- Messages
- 64
- Reaction score
- 128
- Points
- 68
Hello! We just got our first hamster on Saturday after extensive research by our middle son. We got a male syrian of undetermined age from a rescue/pet store combination (it's kinda hard to explain). When we put him in his new habitat he spent about thirty minutes checking it out, and then discovered the apartment building we got on Etsy, started a burrow from the bottom exit, and we didn't see him for 14 hours. I attached a picture, but it's a little hard to tell. The habitat is almost four feet wide and half of that is 12" deep layered bedding, surrounded with a dig bog and the apartment building. The apartment burrow hole enters into a 5 inch wide section of 8" deep bedding, but the bottom of that section leads to the 12", so his burrows/chambers could be pretty extensive.
Anyway, we never see him. Sunday and Monday nights he got up and explored and ran on his wheel. Both nights I happened to be down there cleaning out the water bowl, adding food, etc. and chatted with him. He took seeds and other treats from my hands both nights and seemed like he was warming up and did big stretches, etc., but his demeanor would start to look more nervous so I would say goodnight and leave. We have a Wyze cam on him 24/7 and he really is just not coming out except for those evening jaunts. Sunday was like 8:30 to 4:30, but last night was only 9:30 to 12:30, and then he went back in.
Is this normal? Is he just so happy in his burrows that he's not coming out? Or do I need to get him in to the vet? I do eventually have to go in and clean the burrows somehow because we can't find anywhere else he's soiled or pooped. We are following Rachel Got Hamsters's advice on pretty much everything including the intro/taming process. Could we be doing anything more for our handsome guy?
![hammyhouse.jpg hammyhouse.jpg](https://www.thehamsterforum.com/data/attachments/2/2288-0229941282336d9f75811073e42cdd20.jpg?hash=AimUEoIzbZ)
Anyway, we never see him. Sunday and Monday nights he got up and explored and ran on his wheel. Both nights I happened to be down there cleaning out the water bowl, adding food, etc. and chatted with him. He took seeds and other treats from my hands both nights and seemed like he was warming up and did big stretches, etc., but his demeanor would start to look more nervous so I would say goodnight and leave. We have a Wyze cam on him 24/7 and he really is just not coming out except for those evening jaunts. Sunday was like 8:30 to 4:30, but last night was only 9:30 to 12:30, and then he went back in.
Is this normal? Is he just so happy in his burrows that he's not coming out? Or do I need to get him in to the vet? I do eventually have to go in and clean the burrows somehow because we can't find anywhere else he's soiled or pooped. We are following Rachel Got Hamsters's advice on pretty much everything including the intro/taming process. Could we be doing anything more for our handsome guy?
![hammyhouse.jpg hammyhouse.jpg](https://www.thehamsterforum.com/data/attachments/2/2288-0229941282336d9f75811073e42cdd20.jpg?hash=AimUEoIzbZ)
Last edited by a moderator: