🐹 Oreo 🥰

[orangetails]

Oreo is an 11 month old Syrian I have just adopted from bright horizons hamster rescue

He arrived on Sunday, he’d been woken to travel but then slept in his little travel box. He woke up as I opened the door so I got to see him His foster brought him in to his new room and we sat on the floor and chatted while he had a sniff around. Then she got him out and fussed him before giving him to me, we had a nice little snuggle and then he pee’d on me Poor little boy obviously hadn’t been able to go before he left, and clearly didn’t want to go in his travel cage!

He had a little sniff round his cage before going to sleep in his multi chamber hide

Sunday evening he woke up about 9pm, and I scattered some food. He had a lovely time foraging! Including going up on the shelf we’d made. He had three or four successful foraging trips, going back underground each time his pouches were full! He seems to have tunnelled out beyond his hide into the very back corner of his cage for his food store - I could see the substrate lifting a little each time he went back in! He also found his wheel and his water bottle - I got to see him drink which was reassuring.

I chatted to him a bit, and there were a few opportunities to allow him to sniff the back of my hand which he did, albeit shyly. Once he’d done a few food trips he decided he was still tired and disappeared about 10pm presumably for another sleep!

 

[RainbowBrite]

Welcome to your forever home Oreo. He is beautiful.

 

[orangetails]

Yesterday (Monday) I heard him awake and snacking mid-afternoon - he didn’t come out fully awake, but I did lift the lid of his hide to see his nose wuffling at the entrance of the substrate tunnel he had made! He seemed to enjoy listening to me talk to him for a couple of minutes, but then went back in for a sleep. I felt reassured to see he was still okay after no sign of him since the previous evening!

I have no idea where he is toileting - not in the multi chamber hide He is no longer sleeping in there either - he has clearly made a nest along with his food store in the very back corner. Not sure how I’m going to spot-clean… access is tricky!

Monday evening he was in great form!! His sprays had finally arrived so I stuck some of those in which look lovely in his cage, and he really enjoyed browsing them! It was nice to see him eating them in front of me rather than pouching all the food he could find and rushing off to store it!

He was happy for me to gently stroke him, and then when he was up on his water bottle house he let me pick him up! So he had his first out of cage time with me! He had a lovely time running on my hands and exploring my lap, and also spent a bit of time in his play pen, where he was settled enough to wash and eat!

He is so cute! Such a good little boy

 

[orangetails]

Welcome to your forever home Oreo. He is beautiful.

He is so lovely. I keep wanting to call him Biscuit because he is almost the exact same colour as my last hamster!

 

[elusive]

Aww hello Oreo
He really is gorgeous, sounds like he’s settling in really quickly & really enjoying his new home.
Lovely photos of him.

 

[Maz]

They are lovely photos. Glad he's settling in well. I wouldn't worry about spot cleaning just yet. Let your nose guide you after a week! He may move back into the multiroom house. Sometimes they abandon it if the roof is lifted off when they're settling in!

 

[orangetails]

They are lovely photos. Glad he's settling in well. I wouldn't worry about spot cleaning just yet. Let your nose guide you after a week! He may move back into the multiroom house. Sometimes they abandon it if the roof is lifted off when they're settling in!

Good to know - I wasn’t sure how soon i should go wee-hunting

Have to say I am already not loving the access with the plaza, I think I’ll be aiming to do Beryl’s rooftop diy hack asap!

But it does look pretty with some of his new sprays in I loved watching him forage around them last night!

 

[Maz]

It can depend what height the cage is. If it's lower, eg on a coffee table, it can be a bit awkward. Mine is on a cupboard, so higher up and the door is just right for me there

 

[Frida]

The photos of Oreo are absolutely gorgeous

 

[Member ID2]

Oreo you are absolutely adorable!

His home looks lovely and he'll be very happy in there. Great that Oreo is so tame and comfortable with humans already. I find that with hamsters who aren't babies. (Oreo, i refuse to call you older).

Good thing about the Plaza is that you can take the top panel off to add a door and cover the cage with a thick piece of weighted down cardboard in the meantime. He'll be asleep during the day anyway.

I've added a top door to my foster Robo's cage as well and now i'm on the lookout on Gumtree for a free or cheap small tank style cage to use its door for dwarf Eddie's cage.

 

[orangetails]

It can depend what height the cage is. If it's lower, eg on a coffee table, it can be a bit awkward. Mine is on a cupboard, so higher up and the door is just right for me there

It's on the floor

I like that it means he can free-access a playpen direct from his cage - but if cleaning it out ends up a problem I am going to have to raise it! I think you had shared a picture of it on a 2x Ikea Kallax unit? I kind of don't want to spend any more money at the moment because I'm not sure if long term I might be able to change my office around and end up with one of those nice wooden cages (poss the 115cm one...) on a unit in a slightly different place... We're a bit cramped right now, having fitted the 100cm cage in, instead of my old Alaska! (Which I don't begrudge because it's been lovely fitting all his enrichment in ) I really love the look of the bucastat (?) units on wheels, that would be super convenient for my space. But they were so pricey!

 

[orangetails]

Oreo you are absolutely adorable!

His home looks lovely and he'll be very happy in there. Great that Oreo is so tame and comfortable with humans already. I find that with hamsters who aren't babies. (Oreo, i refuse to call you older).

Good thing about the Plaza is that you can take the top panel off to add a door and cover the cage with a thick piece of weighted down cardboard in the meantime. He'll be asleep during the day anyway.

I've added a top door to my foster Robo's cage as well and now i'm on the lookout on Gumtree for a free or cheap small tank style cage to use its door for dwarf Eddie's cage.

Although I am already sad that he is a little older, it was definitely the right thing for me at the moment to end up with one who is not too skittish and already used to humans I shall just have to make the most of loving him for the latter part of his life!

Your cage top idea is genius, I am keeping an eye out for a suitable old cage to butcher (and as an added bonus, if gets another horribly small/unsuitable cage off the streets as it were!)

 

[Member ID2]

I put cages on a dolly trolley from B&Q or raise them by bolting a B&Q unit to a dolly trolley. I like the height and i like to be able to move things effortlessly. The dolly trolleys are very strong and used for moving furniture. They have gone up to £25 but are worth the cost.
That's Lilly's 100cmx50cm cage.

 

[Member ID2]

Although I am already sad that he is a little older, it was definitely the right thing for me at the moment to end up with one who is not too skittish and already used to humans I shall just have to make the most of loving him for the latter part of his life!

Your cage top idea is genius, I am keeping an eye out for a suitable old cage to butcher (and as an added bonus, if gets another horribly small/unsuitable cage off the streets as it were!)

My Robo Finley who is well over 2 and my Syrians Jack and now Otto were over a year old when i rescued them. But i have also lost 3 dwarf hamsters at only 10 and 13 months old. One of them a pedigree. Whatever age they are when they come to live with us, it really is a matter of enjoying every day with them while we can.

 

[Jain]

Oreo is an 11 month old Syrian I have just adopted from bright horizons hamster rescue

He arrived on Sunday, he’d been woken to travel but then slept in his little travel box. He woke up as I opened the door so I got to see him His foster brought him in to his new room and we sat on the floor and chatted while he had a sniff around. Then she got him out and fussed him before giving him to me, we had a nice little snuggle and then he pee’d on me Poor little boy obviously hadn’t been able to go before he left, and clearly didn’t want to go in his travel cage!

He had a little sniff round his cage before going to sleep in his multi chamber hide

Sunday evening he woke up about 9pm, and I scattered some food. He had a lovely time foraging! Including going up on the shelf we’d made. He had three or four successful foraging trips, going back underground each time his pouches were full! He seems to have tunnelled out beyond his hide into the very back corner of his cage for his food store - I could see the substrate lifting a little each time he went back in! He also found his wheel and his water bottle - I got to see him drink which was reassuring.

I chatted to him a bit, and there were a few opportunities to allow him to sniff the back of my hand which he did, albeit shyly. Once he’d done a few food trips he decided he was still tired and disappeared about 10pm presumably for another sleep!

View attachment 3551View attachment 3552View attachment 3553

Love the photos and homecoming story

 

[Jain]

Yesterday (Monday) I heard him awake and snacking mid-afternoon - he didn’t come out fully awake, but I did lift the lid of his hide to see his nose wuffling at the entrance of the substrate tunnel he had made! He seemed to enjoy listening to me talk to him for a couple of minutes, but then went back in for a sleep. I felt reassured to see he was still okay after no sign of him since the previous evening!

I have no idea where he is toileting - not in the multi chamber hide He is no longer sleeping in there either - he has clearly made a nest along with his food store in the very back corner. Not sure how I’m going to spot-clean… access is tricky!

Monday evening he was in great form!! His sprays had finally arrived so I stuck some of those in which look lovely in his cage, and he really enjoyed browsing them! It was nice to see him eating them in front of me rather than pouching all the food he could find and rushing off to store it!

He was happy for me to gently stroke him, and then when he was up on his water bottle house he let me pick him up! So he had his first out of cage time with me! He had a lovely time running on my hands and exploring my lap, and also spent a bit of time in his play pen, where he was settled enough to wash and eat!

He is so cute! Such a good little boy

View attachment 3554View attachment 3555View attachment 3556View attachment 3557

He's lovely and seems so laid back

 

[orangetails]

I put cages on a dolly trolley from B&Q or raise them by bolting a B&Q unit to a dolly trolley. I like the height and i like to be able to move things effortlessly. The dolly trolleys are very strong and used for moving furniture. They have gone up to £25 but are worth the cost.
That's Lilly's 100cmx50cm cage.

View attachment 3560

That looks like a great solution. I do like that he can hop out straight into his playpen if he wants to - but I honestly don't know how I am going to clean the cage as it is! If there was a lid in the top grill (or even better if the whole panel was a lid) it wouldn't be such an issue, I can see the attraction of the wooden cages with the lid that lifts now.

 

[Maz]

If it's on the floor then I can see a top door would be helpful! I used to like having a cage on the floor for the reasons you gave - they can just walk out or you can put a playpen round it. That was when I didn't have bad knees!

 

[Maz]

That looks like a great solution. I do like that he can hop out straight into his playpen if he wants to - but I honestly don't know how I am going to clean the cage as it is! If there was a lid in the top grill (or even better if the whole panel was a lid) it wouldn't be such an issue, I can see the attraction of the wooden cages with the lid that lifts now.

If you had a top door you could just sit on a chair and spot clean from the top. To be honest, I found that with a hamster using a litter tray that was all that needed doing each week really and the rest of the cage stayed clean and dry. Let's hope he just chooses an easy toilet spot!

I had a thought about the multiroom house - is it the trixie one? Sometimes they're not keen on that middle compartment wall as it makes the rooms smaller. I know some people used to knock that out so it was one bigger compartment in the middle.

 

[Roza]

Davy is on an Ikea table. Not sure of the name i can find out. It makes the door of his Plaza Savic exactly the same height as my sofa so I just sit there and watch, and when he wakes up & has a stretch i offer him his taxi (an empty porridge tube), and he climbs in. Then we go to his playroom.

Just thinking you could pull up a chair to do a spot clean and the door would be the right height?

Oreo really is lovely. I am sure that colouring was called a ‘Golden Hamster’ when I was a kid…
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