New baby Syrian

Maz

Maz

Administrator
Staff member
Moderator and Admin
Messages
18,116
Reaction score
35,854
Points
1,373
I mentioned last week I may have some news :). After trying to find a male Syrian for adoption for a few months and there being nothing in my area at all within 75 miles - apart from the one that changed their minds- I was kindly offered a baby from a pedigree litter (NHC breeder). We went to collect him today.

He is slightly under 6 weeks old having just come straight from sharing a cage with his brothers and I don’t think quite ready to go into a big cage on his own. I think he needs some observation to make sure he can use his water bottle ok and so I can check on him - he was very scared and squawked a lot at first. So I’ve put him in a Savic Mickey 2xl (80 x 50) which is my hospital cage - initially without deep bedding but lots of enrichment otherwise and will be upgraded to the plaza later. If he was that little bit older I’d have put him straight into the plaza. Apparently the boys had already started fighting so the babies were rehomed a bit earlier.

He has the cutest little face which makes his ears look big :). He’s a golden Syrian. His Mum was a golden short haired Rex and his Dad was a dark grey short haired satin.

Name to be decided!

IMG_1420.jpeg

IMG_1412.jpegIMG_1424.jpeg
 
Last edited:
I love his ears too :). I think partly they look so big as he’s still got a small baby face - his face hasn’t caught up with his ears yet :)

He has the 10.5” getzoo plastic wheel at the moment and I don’t think he’s had a wheel before so I’ll keep an eye on that too in case he goes a bit bananas on it.
 
Maz said:
I love his ears too :). I think partly they look so big as he’s still got a small baby face - his face hasn’t caught up with his ears yet :)

He has the 10.5” getzoo plastic wheel at the moment and I don’t think he’s had a wheel before so I’ll keep an eye on that too in case he goes a bit bananas on it.
Click to expand...
All the better to charm us with 💖 What a lovely Valentine's surprise, you deserve it. He (name to be chosen) will be so happy and loved!
 
Congratulations on the new arrival Maz. He is a very handsome boy and I love his look too.
Updates on his progress please and a name when chosen. He will have a lovely life with you!
 
Thank you all :-) I set the nightcam up last night and had a good look at the footage today - he's just behaving like a hamster :-) As soon as I'd turned the lights out and gone to bed he was out on his wheel. He has slowly explored the cage (seems quite a slow measured hamster rather than a fast whizzy one), and investigated most things, climbed the bars a bit and about 7am this morning he sat chilling in his sand bath but didn't seem to quite know what else to do with it. He's found the water bottle but I think I'll lower it a bit.
 
Some short clips from his first night - these were between 6am and 7.30am. The last one, where he's in the sand bath, I think he could hear us getting up, upstairs.

His head pops up from the top house door on this one and he explores climbing the back bars


Here, he's on the wheel thinking, and running on it - I chopped out some of the running which went on for a while - and a bit more exploring


This is two short clips joined together - exploring the cork log and front of the cage, and finding the sand bath



He seems to be thinking a lot! He also sat in his food bowl. I scattered half of it - that was all hoovered up by morning.
 
Last edited:
Maz said:
Some short clips from his first night - these were between 6am and 7.30am. The last one, where he's in the sand bath, I think he could hear us getting up, upstairs.

His head pops up from the top house door on this one and he explores climbing the back bars


Here, he's on the wheel thinking, and running on it - I chopped out some of the running which went on for a while - and a bit more exploring


This is two short clips joined together - exploring the cork log and front of the cage, and finding the sand bath



He seems to be thinking a lot! He also sat in his food bowl. I scattered half of it - that was all hoovered up by morning.
Click to expand...
It must be reassuring to see him eating well!
 
There are some discussions on the Internet about ultrasound in hamsters, as communication and for navigating the environment. A bat detector might pick up the sounds, but I'm not sure, I will need to read about it.
 
Socks Mum said:
There are some discussions on the Internet about ultrasound in hamsters, as communication and for navigating the environment. A bat detector might pick up the sounds, but I'm not sure, I will need to read about it.
Click to expand...
There's been quite a bit of discussion about hamster ultrasound in the past - particularly after the Wild At Heart programme (have you seen those videos? They're great). The film maker has a discussion in the article below (he kept the hamster from the programme but clearly didn't know enough about hamsters to keep the hamster away from a dog! Or to know that hamsters pouch bedding). He mentions the ultrasound and bat detector in the comments below, but the way ultrasound was discussed in the programme was as a thing that hamsters have to detect heights so they can judge if something is too high or dangerous. In the programme, the hamster was in a ball that was hurtling along but stopped at the top of the stairs (not sure if that bit is in any of the available clips) and the narrator said the hamster's ultrasound helped him know that was a dangerous drop. It was a nerve wracking moment during the film seeing the ball heading for the stairs! It's in the first video. People thought it was very risky!

While it was interesting to know that hamsters use ultrasound for height detection, many of us were sceptical about it because some hamsters will and do jump from unsuitable heights! Like Lemmings. But you can see them thinking about it sometimes. Raffy still doesn't jump off the sofa - he paces up and down, looks over the edge and nervously thinks about it. If left on there long enough he would do it though!

But they are fascinating creatures. They can hear things we can't hear - but now you mention communication, I wonder if he had been listening to some chat from Raffy :ROFLMAO:

www.bbc.co.uk

That 'Pets: Wild At Heart' hamster who filled his cheeks? I fell in love and kept him as my own

You may have watched the delightful hamster clip: Hear from the series producer who became his owner.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

These are the only clips from the programme I can find (narrated by David Tennant). At the time people were commenting on the height of the cage and the plastic tubes being risky - now it would be a whole lot of things that didn't seem acceptable! Including using a hamster ball and dwarf hamsters kept together.

The two pouching videos seem slightly different.





 
Last edited:
Thank you, I saw a snippet but have been keen to see more, this us great. Yes, hamster balls, and heights are terribly dangerous for hamsters who can do unexpected things on a flash. They are best kept at ground level, anticipating falls. Tree climbing rodents might land better, but burrowing rodents don't handle falls well at all. Glad he kept the little hamster, he recognised how special they are. Yes, I wonder what chatting is going on that we don't know about!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Maz
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top