My name is Leia the Wonder Hamster

L

LeiaTheWonderHamster

New member
Member
Messages
4
Reaction score
11
Points
3
Hello everyone, i have asked my owner to pop this picture of me on here so i can say hello.

PXL_20241024_190653512.jpg
My name is Leia and my mum, who is a super duper 9 year old has started calling me a wonder hamster and so my name is pretty much a concatenation of both..it works and they even sing it to me (as in my mum and her parents) - my mums mum is okay, though the dad is a bit 'rough around the vocals' for my delicate, but cute ears.

I am a 15 week old Syrian and have been with this family for 5 weeks now. I live in a Habitat 2 cage that was bought from Pets at Home and they have put loads of stuff in here. They are looking at getting me a bigger place though, I dont really feel i have enough room to run around and burrow and this is compounded by the fact they keep buying me toys, toys and more toys. I do love toys, but i am a hamster and need space to be me. They are looking the the Savic Plaza XL cage but these guys looking after me are total noobies and would really like some recommendations. In fact, there is lots they are not sure about and I hope over the next few days that my mum, my mums mum and the one that cant sing can come on here and ask questions?

This is my home at the moment (see what i mean about toys ands space!! Please help my owners make it better, with a view on a bigger cage!!
PXL_20241110_095458329.MP.jpg
 
Hello and welcome Leia, and welcome to your mum and mum's parents😃
I can see why you would want a bit more space, it can be hard to burrow in the home you have, or so my little hammy has told me. My little hammy has the standard Plaza, which is, full to the base top of bedding and then another couple of inches of bedding even higher. The 120 Plaza wasn't available when I upgraded my little girls home, but Maz has the 120, so I'm sure Maz will be able to comment.
I think I can see two wheels, the little one is okay for now, but that will need to come up as you get a bit bigger. I think you might like it, if your big wheel was raised a bit higher and then more bedding was added? Is that a multi chamber house, near your wheel, is that where you sleep?
The platform at the top right, do you use that. Do you need it? It's a bit high, you don't want to fall off it it is it there for cover? Looking forward to hearing more updates
 
Hi Hank, I think my mums' parents will be happy to hear your thoughts. You are right, I have 2 wheels, the one on the platform is a standard one from pets at home. Its a little squeaky and my back arches when i run on it and so i think that is the reason they bought the Bucatstate 26cm wheel as it was bigger and much quieter. I dont think they know if they should just remove the little wheel now as i have grown quite a bit in the last 5 weeks or if this larger wheel is just too big for me.

That platform you mentioned is a bit too high for me. I heard my mum saying its there to stop my big wheel from toppling as apparently the parents are a little paranoid about it, even though its flat on the cage floor; they did think about securing it with cable ties, but i do enjoy nibbling through plastic (you should see my cage corners where the plastic bits used to be!!) hence the platform. I dont have a multi chamber house, but mum says they are looking to get one for me when they get a bigger cage because of what they saw on this very forum!! Do you have any suggestions for them? I would also like some tubes to run through, do you or anyone have any thoughts?

I had best go now, im very tired as i was up all night.
Leia
 
Hello and welcome to Leia the wonder hamster and family 😊.

You’ve had some great advice from Hank. Yes I do have a Plaza 120/Plaza XL. It is lovely sized cage and I like the front opening door and large top door - you can do everything through the doors without needing to take the bars off 😊.

It would give Leila lots of space to be a hamster 😊. You mentioned she was chewing at the corners of the current cage - it’s probably because it’s a bit on the small side for her. Does she have a chew stick at all? Also there are lots of boredom breaker chews you can make from toilet roll inner tubes - treat parcels etc. There’s a thread with lots of ideas - I’ll link it below. 😊

Now you’ve had her about five weeks - how is she with the humans? 😊. Some hamsters are quite tame and friendly straight away - others take a little longer.

I’ll post a bit more later - just in the middle of something 😊
 
Sorry I forgot to add the link

www.thehamsterforum.com

Cardboard creations

This is a thread to show how many things you can make for your hamster or enclosure, out of cardboard :-) Cardboard is your friend.
www.thehamsterforum.com www.thehamsterforum.com
 
LeiaTheWonderHamster said:
Hello everyone, i have asked my owner to pop this picture of me on here so i can say hello.

View attachment 8946
My name is Leia and my mum, who is a super duper 9 year old has started calling me a wonder hamster and so my name is pretty much a concatenation of both..it works and they even sing it to me (as in my mum and her parents) - my mums mum is okay, though the dad is a bit 'rough around the vocals' for my delicate, but cute ears.

I am a 15 week old Syrian and have been with this family for 5 weeks now. I live in a Habitat 2 cage that was bought from Pets at Home and they have put loads of stuff in here. They are looking at getting me a bigger place though, I dont really feel i have enough room to run around and burrow and this is compounded by the fact they keep buying me toys, toys and more toys. I do love toys, but i am a hamster and need space to be me. They are looking the the Savic Plaza XL cage but these guys looking after me are total noobies and would really like some recommendations. In fact, there is lots they are not sure about and I hope over the next few days that my mum, my mums mum and the one that cant sing can come on here and ask questions?

This is my home at the moment (see what i mean about toys ands space!! Please help my owners make it better, with a view on a bigger cage!!
View attachment 8947
Click to expand...
Hello Leia, you are very sweet, posing for your photo. My Socks lives in a Plaza 120 and it's a very accessible cage. Putting it up requires patience, but once up it just chugs along. The front door is so wide I can almost put my head and shoulders through it.
 
I can definitely get my head and part of my body and one arm through it to reach to a back corner! If upgrading her to another cage, it's quite important to keep it a stress-free change for her - as much as possible. Hamsters can get quite stressed by cage changes.

The way to do that is to not clean anything before you move her. And keep all the old bedding, and her nest and hoard.

What I tend to do is give them an adjustment day. So fill the new cage with bedding and maybe one or two new items in there, and just let her have a play/explore in it. So she leaves some scent in it and it's a bit more familiar next day. But leave her in the old cage that night.

Then the next day when it's moving time, you'll need to find somewhere to put her - a pet carrier is ideal. I like to put the pet carrier in another room (eg upstairs) while changing the cage over, as they can get quite upset if they hear/smell you messing with their cage!

So then you can move all her old bedding across and spread it out on top of the new bedding (there will be less of it in a bigger cage so spreading it on top usually works).

And keep her nest and hoard and move that across (maybe put it in a house you have for her). And move any other items across that you're going to use from the old cage.

Also try to keep the layout very similar so her routes are similar/familiar. eg wheel back left, house on right etc - so things are in a similar location to before (but that's not always possible).

I also scatter/hide quite a few different treats in various places in the cage for them to find as it distracts them and they enjoy finding them.

The next thing I find important is - before you put the hamster in the new cage, while they're still in another room in a pet carrier - remove the old cage from the same room. I think it can upset them if they can still smell their old familiar cage in the room and slows the settling process.

Then put the hamster in the new cage :-).

With a larger cage, you don't want too much open space, so getting a few larger items can help. A large cork log is good for that. It's a nice big tunnel they can dive in if they feel like it and it's also something to climb over and an interesting texture. I sometimes use one pushed part way under a shelf so it doubles up as a route to climb onto the shelf, as ladders can be fiddly.
 
Last edited:
My goodness!! Thank you everyone for your replies, I shall let my mum know and she can pass this all on. As you knowm, I have super sensetative hearing and i overheard them a few moments ago buying me the Plaza 120..so i am really looking forwrd to that. I have also heard they have bojught me a house which they are gonig to partly bury. They do have a quetion though. I have one of these plastic tubes from pets at home and i tend to hoard everything in there and I even poop in there; is this normal? They want to remove the tube at somepoint as i use it as a house rand hoard rather then anything else..is this a good idea?

Im sorry for my bad spelling, as you know my eyesight isnt very good and i struggle to press the keys in with my small paws.
Leia (the wonder hamster)
 
Hello Leia 😊Glad you’ve heard the humans talking about nice things for you? Is the tube round the outside of the cage? It’s better to remove it and cap it off and you can always add a shorter tube on the bedding inside the cage - so you can run through it but it doesn’t seem like a large toilet 😊. Also some hamsters grow very large and can actually get stuck in tubes! The bigger diameter tube the better. About 7cm is about right.

I get these tubes for our Syrians and they really like them. They are made of hyacinth and are safe to chew and they have a couple of holes so you can play hide and seek in them 😊. The small size is about 7cm diameter and just right for you. Tell the humans not to do what I did by mistake once abd got the guinea pig sized medium one as it is enormous!

Hyacinth tunnel.
 
Hi Maz,
I was taking a look at the cardboard cutouts idea that you posted yesterday and we love the idea and mummy is going to make me a pyramid when the humans get enough loo rolls! The tunnel i have is this one Tunnel
They have stretched it into a U shape and I tend to hoard and poop and basically stay in here all the time. Thats what they are not sure about keeping, as they have bought me a hamster house now. I like that Hyacinth tunnel and will get the old grumpy one to buy it via mummy.

Thing is they know now from reading here not to change too much in one go, i think the new cage alone is going to be scary but hope that my humans take heed of what has been said about transferring me across.
 
Socks: I have two bendy tunnels like yours, not that I want to boast 😌 Mom only allows me to use them under supervision in my playpen (Songmics) as I tend to chew off sharp pieces. The Rosewood cardboard ones and the Hyacinth tunnel are safer. Enjoy your new cage accessories 🧦
 
  • Like
Reactions: Maz
Those long bendy tunnels are great :-) But I only really use them for out of cage time or in a playpen :-) When they're closed they make a good tunnel to use as a "taxi" for the hamster to walk into so you can lift them out of the cage with your hands over the ends - to carry them to a playpen area or hamsterproof area. When they're stretched out they're a fun thing in the playpen. I agree the ends can be a bit sharp sometimes and they could be dangerous if chewed as they have wire inside. Mine have never tried to chew them though.

If you're planning a cage upgrade, I would leave the tunnel for now even if Leia is using it as a nesting place. You can just leave it out after the cage upgrade :-)

They can be extremely useful - I used one once to catch one of my hamsters. He hadn't escaped exactly, but he just hid in the room and I couldn't find him and had to go to bed in the end and leave his cage on the floor - the bendy tunnel leading into it with bits of food and treats inside to tempt him in. (Needless to say that particular hamster wasn't suited to free roaming!).

There's a video of it here (just for fun) to show him going back into the cage. I had a nightcam set up so I could watch on my phone - see when he went back in the cage, and then nip downstairs and close the cage door. There is another cage behind on a stand and his cage is on the floor :-)

 
Caught! Gee, Mom must have good ears! How did she know I was back in my cage? 😄
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Maz
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top