Oaky's Diary

[clacombe]

Meet Oaky! We just adopted her on January 1st!

After 2 very shy males, we went on the hunt for a female Syrian to adopt. I thought it was worth it to try the gender difference for a shot at a more energetic hamster, even though I know that individual personality is influential as well.

Oaky (formerly Cosmos) was part of a "surprise" litter (I don't know how someone properly caring for Syrians has a surprise litter, but I'll leave my comments at that...) and some of the offspring were fostered by a local animal shelter. My daughter wanted to stick with herb or plant-based names, and Oak came to her mind, like the tree, which then became Oaky.

I was told that Oaky can be jumpy and is still getting used to people but will accept pets. Based on estimating her age at just a couple of months old at most, I wasn't surprised by that and took it to mean that she wasn't really tamed yet.

In any case, we brought her home and introduced her to her new cage- we altered the set up quite a bit after Cinnamon, thinking that some layout changes might also foster more interaction, and we do think that our new setup has helped to make her activities more visible, though I still think a lot may have to do with her energy and confidence.

She does react if a hand comes near her with a bit of a startled response, but she's not completely averse to brief pets, and we've mostly tried to just let her be (and not attempted to pet her) as she adjusts to her new set up. That being said, once she emerges from her hideout (at about 9PM tonight), as long as she doesn't see a hand coming toward her, she seems to be perfectly happy to explore the cage, run on her wheel, etc. with us watching- which is much more relaxed than Cinnamon was. Cinnamon would forage and gather food in front of us, but would then retreat until we went to sleep. Oaky seems comfortable to do whatever she's interested in doing when we're around, once she emerges of her own accord. I think that she'll probably love free-roaming once she acclimates to her cage and we pick out a transport and a free roam space for her- unfortunately, our old free roam space is now our bunny's home.

I'll post a video of her below (which we took when we first brought her home) and then a quick video of our new cage set-up.

Some other interesting differences so far- she hasn't seemed to have a huge appetite. She has inspected food, but only taken small amounts, and mostly when we aren't around. I have yet to see her stuff her cheek pouches, and at least on night one, even though she was out for hours (I put our old pet cam out to check what she was up to after I woke up), she didn't hoard all the food in the cage. I'm not sure if this is because she is a pickier eater or just has different habits than Cinnamon did- he would clean up everything except a handful of seeds or pellets he didn't care for, and it was really obvious what those were.

Note: in the cage setup video below my daughter put two hamster treat cakes in the food dish, but that wasn't actually the food that she got. She got normal blacks and seed mix along with a treat "cake", which she didn't really eat.

I am going to have to work on good photos of her because her fur is so dark that it's hard to get a detailed photo.

 

[Socks Mum]

She has the same colouring as Socks! She is beautiful! She has such a wonderful home, lucky Oaky! Congratulations

 

[Maz]

Aw this is such lovely news . She is so cute and exploring everything curiously. I think you’re going to have great times. She probably will still need a couple of weeks to settle but see how it goes. She might be more used to people , having been in a rescue, but also they can still need adjustment. Once she realises this is her new permanent home I think you’ll visibly see how happy she is

I Adopted a year old hanster once - similar colouring to Oaky. It is hard to capture them! But I could see his expressions change

It might be nice to keep a diary as well to see if her behaviour changes on certain days and work out her heat days? Although female hansters vary and it may not be that noticeable.

The set up looks good! Don’t worry about the food. Higgins was the same until he had his first major spot clean and since then he pouches everything in sight! Ie he got a bit more anxious about food unfortunately - so if she’s not pouching then she must feel quite relaxed about leaving food out or hasn’t quite decided where to hoard it yet

In a couple of weeks, maybe you could start with some bath tub time? With a blanket and some toys to get her used to being stroked and gradually used to being picked up? If you don’t have a bath tub then playpen time?

 

[clacombe]

Aw this is such lovely news . She is so cute and exploring everything curiously. I think you’re going to have great times. She probably will still need a couple of weeks to settle but see how it goes. She might be more used to people , having been in a rescue, but also they can still need adjustment. Once she realises this is her new permanent home I think you’ll visibly see how happy she is

I Adopted a year old hanster once - similar colouring to Oaky. It is hard to capture them! But I could see his expressions change

It might be nice to keep a diary as well to see if her behaviour changes on certain days and work out her heat days? Although female hansters vary and it may not be that noticeable.

The set up looks good! Don’t worry about the food. Higgins was the same until he had his first major spot clean and since then he pouches everything in sight! Ie he got a bit more anxious about food unfortunately - so if she’s not pouching then she must feel quite relaxed about leaving food out or hasn’t quite decided where to hoard it yet

In a couple of weeks, maybe you could start with some bath tub time? With a blanket and some toys to get her used to being stroked and gradually used to being picked up? If you don’t have a bath tub then playpen time?

I like that idea. We used to do bathtub time with Wally, but Cinnamon didn't seem to enjoy it as much so we had been out of the habit, but we had had fun with it in the past.

It's funny you mention heat... last night she did the thing where we were petting her back and she suddenly flattened and stiffened. I had a female hamster who did this when I was younger (probably over 30 years ago), but I just thought it was a funny personality quirk at the time because there was such scarce knowledge and no "hamster community" at the time. Last night I started searching up the behaviour after Oaky did it and came across the references to heat. Is it ok to pet them when that happens? We just gently pet Oaky's back for a minute or so when it happened and then went back to watching her explore.

 

[Maz]

I don't know to be honest! I haven't actually had a female Syrian. I would see how she reacts. It sounds like she was "standing" for a male partner possibly? If so probably best not to stroke her then. If it was just one of those freezes they sometimes do then it's probably fine as it could distract her out of it.

I started with the bathtub with both Tino and Higgins as it's a smaller, secure area for a nervous hamster who isn't hand tame, and I wait until I can actually pick them up before moving onto a playpen or the sofa Oaky might have been handled before though and get used to it quicker. I usually find it takes maybe 3 or 4 bathtub sessions, starting with a stroke, moving onto them taking food from the palm of your hand - until they trust the hand and put a foot on it or walk on it. A cheeky one might try and climb your arm!

 

[Maz]

As I'm sure you know, it's just about building trust and familiarity really But then as well as that, it's getting them used to being handled. Some will never sit for a stroke or cuddle for more than a few seconds - others will when they get used to you picking them up.

I do love that last photo of her Her little paws - she looks slightly anxious but slightly curious as well and very sweet!

 

[Maz]

Sorry I forgot you had hamsters as a child so I'm probably preaching to the converted there!

 

[teeny_tiny_tony123]

Oaky seems lovely, she is lucky girl Hoping she settles in nicely

 

[Lovelyness]

How lovely Good luck with a female syrian...you might get more than you bargained for

 

[clacombe]

Sorry I forgot you had hamsters as a child so I'm probably preaching to the converted there!

True- although, to be fair, I still marvel about how much I didn't understand about proper hamster care back then. There were no hamster communities at the time (the internet barely existed). My middle hamster was the most shy, and she eventually came around, but it took weeks (which is not abnormal but felt abnormal at the time) and I was trying to tame her by instinct since the most information I had available to me was a slim book I'd picked up at a pet store. According to my mother, at some point I lamented to her that Roosevelt (because she had been labeled as a "teddy bear" hamster- and I'm pretty sure I had no idea she was female at the time) hated me. But Roosevelt did come around! Still, I feel like with these hamsters I'm re-learning or newly learning!

 

[clacombe]

How lovely Good luck with a female syrian...you might get more than you bargained for

I absolutely keep wondering that. She already paws at the clear sides of her enclosure (we have a Niteangel tank-style cage) and inspects all the corners like she's trying to get to the other side- SO much more curious than our last 2 males.

 

[Maz]

Yes we had to wing it in the past! There plenty of sad stories about hamsters who escaped or got injured before. I think current care is so much better. Some of the old cages weren't secure at all and it's not surprising they wanted to escape!

My "first" one wasn't actually mine - it was a boyfriend's. The hamster came with him when we moved in together about erm....30 years ago! He lived in an awful rotostak - but it was left open every night and he free roamed, so it wasn't so bad. He wasn't hand tame though and it's amazing he didn't have any injuries as he used to climb the curtains right to the top. We knew no different. I believe he ate a lot of lettuce as well which probably wasn't that good for him.

I still fell in love with the hamster though - and we got one for stepson and I fell in love all over again!

 

[clacombe]

Oaky update:

Friday night Oaky didn't come out while we were up, and that was okay because my daughter had a sleepover and she and her friend were very busy doing their thing. They said they heard Oaky awake under the bedding but didn't see her. Oaky has turned out to be quite the burrower! She has already dug multiple tunnels in multiple places throughout the enclosure, which is fascinating. Cinnamon dug down in the 6-chamber hideout for a lower level sleeping space, and then once when he was older he burrowed into the neighboring underground 2-chamber peekaboo hideout (which he was aware of when we moved him in but ignored for a full year after blocking it up with bedding). At some point I'll be curious to see what our stilts for the platforms look like. I hear many chewing noises, like I never heard with our males!

So far Oaky seems to be primarily using the corner toilet in her hideout for both the bathroom and sleeping (unless I just am missing some other corner), and she uses the sand bath above ground just for having a fun dig. Another interesting thing she is doing is using an above ground hide (the kind that have a front that looks like a house) as sort of a "cat nap" station. She sleeps during the day in the multi-chamber hideout, but I caught her sleeping after being active last night in the above ground hideout (this was around 11PM, so STILL at night), which I thought was hilarious. Then she came out again later in the night (I could hear the wheel) and this morning she was back to sleeping in the multi-chamber hideout. She is definitely taking food and I'm seeing what she prefers and doesn't, but she doesn't hoard as quickly or as much as Cinnamon did.

She moves around pretty energetically when she comes out, so we've mostly just watched her do her thing. We'll reach in briefly to get a short pet in, and she seems to be getting more acclimated to that- as in, she doesn't startle, or if she does it's almost a quick instinctual reaction, and then she seems relaxed again with a hand petting her back or near her. I presented my hand with food in it and she did put two paws on my hand while inspecting the food and then walked over my hand, which I thought was good, but I don't think I would trust lifting my hand up with her in it yet or trying to hand carry her- I think that would be too much, too soon. What is nice is that once she does emerge of her own accord, she seems very content to be active in front of us, which makes it really easy to be patient with the idea of trying to hand tame her- she's just so much fun to watch.

 

[clacombe]

Yes we had to wing it in the past! There plenty of sad stories about hamsters who escaped or got injured before. I think current care is so much better. Some of the old cages weren't secure at all and it's not surprising they wanted to escape!

My "first" one wasn't actually mine - it was a boyfriend's. The hamster came with him when we moved in together about erm....30 years ago! He lived in an awful rotostak - but it was left open every night and he free roamed, so it wasn't so bad. He wasn't hand tame though and it's amazing he didn't have any injuries as he used to climb the curtains right to the top. We knew no different. I believe he ate a lot of lettuce as well which probably wasn't that good for him.

I still fell in love with the hamster though - and we got one for stepson and I fell in love all over again!

Oh wow! What a fun adventure! We had ours in glass tanks with these wire lids that snapped over the top, but we had to rest something on the top corner because they would climb the water bottle and chew or push at the lid (which, sadly, we thought was just neutral or expected behavior rather than a sign of boredom). I gave them nightly "free roam" time, but unfortunately, usually in a hamster ball That's so nice that yours could free roam without getting lost!

 

[Maz]

He used to take a ride on the back of my long dressing gown ha ha. That was his way of sneakily trying to escape the room. I got half way up the stairs once and thought something felt odd and there he was sitting on the end of my dressing gown at the back

 

[Lovelyness]

Ha ha…Blossom is a real chewer. Fortunately, she loves chewing on egg boxes, of which I get plenty….and I have supplied her with lots of natural chews…she has especially liked coconut husk and dried banana leaves, and cork too.

 

[Maz]

Oaky update:

Friday night Oaky didn't come out while we were up, and that was okay because my daughter had a sleepover and she and her friend were very busy doing their thing. They said they heard Oaky awake under the bedding but didn't see her. Oaky has turned out to be quite the burrower! She has already dug multiple tunnels in multiple places throughout the enclosure, which is fascinating. Cinnamon dug down in the 6-chamber hideout for a lower level sleeping space, and then once when he was older he burrowed into the neighboring underground 2-chamber peekaboo hideout (which he was aware of when we moved him in but ignored for a full year after blocking it up with bedding). At some point I'll be curious to see what our stilts for the platforms look like. I hear many chewing noises, like I never heard with our males!

So far Oaky seems to be primarily using the corner toilet in her hideout for both the bathroom and sleeping (unless I just am missing some other corner), and she uses the sand bath above ground just for having a fun dig. Another interesting thing she is doing is using an above ground hide (the kind that have a front that looks like a house) as sort of a "cat nap" station. She sleeps during the day in the multi-chamber hideout, but I caught her sleeping after being active last night in the above ground hideout (this was around 11PM, so STILL at night), which I thought was hilarious. Then she came out again later in the night (I could hear the wheel) and this morning she was back to sleeping in the multi-chamber hideout. She is definitely taking food and I'm seeing what she prefers and doesn't, but she doesn't hoard as quickly or as much as Cinnamon did.

She moves around pretty energetically when she comes out, so we've mostly just watched her do her thing. We'll reach in briefly to get a short pet in, and she seems to be getting more acclimated to that- as in, she doesn't startle, or if she does it's almost a quick instinctual reaction, and then she seems relaxed again with a hand petting her back or near her. I presented my hand with food in it and she did put two paws on my hand while inspecting the food and then walked over my hand, which I thought was good, but I don't think I would trust lifting my hand up with her in it yet or trying to hand carry her- I think that would be too much, too soon. What is nice is that once she does emerge of her own accord, she seems very content to be active in front of us, which makes it really easy to be patient with the idea of trying to hand tame her- she's just so much fun to watch.

So sorry I missed this post earlier and only saw the one afterwards! It all sounds great - she sounds like she's settling in really quickly and it sounds like you're all going to have a lot of fun with her I am also fascinated by her multiple tunnels! I think that's real progress so early - that she put her paws on your hand and walked over it. It took me weeks to get to that point with Tino! And that was out of the cage.

 

[Socks Mum]

Lovely to hear about Oaky's progress, she's doing so well