# Newbie Hamster Owner - Advice Needed!



## HammysHouse (Sep 13, 2012)

Hi everyone - I've just joined the forum to find out more about how to care for our new pet. After months of persuasion from my 2 kids (aged 8 & 5) we collected our new hamster last weekend. I tried to suggest a more original name but apparently it HAS to be Hammy LOL!

Hammy is a male Syrian hamster, about 12 weeks old (we think) & is, of course, very very cute. I always had rabbits as a child & although I've read up about hamsters, I'm a complete beginner & I'd welcome any practical advice to make sure we give Hammy the best possible care.

My main concern is whether he's feeling well - he's become steadily less active during the 5 days we've had him. The first couple of evenings he was moving around quite a bit from 9pm to around 11.30pm, running on his wheel, going through the tube, eating in his food bowl, etc. pretty much what we expected. The last 3 evenings he's hardly done anything at all, hasn't been on his wheel, hardly comes out of his bedroom & often just sits & looks at us even when we do tempt him out of his bedroom. He's eating okay & has little drinks from his bottle, his coat's nice & clean & no sign of "wet tail". I wouldn't be so worried if I hadn't seem how perky he was to begin with. Also, the kids are quite disappointed - they were so excited at getting their first pet, we'd explained that hamsters sleep a lot especially during the day but they expected him to move around a bit & do things within the cage so they could watch him when they get home from school / during the evening. The house is nice & warm so I don't think he's gone into hibernation.

So, my main questions are:

- Should we get him out of the cage & handle him even though he just wants to sleep all the time? After a couple of days settling in, we've been getting him out for a bit of play & handling early evening. He's growing in confidence so we feel he's getting used to us but does anyone have any tips on how best to play with him? The kids are desperate to have lots of contact with him but I don't want to stress him out, especially as my 5 year old is noisy & less gentle at times.
- How do I know if he's ill? Because he's become so inactive, I'm worried but I don't really have any symptoms to describe to a vet.
- Might he get more active in his cage as he gets older / settles in / the clocks change!?
- He's going to the toilet in his bedding at the moment (so we're changing it daily). We optimistically bought a Hamster toilet but how do we encourage him to use that when he's ready?

Thanks in advance for any tips.


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## LittlePaws AnimalRescue (Sep 11, 2012)

Sometimes when we first bring pets home they will go crazy exploring their new surroundings, then they will settle down and not be as active.
I have 1 syrian hamster here who in the first couple of days was up ALL the time and now I barely see him because he sleeps most of the time.
I dont wake him up for playtime because I've tried that and he became quite angry and started nipping, then just fell asleep on the sofa to prove a point....never wake him up!

Is his cage and wheel big enough? Often a hamster will stop running on it's wheel if it is too small.
For a syrian you'll need a cage that is at least 80x50cm base size (cages such as the savic hamster heaven, savic mickey 2xl, and the Barney from zooplus are all ideal) And a wheel that is at least 8" but preferably 11" (trixie wheels, Karlie wonderland, wondent wheels and the largest silent spinners and flying saucers are great)

A sandbath/toilet area could solve the problem of Hammy going to the toilet in his bedding although some hams just like to go where they're not supposed to and nothing will stop them.
If you fill a container/dog bowl/saucer etc with chinchilla sand Hammy may figure out that's a better place to go to the loo.


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## kiania (Feb 21, 2011)

This is the problem of buying a nocturnal animal as a pet for children. Of the hamsters, dwarfs are more likely to come out during the daytime (syrians tend on the whole to be big 'sleepers'), but they are usually fast and generally too delicate for children (make fab pets, mind you, but they are more 'watching' animals than handling ones, especially when you get down to tiny robos).

Mice, on the other hand, make great children's pets - that is what I had (amongst my huge menagerie) as a child. Too late for that now though.

But yes, sounds like your hamster checked out his new pad, and has settled in. Nothing to be concerned about. I do find that the larger the cage, the more active, so if you can go above the minimum recommended size (of 80x50cm), you will probably get more activity. The most common cage for 'educated' syrian hamster owners is the Hagen Zoozone 2 (the bigger of the two, 'large' size) at 100x50cm. You might also like to use a glass tank (a lot of people convert Ikea's 'detolf' glass cabinet, £40, into a hamster cage - I can honestly say it is the best thing we did for our dwarfs! The space causes them to be a whole lot more active, and lets you see their burrows). Tanks and deep plastic 'tank-style' cages also mean you can put in plenty of substrate (not woodshavings) - in Germany, their legal requirements for hamsters is 30cm of bedding for syrians, and 20cm for dwarfs - there are no commercial cages on the market in the UK that allow this unfortunately, but it is something to aspire to!

I wouldn't go for an 8" wheel (I use them for my dwarfs, and they are perfectly sized for their smaller size!). I'd suggest 11" or bigger for a syrian hamster.

Chin sand seems to be more readily used with dwarfs than syrians, but do try it! It allows them to dustbath to clean their fur, and some do use it for toilet use. People put it in a saucer, salt pigs, jam jars, and so forth. If you allow the hamster some privacy, it is more likely to use it as a toilet mind you.

Hamsters are coprophagic, so keeping their poos in with their nest and food stash is perfectly 'normal' for them - bit like you keeping the salt in your cupboard next to the tea bags and noodles! Same as rabbits, they don't have complex ruminant digestive systems - eating poo ensures they get all of their vitamin B12 (link for more reading: Hamster Coprophagy (Poop eating) | Hamsters as Pets ). Of course, after being passed through twice, they produce normal droppings - they do tend to leave these in the nest as well, mostly as it is convenient, and no doubt 'warm' (a thought that might turn the steeliest of modern day human stomachs!).

Personally, I'd strongly advice against changing his bed everyday. These animals are scent-orientated. It would be a little like you coming home monday night to find that someone had switched all of your rooms around - a bedroom where your lounge was, the kitchen in the attic...etc. That is essentially what you are doing - so for hamsters, the first thing to do? Re-scent mark everything. The more you clean, the more they have to reaffirm this is their space, so the more they scent mark. I'm obviously not suggesting you don't clean them out, but try pulling the nest once a week instead of every day. You'll get a hamster that isn't so confused (and angry at your audacity  ), and stop the cycle of causing him to scent mark heavily. The rest of the cage, cleaning-wise, depends on how big it is. A piddly rotastak-style cage (aside from throwing it away this instant as it is entirely unsuitable for any animal!) requires twice-weekly clean-outs for the size, an 80x50cm cage requires weekly to fortnightly depending on the messiness of the hamster, the bigger the cage, the less cleaning (going back to German style hamster care, aside from pulling nests and taking out the bathroom area (hamsters tend to pee in one place), they clean out between 2 to 4 times a year, purely due to the volume of bedding meaning it simply isn't dirty/smelly!).

Syrians (and hamsters in general, but syrians are rather more 'notorious'!) do not like being woken up. Same as most humans woken in the middle of the night while asleep, after the initial blinking at the bright light and "Mrh?" moment comes the "Who do you think you are, waking me up? How DARE you!" fury. In hamsters, this promptly follows with nipping the fingers that are trying to scoop them up. Not saying that all syrians hate being woken, but if you try and get bitten - just imagine how irked you would be if someone did the same to you - perfectly understandable as far as I'm concerned 

You might want to look on a hamster forum for more specific care - Hamster Central is the one to which I belong, and generally speaking, I'd highly recommend reading it


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## kiania (Feb 21, 2011)

Oh, missed the "fun things to do" part of the question - that is easy, playpens!

A lot of hamster people build playpens out of correx/coroplast which fold flat when not in use. You can make them big enough to fit both children in (sitting down), with the hamster and toys...and let the hamster use you (or children) as a climbing frame. Add plenty of sugar-free treats, and it means you have a safe, secure space for the hamster (so he can't escape), while being able to 'play'. Can even have the hamster in the playpen (check for escape attempts, mind you!) while you watch TV with the volume at a suitably low level - hamster gets exercise in a novel (and therefore enriching) environment, and you can watch him at his antics at your leisure


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## HammysHouse (Sep 13, 2012)

Thanks for all the useful advice - we'll certainly make a few changes to improve things for Hammy. We now think he was perhaps feeling a bit poorly last week as he's been like a different hamster over the weekend. He still sleeps a lot (as we expected - we'd done lots of research before choosing a Syrian) but he's been active in his cage in the mornings, a bit in the afternoon & very active in the evening. This means we can get him out of his cage for some play without waking him & the kids have had a lovely time watching him doing stuff in his cage. He's just what we hoped for.

Thanks again for your replies.


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