming for his space.
 
Yes that wheel is much better :-) He's doing the usual thing of taking it slowly at first and checking out where the hole entrances are, then speeding up a bit. Great photo :ROFLMAO: . The noise might be to tell you to go to bed and turn the lights out ha ha! Like - it's my daytime now and it's not dark enough. Is it at a particular time of night?
 
Maz said:
Yes that wheel is much better :) He's doing the usual thing of taking it slowly at first and checking out where the hole entrances are, then speeding up a bit. Great photo :ROFLMAO: . The noise might be to tell you to go to bed and turn the lights out ha ha! Like - it's my daytime now and it's not dark enough. Is it at a particular time of night?
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I think he did it once at night (probably as you describe) but today he did it around 5:30pm. He normally would never poke his head out at this time, but I had actually opened his cage to test how the wheel was spinning and remove some soiled sand. I think he heard me and was like, "What's going on in my cage? Stop messing with my space! "
 
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