Socks: Mouseworks Dynamic Cardboard Redesign and Basic Tunneling

But he is a total softie and still quite skittish but not nippy ❤️ He came out at about 6:30 this morning and I helped him choose some food to store away. He pouched a few pieces of bedding and made several trips to his cellar and cereal box. I think the Quaker Oats box is his main nest at the moment.
 
This is something hamster balls don't allow for. In the videos of Syrian hamster litters, there seems to be no playfighting amongst siblings, just some pushing for food, but otherwise just cuddling up to sleep or wandering about. I'm not sure about dwarf hamsters, but think they may be similar. Gerbils seem to play more overtly, but then they are highly social.
 
I think you're right! That didn't occur to me. It could be tunnel maintenance. I was also wondering if he could be in hunting mode, looking for insects to eat. He would be operating in complete darkness so whiskers fine tuned. It's quite strenuous and stimulating. I think he gets a bit of a work out. I must weigh him, but I think he looks bigger, we'll see.
 
Socks was awake at 4am this morning. I said hello on my way to the human bathroom as he was meerkatting, but not bsr biting. He shuffled bedding around quite a bit. I have some aspen litter for him. I put in a handful last night to let him investigate it and want to add more today.
 
I suppose he could just be scent marking it as well. When Raffy was young he used to scent mark everything a lot and looked like he was doing a funny kind of dance. I assumed it was because he might have had daily cleanouts at his previous home and nest thrown away etc, as it was a bit excessive. He stopped eventually! If it's a really long tunnel he may want to make sure he scent marks every bit of it!
 
The tunnels are 75cm each and have cardboard boxes on the ends so they run for 3/4 the length of a Songmics play pen. There is a long roll of brown paper down the middle with a hole in it and all three are laid parallel so he can take a break from them if he wants to. He displays an even mixture of straight through running and upside down stuff! Then he comes out and looks for a way over the walks so I put him in his cage to reconnect with his home base. He chews the cardboard tunnel ends, but I have to supervise in case he chews and swallows anything plastic.
 
Socks Mum said:
The tunnels are 75cm each and have cardboard boxes on the ends so they run for 3/4 the length of a Songmics play pen. There is a long roll of brown paper down the middle with a hole in it and all three are laid parallel so he can take a break from them if he wants to. He displays an even mixture of straight through running and upside down stuff! Then he comes out and looks for a way over the walks so I put him in his cage to reconnect with his home base. He chews the cardboard tunnel ends, but I have to supervise in case he chews and swallows anything plastic.
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Walls not walks 😑
 
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Reactions: Maz
Maz said:
I suppose he could just be scent marking it as well. When Raffy was young he used to scent mark everything a lot and looked like he was doing a funny kind of dance. I assumed it was because he might have had daily cleanouts at his previous home and nest thrown away etc, as it was a bit excessive. He stopped eventually! If it's a really long tunnel he may want to make sure he scent marks every bit of it!
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The scent marking makes a lot of sense, looking at the video again!
 
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