Oh yeah, I didn’t mean you should have socialized him. That hamster is bad because the person you got it from was a bad owner. I doubt there was anything you could have done. Just saying that’s not really any reason to give up on hamsters as pets, any abused or neglected small rodent is probably gonna be a basket case for life, at least up to rats.
OK, sorry, I misunderstood. He’s such a cute little guy, when I can actually catch a glimpse of him. Just not enjoying having him as a pet… i like interacting with my critters… even my betta fish knows me by sight and begs.
Went to a Petco near my house the other day (I couldn’t find any hamster breeders around here) just to check them out, and the minute I saw the blotches of tan and white on his little back, I knew he was mine. The guy at the store let me hold him- he was super sweet, with one darker red eye and one lighter red eye (I’m a Bowie fan so this was icing on the cake), and that was that.
His Habitrail Studio cost 5X as much as he did, but it was worth it. He’s already plugged up one of the tubes with bedding and turned it into a treasure cache. I give him a treat, he runs upstairs and over to the other tube and drops it down to save for later. I have spent SO much time just watching this little guy pwn this new home of his!
I’ve only gotten to the hand-feeding him treats phase. I’m taking it slow- I don’t want him to freak the first time I pick him up. So far he’s enjoyed carrot, apple, cucumber, spinach, broccoli (he stuffed a 1 1/4" broccoli stem in his mouth & hot-footed it to the cache with an insanely distended cheek- hysterical!). Those have been just little bitty treats- he eats fortified seed nugget thingies for his main diet.
So far so great- I’m in LOVE with him. He seems happy.
And can I just endorse these habitrail setups- this little guy is a tunneling fool in this thing! He really seems like he’s at home.
Damn straight. I had a Belgian hare for about a year, and unless I was on the maintenance detail like white on rice, the area smelled like where they show the large ungulates at the zoo. Carnivores are wonderful: They don’t like to defecate where they eat.
He’s adorable!! And I really like his new home too! Sounds like you’re having a great time. 
I held him for the first time this morning! It was great- he’s a cuddler!
He seems to be using one of the side mini-rooms for peeing, which totally helps me to keep his habitrail clean, but he keeps his food and he poops in his main lair. I need to try to find a little dish or some kind of receptacle that he can drop his food into that’s raised up from the floor of the room. He refuses to have anything in there (bedding-wise) besides a big wad of toilet paper, so the food/poo tend to, ah, be in close proximity… I need to solve this problem. I know he can’t be into sh!tting where he eats…!
Yes, all hamsters do that. And sometimes they eat the poo as well. Perfectly natural, circle of life and all that.
Yep. Think of it as your hamster’s best effort at ‘going green’. :eek:
Wow…okay! Guess I’m glad I belong to a species that isn’t into that! He has been dropping his poos down one of the tubes, so I guess he’s somewhat into keeping house!
We had a not-so-successful night last night. He just wasn’t into being picked up at all. My third attempt was met with an epileptic gymnastic feat that told me he was over it!
Must be more patient. 
Greatest hamster cartoon ever!
(Highlight 10/24 if the link doesn’t work.)
I love the hamster on the left. I’m not sure whether he/she/it is supposed to be wearing a grass skirt, or sitting in a vaguely tropical-themed burrow.
He’s so cute! Congrats!
Uh…my wife actually had our little Spawn of Satan potty trained. Can’t remember how she did it, though. It involved a little triangular thing that went in the corner of the cage. You might want to ask about it at the pet store. I scoffed at her when she brought it home, but sure enough, it actually worked.
Why would you want to?
They’re called hamster litter boxes, and yes, it’s pretty easy to train them to use it. You can buy them at just about any pet store.
Well, for one thing, if they’re litter trained, you only need to empty the litter pan and refill that corner of the cage with bedding a couple of times a week. The litter in the rest of the cage stays pretty clean, and can be changed a lot less often. Saves time, saves money (on litter/bedding), plus hamsters seem to spend a lot of time making their environment just the way they like it, so you don’t have to screw with that as often. Our dwarfs get pretty well pissed when we change their bedding, because it means we move around their chewed up cardboard, toilet paper tubes, etc. They definitely get that “I just remodeled in here, dammit, and here are you hoomins ruinin’ it all!” look.