I got him yesterday as a moving in present for my girlfriend. Though she doesn’t move in for a few weeks yet, we thought we’d get him early while I’ve still got a fair bit of cash at the start of this term. He’s settling in fine, seems to like his new cage, especially the wheel.
Unfortunately I’ve had to remove the wheel for the time being though, as he started to hoard food there. It’s like a separate ‘room’ to his cage, it plugs into a hole for the tubular parts etc, and it was the first part of the cage he explored, so I think that’s why it was chosen as the safe place to hide the food he’d painstakingly foraged from the bowl I’d put it in for him. Within 20 minutes he’d moved ALL of the food in his bowl through to the wheel! He hadn’t left a single crumb!
Now you might be wondering why this is a problem, but Rambos’ cage is roughly 2 metres from my head when I’m sleeping, and the sound of food trundling round and round his wheel with him would drive me insane, but the wheel also has air holes in, which the food filters through, along with any that makes it though the gap between the wheel and the wheel housing. Whilst I’m sure there’s many uses for ground hamster muesli, I’m sure it would serve Rambo better to have his food inside the cage.
I’m hoping now I’ve removed the wheel and he’s found his little hamster house, he’ll start to hoard food in there and won’t switch back to the wheel when I put it back on.
Any ideas what to do if he does start with the wheel hoarding again though?
Hehe, I could film him in his wheel, and just loop that, 'cos it’s all he does for hours on end!
He’s tame enough to be stroked now, just gives you a sniff, and will take treats from my hand. He’s stopped hoarding in the wheel too :).
Think I might see if he’ll let me pick him up too.
Anyone know why hamsters like wheels so much? I know in the wild they can run 4-8 miles a night, but I was wondering how the lack of scenery when he runs still stimulates him.
Get one of those plastic exercise balls and stuff him in. They quickly learn how to navigate the ball and they actually explore the room\ or rooms in them. When you stop hearing the ball rolling around, check to make sure he didn’t get stuck. You should only have to free the ball up once, as he’ll remember not to go there again. Make sure the lid is securely fastened because he’ll eventually try to open the ball. Also, you may want to wire the door to his cage shut because late at night they try to figure out how to get out.
I’m going to town in a bit to buy a ball. Decided we’d let him settle in a bit before picking him up and things. The missus has been feeding him by hand a lot. Great stuff, except she’s managed to condition him into thinking ‘hand offered=food’ therefore ‘fingertips=food’. So that’s put the picking him up malarkey on hold for a while.
Gah!
Going to buy some thick gloves, and try and condition him out of it I think.
Is what filigree? The hamster? Nope, he’s a Syrian, not Siberian. Not sure what he’s classed as other than a Syrian, but his colours and markings were completely different to all the others in the store, who were mostly pure coloured
He’s a cutie! Be sure to socialize him; hamsters can be very people-friendly or they can be small frightened animals hiding from you.
I see I’m not the only one with the the tradition of naming hamsters after serious buttkickers. One of mine was named Hannibal (after this Hannibal, not this one). Mine wasn’t a biter.
They’re more nibbles than bites, it’s more ‘I’m biting you because because I think you’re food’ more than ‘I’m biting you because I’m scared of this ginormous pink thing (not a penis!) in front of me that keeps trying to pick me up!’
Sorry for the double post, but I think as the last post says ‘yesterday’ it qualifies.
Received my first ‘fuck off and let me go about my hamstery business’ bite today!
To put this into perspective, we’ve been transferring Rambo from his cage to a cardboard box (with food in, so he doesn’t think it’s an entirely alien environment), to pet him, and let him climb on us, to get used to being handled.
So Rambo was in there, climbing on my hand, sniffing and even licking me, getting fed his favourite food (the dried crushed peas form hamster muesli) by hand, and climbing all over me. I’ve just got in from a night out (not the best time for hamster training) but it lets him give me the exploratory nibbles without me being bothered as much. I’d been feeding him with my right hand, and petting him with my left, and letting him walk on my left.
I figured the difference in scents between right hand - food, and left hand - me, with me rubbing my hand through my hair every so often to pick up my scent again and keep it strong, would help him differentiate between food and human. Either way, it only works to a point!
So I’d been handleing him, and suddenly, I get a few exploratory nibbles, and BAM the big one. It drew blood. I now think I have a vampire hamster (Hey, I’m inebriated, I’m allowed to think that).
Problem is, when I’m sober, I’m gonna be more bothered about it! Any ideas where to go next with his training?
