🐹 Oreo 🥰

[Frida]

I love the photos Oreo

 

[Maz]

You could get him in the routine of waking up for feeding time around 6pm or 7pm and doing the out of cage time then. They soon get in the habit when they know it's feeding time. Eg making a bit of cage noise while putting the veg, food and water out. They are sometimes not that interested in coming out once up for the food, but can usually be tempted into a tube with a smelly treat in.

 

[Member ID2]

I just hope I haven't blown it by getting him out to handle that first Monday evening... he didn't seem stressed and of course he is older and tame with his foster but I do worry I got a bit keen as he was so new with me.

Also a bit worried that if I regularly don't see him, it's going to be hard to build a relationship Hopefully he enjoyed the playpen time and will start to seek that out - he must realise that only gets opened as an option when I am in the room/the lights are on etc?! His foster said he would love the playpen/free roam opportunity

I keep reminding myself, it's not even two weeks yet

I'm pretty sure that you haven't blown it by getting him out that Monday evening. Oreo would have forgotten about that by now. It was a positive experience anyway and not something that scared him.

Are you still in contact with his fosterer? I think that it would be helpful and reassuring for you to talk to her.

Sometimes people who adopt hamsters from me stay in touch or contact me with questions which i welcome and appreciate.

Hamsters can behave completely differently in their forever home for a while because they have so much to process. An unfamiliar home that doesn't have their scent, different sounds and smells, different humans.

My advice would be for you to relax and give Oreo a chance to settle in. In time he will learn that playpen time involves you but you may need to be a little bit more patient.

Personally, i would be thrilled to get such beautiful and clear photos of a hamster who had been with me for less than two weeks.

I usually only manage to get photos of a disappearing tail.

 

[Hank]

Oreo looks very cute, is such a great idea to have access to the playpen from the cage. My little girl changed her routine as she got older, so Oreo might do that as well once settled.
I do agree with Beryl, you wouldn't believe the amount of photos I have with a disappearing hamster or empty sand bath

 

[orangetails]

Oreo got spot-cleaned last night. It was totally impromptu so I hope I have done the right thing but it definitely needed doing… he has his multi chamber hide in the front left corner of his cage but he’s not using that! He’s burrowed right down to the back right corner, and has his food store down there, but it’s also where he’s weeing…

It started because he had brought up a couple of bits of soiled bedding from his burrow into the hide, so I took those out. He let me pick him up, so I handled him briefly and said nice things to him () then popped him back in the other side of his cage (I’d had to dismantle the playpen to access his cage through that stupid front door… the whole thing needs a re-think!!) My husband helped me get the lid off, so I lifted the hide out, and could immediately see lots of wet bedding!

Taking handfuls of that out, it became clear some of his food store was a bit damp from it too I did my best to sort of excavate the bottom layer of food whilst trying not to disturb it as much as possible - I think i will need to do a better clean at some point soon-ish but it’s the first one and it was getting late too… So hopefully I’ve done enough to remove the worst.

We’ve got Plans for roof access… I am not a fan of the Plaza on the whole! But I think we can make some changes to make it better.

Here’s a (bad) photo of his burrow - his hide is normally partially covering it, and the whole area where he is (he came to ‘supervise’ briefly )



And a little screenshot of him just before he had an adorable little cleaning session!!!!

 

[elusive]

Well done finding it! It sounds as though that went well, they do sometimes like to be awkward & pee in hard to get places!
If I have to remove any peed on hoard I just add a bit of fresh mix back in.
Lovely photo of him.

 

[RainbowBrite]

I think you did so well to find the soiled bedding. I still do not know where my hamster is toileting!

They are such cute photos of Oreo.

 

[orangetails]

I think you did so well to find the soiled bedding. I still do not know where my hamster is toileting!

They are such cute photos of Oreo.

There was practically a pool of it!

I have to give credit to the Kaytee bedding - there was absolutely no smell at all!! Just slightly discoloured (and damp to the touch when I got that far )

 

[Maz]

Lovely photos . He looks a bit rabbit in the headlights in that second photo! As if - what is she doing?!

As Elusive says it’s a good idea to put a handful of new food back where the hoard was, if you have to removed it.

The first photo when peering down the hole, it’s as if saying - how did that get there? Who peed in there?

 

[orangetails]

Lovely photos . He looks a bit rabbit in the headlights in that second photo! As if - what is she doing?!

As Elusive says it’s a good idea to put a handful of new food back where the hoard was, if you have to removed it.

The first photo when peering down the hole, it’s as if saying - how did that get there? Who peed in there?

He was a bit curious He seemed fairly bold about it all though…

I didn’t replace the hoard, although there was quite a lot there. I think I’ll have to excavate again soon as I’m not sure I got all the soiled stuff out but I wasn’t sure how much to disturb on his first clean! Totally wasn’t planning to do it last night… it just sort of… happened I did scatter plenty of new food which he has collected overnight though. Not sure how big their hoards are supposed to be?

I know, his little face, he was like, why are you filming me *washing*?! (he’s never awake before my daughter goes to bed so I try to take little vids of him ‘doing stuff’ for her when I can )

 

[Member ID2]

Tbh, i sometimes forget to replemish part of a removed hoard or remember after the spot cleaning event which also tends to happen impromptu here.
I never remove an entire hoard and leave extra food out so don't worry about it. It gives them something to do.

I'm sure Oreo has stocked up again overnight. He looks adorable in the photo.
Great that he lets you pick him up.

Next time you need to spot clean and dismantle the playpen to access the cage, you could do that while your daughter is still up. Maybe give him a routine health check at the same time and weigh him.

 

[Maz]

I think maybe because you’re used to the Alaska with a top door as well as a front door, might be why the Plaza is causing problems. The door is very good if the cage is higher up but I can imagine it’s awkward if on the floor. Nice for the hamster though! To just walk out into the playpen

 

[Frida]

I love the photos of Oreo

 

[orangetails]

I think maybe because you’re used to the Alaska with a top door as well as a front door, might be why the Plaza is causing problems. The door is very good if the cage is higher up but I can imagine it’s awkward if on the floor. Nice for the hamster though! To just walk out into the playpen

Yeah, I am really hoping he starts to make use of that set up, he's only climbed out into it once so far, which makes the awkwardness of the floor setting not so much fun

I'm going to have to raise it a bit to put it on some sort of wheeled base because it's blocking some of my files/storage (I really don't have room for a hamster... but... ) I'm not sure whether to forget about the attached playpen thing and raise it enough to have a little shelf for his food and stuff underneath, or just minimally raise it so he can still have free access to his playpen - I think I'll just leave it a bit longer before committing to anything and see if he starts to make use of that option regularly, because it did seem pretty cool and his foster seemed to think he'd like it....

We're going to make a frame for the top of the cage so the whole damn panel lifts as a lid, I cannot bear doing everything through that door again! It's such a shame they didn't think to put a lid in it like the bigger 120 has.

 

[orangetails]

Tbh, i sometimes forget to replemish part of a removed hoard or remember after the spot cleaning event which also tends to happen impromptu here.
I never remove an entire hoard and leave extra food out so don't worry about it. It gives them something to do.

I'm sure Oreo has stocked up again overnight. He looks adorable in the photo.
Great that he lets you pick him up.

Next time you need to spot clean and dismantle the playpen to access the cage, you could do that while your daughter is still up. Maybe give him a routine health check at the same time and weigh him.

He's generally not been coming out til 10pm or usually later But yesterday I took Maz's earlier suggestion of tempting him out a bit earlier (think it was about 9 - I did try at 8 and although I saw his snuffly little nose he declined coming further out of his burrow!) I will try to creep that time back to about 8pm and then she'll just get a glimpse of him here and there

It would be good to weigh him, I have no idea what he weighs (he looks 'about right'! ) and it occurred to me today when I saw it mentioned in a FB group I haven't actually really looked at his nails or anything either!

He definitely had a good forage for food last night - it's probably a good way to occupy him after the stress of having his cage cleaned I guess?

 

[Maz]

I am sure his nails are fine or you’d have noticed - and he’s not that old. I should think his weight is fairly stable as well, as he’s fully grown, so need to rush for that / just whenever it’s a convenient time. I tend to do it when the hamster is out in the playpen and our flat digital scales on top of a book on the floor, a bit of cheese or cucumber on top and then zero them. The hamster just walks on to get the food and they tend to sit there nibbling so you can just read the scales while they’re doing that.

 

[elusive]

You haven’t had him long yet & I’m sure the person who was caring for him before would have done all the health checks including nails so you shouldn’t have to worry about that for a while.
Like Maz I tend to weigh mine during out of cage time & I don’t do it that frequently really, I would let him get a bit more used to coming out & not worry about that too much yet as he’s eating well & looks fine.

 

[Member ID2]

Everything is on wheels here. I use dolly trolleys (from DIY store) for cages and units with cages on top. Easy to move a cage and low enough for a hamster to get in and out via a bendy bridge, open door or ramp. The long green ramp from the Plaza is handy for that.

 

[orangetails]

Oreo is so stinking cute!!

I’ve been trying to chat to him more, not something that comes naturally to me, especially when I can’t see him

But tonight he came out while I was chatting, he darted back inside his burrow when I opened the pesky clips so he could access his playpen. But I disappeared to go and get him some oats as a treat and when I came quietly back in he was coming out on his ramp!

He didn’t stay out too long but I opened the playpen up to sit in with him and it didn’t scare him. I didn’t try to touch or handle him at all so he can build up confidence with me

He never seems to stay out long! Gathers some food and goes back to bed! Tonight was the most I’ve seen him sniff around and it still wasn’t long… I’m not sure he goes on his wheel at all either! I’ve left a few oats on there for tonight

Got some more videos for my daughter though

The last photo is back in his cage, he stopped to sort of ‘say goodbye’ before he went back into his hide

 

[RainbowBrite]

Aw, that is wonderful! Oreo is getting to know and to trust you.

Those pictures are adorable.