new hamster (almost) never out of burrow - help!

Ralph the hamster

Ralph the hamster

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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
 
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I think this is perfectly normal for the first few days :-) It can take them a good two weeks to fully adjust to a new environment and new cage and then they can start acting more confident around the cage. I wouldn't clean anything at all in that first few weeks while he's settling in - it'll be fine. You will notice if it starts smelling of pee! Syrian hamsters will actually use a litter tray and then it's really easy - you just empty the litter tray (with sand in it) once or twice a week and the rest of the cage stays clean and dry and can be mainly just spot cleaned for quite a long time. It's only their pee that's unhygienic. Don't worry about poops - if they start taking over in a big way you can spot clean them out. They actually eat their poops sometimes as they have two stomachs and can redigest nutrients from them. So the odd one round about isn't a big issue - they are quite dry. There's an article on the home page about cleaning tips. If you did clean him out too soon it will likely stress him and him get more skitty and nervous.

Anyway litter - tray - syrians will use one - if you put it in the right place! Sometimes it's a case of waiting till you find out where they are peeing and then put the litter tray there, but a good place to try putting on is inside a multiroom house (if that's the house you have).
 
If you do have a multiroom house, something like a corner litter tray can fit in well. Our Syrians have the multiroom houses with a toilet compartment and litter tray in and all but one of them used it in that compartment. The one that didn't decided to be quirky and peed in a smaller room in the house so I moved the litter tray there.
 
I have one like this with sand in. Check the dimensions (12cm x 17cm is just right) as some are huge and meant for rabbits. Niteangel might make a ceramic one but the plastic one is lighter so doesn't sink.

Trixie Corner Toilet, 16 x 7 x 12 cm Multi color : Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies

Free delivery and returns on eligible orders. Buy Trixie Corner Toilet, 16 x 7 x 12 cm Multi color at Amazon UK.
www.amazon.co.uk

It's very frustrating when you want to handle them straight away! But keep talking to him gently when you see him. You can start getting him into some habits maybe by putting food out at a certain time of the evening. Say early to mid evening. Then they get in the habit of waking up when it's feeding time (if you make some slight cage noises when putting the food out) so it becomes a routine.

One thing I do as well is have a separate little dish at the other end of the cage to the house, just for the daily veg - it means they actually have to go somewhere to get it. The veg is the main thing they get up for! They love any fresh food and can smell it. But only a very tiny amount about thumbnail sized. So they eat it rather than hoard it. I find they eat it straight away and don't hoard it, if you only give a very small amount (which is all they need anyway). If he's not having fresh veg already then it's best to only give it every 2 or 3 days for the first couple of weeks so their stomach adjusts - and then start doing it daily.

So when he comes out around feeding time can be a good time to offer him a "taxi" to see if he hops in - to have some out of cage time and taming in a safe area. But I would give it at least a week to 10 days before getting him out - unless he is showing clear signs of wanting to come out - like trying to climb out!
 
This is inside our Syrian's multiroom house at the moment. He is nesting at the back in the small compartment (and also partly under the house). The compartment next to it on the right is where his litter tray is. You can't see it because he made it cosy recently when it was cold by putting a lot of substrate around it and then a hole to walk into the toilet! The good thing is that is the only area there is pee in the entire cage.

IMG_0437.JPG
 
georgeshamster said:
It's this one!
Click to expand...
Ah that's good! It looks identical to mine (which is actually Rodipet but I've noticed they have some items virtually identical). So in mine the litter tray goes in the middle back compartment which is intended for toiletting because it's directly accessible from the front left compartment - which is where they usually nest because it's the darkest room as it's round two corners.

All our Syrians (except current one!) have built a big cosy nest in the front left compartment and used the litter tray in the middle back compartment. The current one is quirky and nests in the really small compartment back left! But still uses the litter tray in the middle at the back.

Even if he has a burrow under the house he should still use the litter tray.
 
Maz said:
I have one like this with sand in. Check the dimensions (12cm x 17cm is just right) as some are huge and meant for rabbits. Niteangel might make a ceramic one but the plastic one is lighter so doesn't sink.

Trixie Corner Toilet, 16 x 7 x 12 cm Multi color : Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies

Free delivery and returns on eligible orders. Buy Trixie Corner Toilet, 16 x 7 x 12 cm Multi color at Amazon UK.
www.amazon.co.uk

It's very frustrating when you want to handle them straight away! But keep talking to him gently when you see him. You can start getting him into some habits maybe by putting food out at a certain time of the evening. Say early to mid evening. Then they get in the habit of waking up when it's feeding time (if you make some slight cage noises when putting the food out) so it becomes a routine.

One thing I do as well is have a separate little dish at the other end of the cage to the house, just for the daily veg - it means they actually have to go somewhere to get it. The veg is the main thing they get up for! They love any fresh food and can smell it. But only a very tiny amount about thumbnail sized. So they eat it rather than hoard it. I find they eat it straight away and don't hoard it, if you only give a very small amount (which is all they need anyway). If he's not having fresh veg already then it's best to only give it every 2 or 3 days for the first couple of weeks so their stomach adjusts - and then start doing it daily.

So when he comes out around feeding time can be a good time to offer him a "taxi" to see if he hops in - to have some out of cage time and taming in a safe area. But I would give it at least a week to 10 days before getting him out - unless he is showing clear signs of wanting to come out - like trying to climb out!
Click to expand...
Thanks! We've been doing a lot of this. Well me, mainly, so he doesn't get overwhelmed with so many new people. My husband says I talk to him like I talked to our newborns and narrated diaper changes, etc. so usually I just gently chat about I'm just hear to clean your water, now I'm going to leave this chew stick, and so on. He did take a bit of carrot and a pumpkin seed from my hand last night and sat and ate right in front of me but I left when he started to look agitated. Thanks for all the advice! We were prepared to be patient but I wasn't prepared to worry about him so much!
 
When you say the apartment building - do you mean the multiroom house or is that somewhere else? ie is he actually nesting in the mutlroom house?
 
georgeshamster said:
Thanks! We've been doing a lot of this. Well me, mainly, so he doesn't get overwhelmed with so many new people. My husband says I talk to him like I talked to our newborns and narrated diaper changes, etc. so usually I just gently chat about I'm just hear to clean your water, now I'm going to leave this chew stick, and so on. He did take a bit of carrot and a pumpkin seed from my hand last night and sat and ate right in front of me but I left when he started to look agitated. Thanks for all the advice! We were prepared to be patient but I wasn't prepared to worry about him so much!
Click to expand...
Ha ha - it is a worry at first and in a way it is like having a new born. Some hamsters are still babies!
 
I'm guessing, from looking at the photo - that the apartment building is on the left? Visible through the front. It might be that if he has another housing option there, with deep bedding under it, he isn't using the multiroom house. I tend to put the multiroom house on top of about 6" of bedding, but more is better. If they have two houses two choose from they will invariably choose the one you hadn't intended as the main house!
 
Maz said:
When you say the apartment building - do you mean the multiroom house or is that somewhere else? ie is he actually nesting in the mutlroom house?
Click to expand...
so the chamber hide is on the right of the cage where there's maybe 2" of bedding, and the apartment building is 10" tall by 12" wide and has like rooms and a ramp to climb, etc, and at the bottom it has a big hole in the side - he started his burrow from that hole.
 
Hello, welcome to the forum & congrats on your new ham.
Look forward to hearing more about him once he begins to settle in.
As Maz said it can take a while, they’re all different but most can take a week or two to get confident about coming out when their new humans are around, some can settle quicker and it’s a great way to get them used to them by just chatting while around the cage, I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of him soon.
 
Hello and welcome to the forum!

You already had great advice above so all i'd like to add is that i also babytalk to our hamsters. They are so little and cute though.

Your enclosure and set up looks lovely. I'm sure your hamster is busy making himself at home which can take a while. It's quite typical behaviour for a new hamster to explore first and then go underground for a week or two before resurfacing to meet their human family.
 
Thinking about it. I suspect he won't use the multiroom house if there isn't a lot of substrate under it - they like to bury hoards under the nest and burrow down a bit. It's best not to make any changes during the 2 week settling in period, but at some point it could be an idea to put the multiroom house on legs and have deeper substrate under that too. He may then tunnel between the two houses and use both.
 
Maz said:
Thinking about it. I suspect he won't use the multiroom house if there isn't a lot of substrate under it - they like to bury hoards under the nest and burrow down a bit. It's best not to make any changes during the 2 week settling in period, but at some point it could be an idea to put the multiroom house on legs and have deeper substrate under that too. He may then tunnel between the two houses and use both.
Click to expand...
Good advice! I can move that wall and add more room to the deep substrate sections. Right now his wheel is on top of the chamber house so we'll have to mess around and measure for where that can go!
 
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