Cinnamon

elusive said:
He looks so sweet with the cucumber in his mouth! I think he’ll probably have eaten it all rather than hoarded it, looks like that is going to be a favourite.
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Indeed! I think I had been ignoring to cucumber as a veggie option until I started reading everyone else's posts in this forum and decided to give it a try.
 
Cinnamon is doing well. We have our routine now. One thing I have been thinking about recently is how sensitive he is to noise. Of course, I know that hearing is one of the senses that hamsters rely on most, so I am not entirely surprised by this, but what I mean is that he is very reactive to any noise- freezing or moving to hide if there is a noise in the background. When we go to take him out, I have to be very still. I typically have to make sure both my hands are visible near his transport (if one of my hands is not visible at first and then I move it into the background of his vision he can get startled) and tempt him out (with food) slowly while hoping that nothing unintended makes a noise.

This morning when we woke up, we happened to catch Cinnamon out of his hideaway, probably looking for a morning snack. We opened the cage to give him a pet (I picked him up briefly and held him) and my daughter decided to hunt for a snack she could hand-feed him. Well, my daughter spilled a small container of snacks while looking for a snack to give him and he tensed up and needed to retreat into his hideaway to calm down. Granted, that was a more startling or louder sound than usual, but I just notice that he seems consistently a bit more skittish in nature. No matter how accustomed he is to our voices or knowing that he can sit in my hands safely (he will let me cup him and pet him for several seconds with his body relaxed- after that he just gets restless and wants to crawl away), any unexpected noise or movement sends him on high alert.

What has been the range of everyone else's experiences? Are some of your hamsters more sensitive to noises than others? Do they calm down quickly when they assess that there isn't a threat or does it take them awhile?
 
I think they can be easily alarmed by anything sudden, especially if it happens in their cage, where they are more territorial :-)
 
clacombe said:
Cinnamon is doing well. We have our routine now. One thing I have been thinking about recently is how sensitive he is to noise. Of course, I know that hearing is one of the senses that hamsters rely on most, so I am not entirely surprised by this, but what I mean is that he is very reactive to any noise- freezing or moving to hide if there is a noise in the background. When we go to take him out, I have to be very still. I typically have to make sure both my hands are visible near his transport (if one of my hands is not visible at first and then I move it into the background of his vision he can get startled) and tempt him out (with food) slowly while hoping that nothing unintended makes a noise.

This morning when we woke up, we happened to catch Cinnamon out of his hideaway, probably looking for a morning snack. We opened the cage to give him a pet (I picked him up briefly and held him) and my daughter decided to hunt for a snack she could hand-feed him. Well, my daughter spilled a small container of snacks while looking for a snack to give him and he tensed up and needed to retreat into his hideaway to calm down. Granted, that was a more startling or louder sound than usual, but I just notice that he seems consistently a bit more skittish in nature. No matter how accustomed he is to our voices or knowing that he can sit in my hands safely (he will let me cup him and pet him for several seconds with his body relaxed- after that he just gets restless and wants to crawl away), any unexpected noise or movement sends him on high alert.

What has been the range of everyone else's experiences? Are some of your hamsters more sensitive to noises than others? Do they calm down quickly when they assess that there isn't a threat or does it take them awhile?
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Well Petes cage is right next to Alexa and the landline phone plus in the room which is kitchen dining and lounge so lots of different noises going on all the time he usually either ignore sounds or comes to the front of his cage to see who is making the racket but he is one very chilled dude and always has been
 
I need to get accustomed to seeing if Cinnamon will come out earlier more often- or at least on weekends when I'm home during the day. I know we've talked about this on this forum- even doing around 6PM- but I've been a little lazy about that with Cinnamon. We get lucky enough with him later at night a few times a week, so I haven't felt as compelled to get him out earlier. But on days like today I realize his mood is often a bit more fun for us when he comes out earlier.

Today my daughter had a friend over who really wanted to meet her hamster. I told her that he didn't often come out during the day but we could see if he was amenable. So around 2PM I started talking to him and made a little noise near the entrance to his hideaway, which is how we normally announce our presence. He came to the door and went after his food offering, crawling into his transport rather readily. We took him out and he took plenty of time exploring his play areas, pouched some food and was amenable to being held or petted for quite some time before I could tell he'd had enough (when he starts trying to scale the playpen that's my signal that he's been overstimulated). Even when we brought him back to his cage, which I think he was eager to return to at that point, he didn't bolt for his hideaway but took time looking around a bit to see if there was any food and even taking a final treat from my daughter's hand, which he then brought to his hoard.

It is pretty rewarding that after several months, even though he's a shy soul, he relaxes a bit more in my hands and will let himself be held for a bit longer incrementally. I find myself assuming he'll be ready to crawl out after a bit, or that he'll see that he's close to the ground and make a move for it, and then I'll realize that he isn't making a move yet but just staying put on my hand. :)
 
When we first got Albert he was very nervous about noise but not anymore. If he's free roaming and he hears movement upstairs he always does his meerkat impression and looks up the stairs has if to say "who's up there and what are you doing"? It always makes me laugh 🤣
 
clacombe said:
I need to get accustomed to seeing if Cinnamon will come out earlier more often- or at least on weekends when I'm home during the day. I know we've talked about this on this forum- even doing around 6PM- but I've been a little lazy about that with Cinnamon. We get lucky enough with him later at night a few times a week, so I haven't felt as compelled to get him out earlier. But on days like today I realize his mood is often a bit more fun for us when he comes out earlier.

Today my daughter had a friend over who really wanted to meet her hamster. I told her that he didn't often come out during the day but we could see if he was amenable. So around 2PM I started talking to him and made a little noise near the entrance to his hideaway, which is how we normally announce our presence. He came to the door and went after his food offering, crawling into his transport rather readily. We took him out and he took plenty of time exploring his play areas, pouched some food and was amenable to being held or petted for quite some time before I could tell he'd had enough (when he starts trying to scale the playpen that's my signal that he's been overstimulated). Even when we brought him back to his cage, which I think he was eager to return to at that point, he didn't bolt for his hideaway but took time looking around a bit to see if there was any food and even taking a final treat from my daughter's hand, which he then brought to his hoard.

It is pretty rewarding that after several months, even though he's a shy soul, he relaxes a bit more in my hands and will let himself be held for a bit longer incrementally. I find myself assuming he'll be ready to crawl out after a bit, or that he'll see that he's close to the ground and make a move for it, and then I'll realize that he isn't making a move yet but just staying put on my hand. :)
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I think they can get used to different routines and it becomes their normal without stressing about it
 
That interaction went really well and your daughter's friend was able to see Cinnamon.

Another thing that can encourage them to stay up a bit longer is a homemade treat which could be an activity for your daughter and her friend.
 
So, early when we first took Cinnamon home we got this beautiful look at him taking flax seeds from a spray in his cage. We set the sprays up in the corner across from his wheel. Since then, we've put different sprays in, but he seems to ignore them- including the remaining flax seeds.

Recently, we were looking at a fired (and food safe) clay pencil holder my daughter made that was shaped like a cheese wedge. I told her, "We should stick sprays in here." So we looked for a place in the cage and found one right next to the exit of his hideaway. Well... within 24 hours he cleaned off all the flax from the flax spray! That little dickens was only waiting for his sprays to be safely located next to his escape route, which is ridiculous (from my human perspective), because he's awake half the night by himself, running in his wheel and exploring his food stuffs. No one would bother him if he foraged the flax on the other side of the cage! But I know that from he is on the shyer and more cautious end of the hamster spectrum, which is usually naturally cautious and shy anyway. Photos attached show a somewhat-close up of the wedge with sprays next to the hideaway entrance, and then (although it may be harder to see) the sprays on the far side of the cage (original placement) by the wheel.
 

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