# Hamster not coming to of burrows



## lauren foster (Feb 4, 2021)

Hi all, so my Syrian hamster is still quite young (bought him In October 2020), and has suddenly stopped coming out so much. Previously he used to be very active at night and would be running on his cage for hours, but now he doesn't. Last night I was up until 5am and woke up at 9am and up until both times there was no sign of him. He has a bin cage over the required measurements made out of one of the largest plastic tubs from B&Q and has so many toys and hides. He has a sand bath he used to use quite a lot in his old cage before I upgraded it but he doesn't seem to use it much anymore. He has a burrow underground and just sleeps there and hides there throughout the day and night. 
He is drinking and eating fine, I scatter feed him and give him different spays to encourage foraging as well as putting herbs in the bedding. I use kaytee clean and cosy and he has around 10 inches of it on all parts of his cage. I already have tunnels placed for him to burrow and multiple hides above "ground" but he does not seem to use them. 
What do you guys suggest? If I wake him up and get him out of the cage he is perfectly healthy looking, his coat is very clean and neat and his ears go up quickly and he seems happy to be running around, but when I put him back in his cage, even in the middle of the night he just runs back to bed. I find myself having to wake him or encourage him to get up as otherwise I really don't think he will. 
Something else to notice is that I am a student and I have quite an irregular sleep schedule, I try to keep my room as dim as I can though but can't help having on some dim lights in the evening, could this be it? I have considered turning the lights off at a regular time and not using my room in the evening to create a dark and quiet space for him to hopefully encourage him out. 
Please just let me know if I am worrying over nothing and my hamster is just chilling out with age. I am very worried about him as he's still only young.


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## Knighterist (Feb 10, 2020)

lauren foster said:


> Hi all, so my Syrian hamster is still quite young (bought him In October 2020), and has suddenly stopped coming out so much. Previously he used to be very active at night and would be running on his cage for hours, but now he doesn't. Last night I was up until 5am and woke up at 9am and up until both times there was no sign of him. He has a bin cage over the required measurements made out of one of the largest plastic tubs from B&Q and has so many toys and hides. He has a sand bath he used to use quite a lot in his old cage before I upgraded it but he doesn't seem to use it much anymore. He has a burrow underground and just sleeps there and hides there throughout the day and night.
> He is drinking and eating fine, I scatter feed him and give him different spays to encourage foraging as well as putting herbs in the bedding. I use kaytee clean and cosy and he has around 10 inches of it on all parts of his cage. I already have tunnels placed for him to burrow and multiple hides above "ground" but he does not seem to use them.
> What do you guys suggest? If I wake him up and get him out of the cage he is perfectly healthy looking, his coat is very clean and neat and his ears go up quickly and he seems happy to be running around, but when I put him back in his cage, even in the middle of the night he just runs back to bed. I find myself having to wake him or encourage him to get up as otherwise I really don't think he will.
> Something else to notice is that I am a student and I have quite an irregular sleep schedule, I try to keep my room as dim as I can though but can't help having on some dim lights in the evening, could this be it? I have considered turning the lights off at a regular time and not using my room in the evening to create a dark and quiet space for him to hopefully encourage him out.
> Please just let me know if I am worrying over nothing and my hamster is just chilling out with age. I am very worried about him as he's still only young.


I'm not sure if this helps, but I have noticed that if I stay up late and leave lights on my hamster isn't keen to come out and do his nightly play also. But if I go to be before midnight and turn the lights off he does come out to do his things.
However, having said that I try to do things like scatter feed around the same time every night so he hears the bag crinkling and the food appearing and will come out to investigate and forage. Once he's done with that if he still hangs around I try to interact with him.
I so try to interact with him whenever I hear him come out for a drink and offer a small crumb of treat (I know, super stingy but if he gets full sized treats, he's gonna be chubby!) to let him know that interaction with his human is a good thing (comes with treats), so to encourage him to come out if I'm around.


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## lauren foster (Feb 4, 2021)

Thank you for your response! Good advice I am really thinking about having lights out a lot earlier on


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## Knighterist (Feb 10, 2020)

lauren foster said:


> Thank you for your response! Good advice I am really thinking about having lights out a lot earlier on


I came across this on YouTube just now I think it makes a lot of sense, we may have ghost hamsters!


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