Oaky's Diary

Maz said:
It sounds like great progress :-) They are all different aren't they? :-) Higgins sometimes doesn't want to come out of his taxi but I just leave him and eventually he comes out and explores a bit. But sometimes you can tell they're just not in the mood and want to go home.

I think they vary with eating from the hand as well. Sometimes it's building up trust but sometime's it's just the hamster! Raffy would never eat from my hand - or take a treat. Only if you put it down first.
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Yeah, about Raffy- that's sort of how Oaky is... She has taken a dried mealworm on occasion from my hand- she seems to really like those, which is pretty funny because Cinnamon actually completely ignored dried mealworms. He would leave them in his dish and never eat them!
 
So, we tried last night with the new enclosure, which was nice. She seemed a bit nervous again at the start, but did start exploring. However, it comes with a wipeable bottom mat, and I didn't have it perfectly aligned to cover all edges, and Oaky found one edge and shredded holes in it in a matter of minutes! 🤦‍♀️So I'm going to have to secure all edges now and cover up that part. It wasn't her trying to get out either, because she wasn't going after the walls or any gaps. She just found that fabric edge and decided that was by far the most interesting thing to do (sigh). She is a REAL chewer! Porcini, our rabbit, very much likes when Oaky is out and will meander near her.
 
Oaky is gorgeous with her little white feet 🥰 She is really shredding the floor to bits!
 
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Socks Mum said:
Oaky is gorgeous with her little white feet 🥰 She is really shredding the floor to bits!
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I know! She went after it so aggressively and so quickly! She has shown herself to be a bit of an obsessive chewer in spurts though. Cinnamon never chewed on anything other than a Whimzee, so it's a HUGE change! She's a bit more jumpy than Cinnamon ever was, too. She's calming down on that front, but every once in awhile she'll get a little twitchy and I try to just use a calm voice and pet her gently to remind her that she doesn't need to be "on guard."
 
I think they do that in playpens sometimes :-) Always the urge to escape! If there's no floor mat, they chew the carpet! (Or mine have tried to anyway). Newt was the worst one for that. It was a loop pile bedroom carpet and it ended up full of holes and unravelled. I didn't notice at first as I had left the playpen up all the time and when I moved it - holes in the carpet! They try and dig/chew their way out.

She is really lovely to watch! So full of energy and the way she looked up at you - cheeky and fun. Also love her little white feet. That's a lovely photo of Porcini watching Oaky :-)
 
Maz said:
I think they do that in playpens sometimes :-) Always the urge to escape! If there's no floor mat, they chew the carpet! (Or mine have tried to anyway). Newt was the worst one for that. It was a loop pile bedroom carpet and it ended up full of holes and unravelled. I didn't notice at first as I had left the playpen up all the time and when I moved it - holes in the carpet! They try and dig/chew their way out.

She is really lovely to watch! So full of energy and the way she looked up at you - cheeky and fun. Also love her little white feet. That's a lovely photo of Porcini watching Oaky :-)
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Yes, she is very full of energy. It has been a lot of fun, even if we don't take her out, just to watch her energetically moving around her own enclosure. I'll have to change up her set up more often just to keep giving her new things, although I'll keep certain staples the same- she loves her sandbath (not for a toilet, like Cinnamon, but for actual digging), and her wheel, and those singular wooden "decorative" hideaways. She will tuck into them when she's awake for little breaks or to clean herself while sequestered. Cinnamon never poked into them unless he thought there was food there!

We have a wood floor in the bedroom, so I thought the mat would be nicer, but I may have to cover the edges or put some fleece blankets for her burrow through around the corners but to also hide the edges of the mat.

And, yes, her little white paws are this fun little detail that poke out whenever she meerkats :)
 
It certainly keeps you on your toes having an energetic hamster but it's really fun too :-) And she sounds fun to watch. It's nice when they use things you provide. Even my two had a little chew at the fleece blanket in the bath tub during taming. I think they just chew things because they're there and they wonder if they can escape underneath it!
 
She certainly is an expert chewer!

Oh an indoor rabbit. How wonderful. My two are outdoor and are both single, sadly. I tried bonding them but they fought. I haven't been brave enough to try them again. They would LOVE to be indoors but I have nowhere safe to keep them away from my dog.

Porcini is beautiful.
 
Oaky is so beautiful, and she is really enjoying herself. I did tend to find that my little girl used to chew more when she was in heat, like she has so much energy, so had to do something.
Her little white feet are so cute
 
Hank said:
Oaky is so beautiful, and she is really enjoying herself. I did tend to find that my little girl used to chew more when she was in heat, like she has so much energy, so had to do something.
Her little white feet are so cute
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That could be it, too, and they are in heat so often that I may not have noticed the difference. I took her out last night and put her in the new play pen. Area and she stopped chewing at the floor pad. When she realized it was just wood underneath, but then tried to direct her chewing toward the bottom of one of the plastic panels... Always trying to find an area of weakness! She also seems to know that there is a ceiling on her enclosure and she sometimes stands up on the highest point of one of the hideaways and jumps a little bit to see if she can reach it (she can't).
 
Are we going to see Oaky in this month's photo comp? :-)
 
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