Cinnamon

I have been super busy with work over the past couple of weeks, hence what for me is a HUGE gap in Cinnamon's diary. I am a school teacher and we were finishing up at my school. Cinnamon mostly likes to come out late at night (after 11PM unless we get lucky), though he always hears me changing out his food and water around 9PM and will poke his head out of his hideaway. It's difficult to tempt him out if he hasn't come out on his own- he behaves pretty shyly at those times, but I don't mind so much because I know we can usually interact with him every few days outside of his cage (3-4), and also if I see him late at night or early when I'm getting ready for work, he usually lets me give him a little back pet or pick him up for a few-seconds cuddle while he is snacking on something.

Last night I was delighted to get him into his transport pretty easily (tempting him out of his hideaway, which as I said he can be quite shy about), but then I made a "mistake" after having him in the playpen for just a few minutes. I had my daughter bring him a shelled peanut, which he loves. Last time we did this he tore it apart and we got to enjoy watching him eating the nuts and taking the shell apart. This time he tried to pouch it. When it wouldn't fit, he kept running around the playpen with it in his mouth like he was trying to find a place to stash it. I felt so bad for him (since I interpreted this as him wanting to hoard it and not wanting to set it down) that I put him back in his cage so he could take it to his hideaway. He did come out a little later and we got to watch him clean in his sandbath and do an early evening (for him) perusal of his food selection before returning to his hideaway. That has been his M.O. when we are still awake. He'll do a brief appearance to check out all the areas of his cage and then hideaway until we're asleep, at which point he'll engage in a few hours of wheel time/ other exploration.
 
clacombe said:
Meet Cinnamon! Our first hope was to get another hamster through our local ethical breeder, but we had a hard time getting ahold of her for the past two days, and then the Chicago area Craigs List site wasn't working to search for adoptions... so whether it was pure coincidence or serendipity (and yes, a little impatience on our part), we did end up at a local pet store to find our latest baby (next time I'm sure we'll have the patience for our local breeder or the adoption sites). I haven't seen them feature long-haired Syrians before, and if they hadn't been we would have waited, as we were looking for a hamster that at least reminded us of Wally.

But Cinnamon stood out to C.C. right away (just based on looks, as he was sleeping). He is fairly small and slim (I haven't had the chance to weigh him yet). He sat calmly in our hands when he was sleepy, but when he woke up in his new cage on his own tonight he was much zippier. He is still getting to know us, but definitely less shy than Wally. He was happy to poke around and play on his wheel even with us present when he woke up at 8PM. We'll have to see what his personality is like and what his sleep schedule is like in the next several days. He went back to sleep (or at least underground) around 9PM.
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He is beautiful I know how you feel about buying from Pet shops but I couldn't have resister that little cutie either
 
Aw I had something similar recently with Raffy and his sunflower seeds - he had full pouches but still wanted to come out. Then once out he ran around as if looking for somewhere to depouch and didn't know what to do so I put him back again. The difference is he still wanted to be out again later but it's always very late with Raffy. Maybe next time Cinammon is out give him treats a bit later, when he's been out for a while :-) Or even a treat parcel maybe. It'll take him a while to get into that. I've made one out of a toilet roll before. Put some pumpkin seeds eg inside the toilet roll then wrap brown paper or any kind of wrapping paper round the toilet roll and twist the ends - so it makes a kind of cracker. The idea is they have to get into the parcel to get the treats. Although I have to say most of my syrians have been too lazy to try hard to get into it! I ended up having to put a hole the side of a hamster head in one side before our Syrian realised there were treats inside. But it could be worth a try. And yes the photo of cinnamon in the comp is absolutely gorgeous :-)
 
Beryl said:
Does he not come out for his fresh food?
Most hamsters look forward to that.

I saw the adorable photo you entered. He really is a beautiful boy.
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I think I need to experiment more with fresh food. He hasn't reacted with the same excitement as Wally did for scrambled egg or pea pods, though he recently snatched a broccoli floret from me. Even if I'm tempting him out with food, I have to move super slow- any sudden movement with a hand or a noise from far away will spook him. I wonder if that's because of his pet store roots?
 
Maz said:
Aw I had something similar recently with Raffy and his sunflower seeds - he had full pouches but still wanted to come out. Then once out he ran around as if looking for somewhere to depouch and didn't know what to do so I put him back again. The difference is he still wanted to be out again later but it's always very late with Raffy. Maybe next time Cinammon is out give him treats a bit later, when he's been out for a while :) Or even a treat parcel maybe. It'll take him a while to get into that. I've made one out of a toilet roll before. Put some pumpkin seeds eg inside the toilet roll then wrap brown paper or any kind of wrapping paper round the toilet roll and twist the ends - so it makes a kind of cracker. The idea is they have to get into the parcel to get the treats. Although I have to say most of my syrians have been too lazy to try hard to get into it! I ended up having to put a hole the side of a hamster head in one side before our Syrian realised there were treats inside. But it could be worth a try. And yes the photo of cinnamon in the comp is absolutely gorgeous :)
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Yes! That's exactly what I need to do is wait with the treats, except for smaller ones that could easily be pouched if he stays out. I had that (with the parcel) happen with mine also! On one hand, I would be thrilled if Cinnamon was begging to come out and play... on the other hand, since he's so nocturnal, I'm glad that he seems to be satisfied staying in, otherwise I'd need to get him out earlier!
 
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clacombe said:
I think I need to experiment more with fresh food. He hasn't reacted with the same excitement as Wally did for scrambled egg or pea pods, though he recently snatched a broccoli floret from me. Even if I'm tempting him out with food, I have to move super slow- any sudden movement with a hand or a noise from far away will spook him. I wonder if that's because of his pet store roots?
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I doubt it is because of his pet store roots but down to familiarity and personality.

All my hamsters are rescues but originally they would have come from a pet store or backyard breeder as none of them are pedigrees.
Their personalities and lifestyle choices vary greatly from very interactive on a daily basis to me feeling lucky when i see them once a week.
 
Beryl said:
I doubt it is because of his pet store roots but down to familiarity and personality.

All my hamsters are rescues but originally they would have come from a pet store or backyard breeder as none of them are pedigrees.
Their personalities and lifestyle choices vary greatly from very interactive on a daily basis to me feeling lucky when i see them once a week.
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🤣 true! I did manage to tempt him out fairly easily yesterday with some fresh spinach. And it was the perfect food to let him pouch and eat without feeling like he needed to find a place to stash it. He is definitely no longer in the "zippy" stage that he was in when we 1st brought him home, but we got to enjoy watching him clean himself and explore the little play pen stuff before putting him back in his cage.
 
Great photos of Cinnamon, he‘s gorgeous and is looking happy in his new wheel 😊 Our Syrian also loves a peanut in its shell and I’ve experienced a similar thing in the playpen. I’ve a small shoebox in there now and he tends to run in there to do the shell crunching but similarly when he has the peanuts in his pouches he’ll keep looking out of the playpen as if to say home now, I need to store my treats.

Rainbow gave me the idea of using defrosted frozen peas. They smell nice and Hams will always come out of hiding for one of those. I only give him the one, could be worth a try. They all have their favourite veggies ☺️
 
Hi everyone! We just returned from an unusually (though wonderfully) long family trip in Hawaii (first time there for us! ). We were give for just over 2 weeks, so it was a long time to be away from our fur baby! We had a neighbor checking in on him, and he took him out once (when Cinnamon willing went into his transport) but mostly just spot cleaned, replenished water and added food and enrichment.

We arrived home this morning around 7:30AM. I had no idea what to expect with Cinnamon after 2 weeks of even less human interaction, but I think he was actually happy for our return. He heard me cleaning his sand bath and other items and poked his head out. I didn't want to push him, so I just handed him a snack and he took it into his hoard. I expected he would return to bed, but he came back out, looking his head out farther than usual while I talked to him. So I put his transport out, and with very little encouragement, he stepped in! I called my daughter up and we had a lovely little reunion! We let him run around his play pen and I held him a few times. When he started climbing the walls more frequently I figured he'd had enough and returned him to his cage. I have him one last "reward" snack and figured, once again, he'd stay in bed. But he came back a minute later- clearly to see if I'd replenished his bowl- and I was thrilled to see how comfortable he was coming right out, because he is often quite shy. We decided he truly missed us.

He was adorable, though I didn't quite capture his FULL cuteness on camera. My daughter doctored up one photo.
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Sounds like a fab holiday and great news that Cinnamon has been well cared for by your neighbour, that's reassuring for any future trips.

Great photos and super cute he is just as happy to see you home as you all are to see him.
 
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