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Hello hamster enthusiasts,
I set up a nine-square maze for my Syrian hamster, Benny, in his 120 cm Bucatstate cage for enrichment. He initially enjoyed it and was adjusting well — until I cleaned the maze lightly, leaving two-thirds of his original bedding and not touching his food hoards. Even with this minimal disturbance, he reacted as if it were a personal offense.
Since then, he has abandoned his previous sleeping squares and moved to the center square of the maze. He has also stopped using his sandboxes outside the maze. He was previously potty trained, but now pees inside the maze itself — and yes, it does smell. I added half-inch footers under the top frame of the maze to lift the acrylic and improve airflow, which helped slightly.
The maze has become difficult to manage. I cannot easily lure him out, perform a wellness check, or otherwise assess his health while he is in the maze. Our schedules are very different — he wakes around midnight or later, and I have a limited window to interact with him, which makes monitoring and bonding more challenging.
At this point, he will not walk onto my hand, and I’m beginning to regret the maze. I don’t want to chase him through it and stress him out, yet I also cannot ignore hygiene and his well-being. I’m wondering if his quality of life — and mine — might improve with a simpler setup.
Has anyone else replaced a maze with a more open enclosure? How did your hamster respond? I’m considering returning to a simpler hideout where I can easily monitor him. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We are still bonding, and I don’t want to traumatize him, but this maze doesn’t seem to work well for many reasons.
I set up a nine-square maze for my Syrian hamster, Benny, in his 120 cm Bucatstate cage for enrichment. He initially enjoyed it and was adjusting well — until I cleaned the maze lightly, leaving two-thirds of his original bedding and not touching his food hoards. Even with this minimal disturbance, he reacted as if it were a personal offense.
Since then, he has abandoned his previous sleeping squares and moved to the center square of the maze. He has also stopped using his sandboxes outside the maze. He was previously potty trained, but now pees inside the maze itself — and yes, it does smell. I added half-inch footers under the top frame of the maze to lift the acrylic and improve airflow, which helped slightly.
The maze has become difficult to manage. I cannot easily lure him out, perform a wellness check, or otherwise assess his health while he is in the maze. Our schedules are very different — he wakes around midnight or later, and I have a limited window to interact with him, which makes monitoring and bonding more challenging.
At this point, he will not walk onto my hand, and I’m beginning to regret the maze. I don’t want to chase him through it and stress him out, yet I also cannot ignore hygiene and his well-being. I’m wondering if his quality of life — and mine — might improve with a simpler setup.
Has anyone else replaced a maze with a more open enclosure? How did your hamster respond? I’m considering returning to a simpler hideout where I can easily monitor him. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We are still bonding, and I don’t want to traumatize him, but this maze doesn’t seem to work well for many reasons.
. Socks does this, but he is old and I think getting up to go to the loo in the day is a bit of a chore 
I clean once a week and have to wake him up and manoeuvre him out of his shoebox house with a lid that comes off to remove a fair amount of wet, smelly bedding from the depths below his nest. His nest itself is dry, but part of his larder is yukky so alot has to come out. He sleeps in a carrier while I am at work and is rewarded with his veggie bowl when I wake him up to move him back to his cage. I do the cleaning around his veggie dinner time to try not to disrupt his sleep too much. He is very cute and half asleep. I do his weight check and health check at this time too as he is also a late riser (1am).
It’s a relief to know I’m not the only one with a 'territorial decorator.' 
A really helpful takeaway from your routine with Socks is that 'less is more'—and I need a setup that allows for easy 'scooping' him up - I’m missing that option with the current maze set up (love the shoebox idea & weigh-ins around his veggie dinner time) It’s definitely pushing me toward a simpler hideout for him so I can keep up with health checks, and cleaning without the stress. Thanks for the encouragement! 
Because it seems to be the hamster's instinct to move their toilet inside a multiroom house that mimics a burrow from the wild. So they have a room for sleeping, for hoarding and for peeing. All mine have moved their toilet area inside (or under) the multiroom house. They seem to just like a nice big private area with an ensuite toilet!
This really helped me. 
This is perfect timing because he has graduated to a big 12.5-inch wheel (arrived yesterday), and his maze won't fit well with his wheel upgrade. You said, 
. I think that maze would work better in a playpen - I only had a quick look but maybe the compartments are a bit small for it to work effectively.