Adding extra space

[peejar]

Hi! I’m very new to this so I apologise if this is a little confusing.

I bought a female Syrian 11 days ago. Currently she has a 100x50x50cm cage and 6 inches of bedding, plus a sand bath, a 30cm wheel and some chew toys/tunnels. I take her out daily and interact with her at least twice a day. She chews the bars a little but I’m hoping this is just because she doesn’t use her chew toys. Ideally I would have gotten her a much larger cage but this was the largest I could find/afford.

- I’m working on giving her 12 inches of bedding by adding cardboard sides to the outside of one half of the cage, so bedding won’t slip out and she can burrow properly.
- I’ve bought her 3 more hides, a bridge, dig box materials, sprays, treats, toys, different chew toys, etc. and I’m hoping to add all of this in to clutter it properly.
- I bought her a 5ftx5ft playpen for supervised play and i want to add some cardboard/wood things/dig boxes to let her explore and run around a bit in the pen in the evening for 30 minutes-1 hour.

Would this be enough for her? I know female Syrians need quite a lot and while she’s been very sweet and well-behaved so far, I want to make sure she’s happy.
I’ve been considering buying a plastic container (pictured) and filling it up with 30-50cm+ of bedding, to let her burrow during supervised play. Would this be a good idea?

I hope all this made sense. Thank you for reading the block of text!

 

[Maz]

That little nose! I would focus on getting the extra bedding in first Then she'll feel more secure as she can dig and have normal behaviours. You could also add a shoebox house temporarily maybe? Under one of the shelves - they like a house that's large and dark inside, even if they just use it as a porch and sleep underneath it.

You won't get 12" in or the wheel won't fit probably but you'd be able to get 8" in - or 10" at one end and 6 or 7" at the wheel end so the wheel still fits.

Female Syrians do need a lot of space yes, but can be ok in a 100cm cage like that, providing there is plenty of bedding and enrichment. I wouldn't worry too much about clutter just now - just the bedding and some overhead cover like the shoebox house and a tunnel maybe (pringles tubes make good floor tunnels) and chew sticks and some sprays to forage


For the cardboard for bedding panels, I just cut up an amazon box. And for a shoebox house, you just cut the base out so it's open underneath, keep the lid as a lift off roof and cut a hole for a door at the front. Best place for the door is on one of the long sides near one corner (then the other end is darker inside).

 

[peejar]

That little nose! I would focus on getting the extra bedding in first Then she'll feel more secure as she can dig and have normal behaviours. You could also add a shoebox house temporarily maybe? Under one of the shelves - they like a house that's large and dark inside, even if they just use it as a porch and sleep underneath it.

You won't get 12" in or the wheel won't fit probably but you'd be able to get 8" in - or 10" at one end and 6 or 7" at the wheel end so the wheel still fits.

Female Syrians do need a lot of space yes, but can be ok in a 100cm cage like that, providing there is plenty of bedding and enrichment. I wouldn't worry too much about clutter just now - just the bedding and some overhead cover like the shoebox house and a tunnel maybe (pringles tubes make good floor tunnels) and chew sticks and some sprays to forage


For the cardboard for bedding panels, I just cut up an amazon box. And for a shoebox house, you just cut the base out so it's open underneath, keep the lid as a lift off roof and cut a hole for a door at the front. Best place for the door is on one of the long sides near one corner (then the other end is darker inside).

She has four cardboard tunnels so far (some slotted together) and a little bottomless wooden house at the other end! She’s dragged in some paper and seems to really like it

What do you think of the plastic box with bedding? I’m not sure if it’s necessary or whether she might like it.

Thank you for the reply! It’s really appreciated

 

[Maz]

Is the plastic box for in the playpen? I'm sure she'd like digging in any digging box really but I tend to find if it's just a bin with bedding they quickly want to be out of it again She might enjoy a playpen with a few things in though. Rosewood carrot cottages are always popular here and they nibble those when in the playpen. I've sometimes just used a lowish cardboard box with shredded cardboard in, in the playpen and hide a few treats in it. Personally I wouldn't bother with the plastic bin and just focus on the cage enrichment and the playpen

Let us know how she gets on - some of us have a hamster's own diary thread for updates, photos, antics, videos and to talk about progress and just share and people follow Maybe you'd like to start one for her and we can follow the cage progression and her progression It's just starting a thread in the Syrian section

I would think after 11 days she's not quite handleable or tame yet, is that right?

 

[Socks' Mum]

Hi and welcome to the forum Is your hammy called Peejar? She is very sweet I would put the platforms down until there is only 2cm between them and the bedding. Hamsters tend to fall off higher platforms and could potentially get hurt as they don't have much shock absorption. They love burrowing under them and aren't really climbers (no tail) even though they climb the bars. They are not climbing for fun, just looking for a way out of the cage. If she is sleeping in her nest, I would wait until she is up and about and asks to come out, but you may already be doing this. It is great that you can handle her and spend so much time together. Female hamsters are very affectionate and active It's great that she has tunnels and a house to tunnel under, she is a lucky hammy. Increasing the bedding depth where you can will give her great opportunities to dig burrows for nests and ladders

 

[Socks' Mum]

You can make multi chamber houses from cardboard and the back bedroom in these is very dark and private. They tend to put their stash in separate room if they can and then often wee and poo in another room Victoria Raechel has a video on how to make a multi chamber house. I made one for Socks, my rainbow hammy and he loved it. He never chewed or weed on it

 

[peejar]

Is the plastic box for in the playpen? I'm sure she'd like digging in any digging box really but I tend to find if it's just a bin with bedding they quickly want to be out of it again She might enjoy a playpen with a few things in though. Rosewood carrot cottages are always popular here and they nibble those when in the playpen. I've sometimes just used a lowish cardboard box with shredded cardboard in, in the playpen and hide a few treats in it. Personally I wouldn't bother with the plastic bin and just focus on the cage enrichment and the playpen

Let us know how she gets on - some of us have a hamster's own diary thread for updates, photos, antics, videos and to talk about progress and just share and people follow Maybe you'd like to start one for her and we can follow the cage progression and her progression It's just starting a thread in the Syrian section

I would think after 11 days she's not quite handleable or tame yet, is that right?

That sounds wonderful thank you so much!!

I bought her from a breeder who handled her and her siblings daily from when their eyes opened, so she was already pretty tame! I left her alone for the first few days but she’s been climbing into my hands for treats and letting me stroke her a little. She’s a little timid but incredibly food-motivated.

 

[peejar]

Hi and welcome to the forum Is your hammy called Peejar? She is very sweet I would put the platforms down until there is only 2cm between them and the bedding. Hamsters tend to fall off higher platforms and could potentially get hurt as they don't have much shock absorption. They love burrowing under them and aren't really climbers (no tail) even though they climb the bars. They are not climbing for fun, just looking for a way out of the cage. If she is sleeping in her nest, I would wait until she is up and about and asks to come out, but you may already be doing this. It is great that you can handle her and spend so much time together. Female hamsters are very affectionate and active It's great that she has tunnels and a house to tunnel under, she is a lucky hammy. Increasing the bedding depth where you can will give her great opportunities to dig burrows for nests and ladders

She is called Shirley, peejar is my name (pija). I will change it to make it a bit more obvious. Thank you so much for the advice, I’ll get right to it!!

 

[Maz]

That sounds wonderful thank you so much!!

I bought her from a breeder who handled her and her siblings daily from when their eyes opened, so she was already pretty tame! I left her alone for the first few days but she’s been climbing into my hands for treats and letting me stroke her a little. She’s a little timid but incredibly food-motivated.

That's lovely she is quite tame. I think she looks like a Shirley as well At the moment I think you need a balance between continuing to let her adjust and not setting her back too much with lots of change - and gradually adding the odd bit. So I wouldn't change everything all at once, despite what we've said.

I think stability is important as well. You could just maybe add some extra bedding in one area that's deeper for now. Adding new things to a cage is generally well accepted, providing it doesn't mean a) taking something else away they have got used to and b) moving things around in the cage!

So they tend to be curious and explore any new item added. But it helps if you can avoid moving everything around to add it. If you have to move one thing that's usually fine and they adjust, but changing everything makes them disoriented and can be a setback for a while. They scent mark everything in the cage to make it their own and that also helps create a scent trail for them so they know where everything is

You maybe know some of that already

I like the way you have sort of stepped the shelves at one end so the second is lower than the first, and is there something else at the back that leads up to them as well? How does she get up to the shelves?

Also it looks like you already have about 6" of bedding. I don't think the shelves are massively too high for a syrian, as long as there's nothing hard she can land on if she jumps off them. It looks like she would land on bedding. And it depends what you're going to do next - if the bedding ends up deeper that height of shelf would be needed probably. The angle of the photo seems to make the cage look taller than it is somehow

 

[Socks' Mum]

She is called Shirley, peejar is my name (pija). I will change it to make it a bit more obvious. Thank you so much for the advice, I’ll get right to it!!

That sounds wonderful thank you so much!!

I bought her from a breeder who handled her and her siblings daily from when their eyes opened, so she was already pretty tame! I left her alone for the first few days but she’s been climbing into my hands for treats and letting me stroke her a little. She’s a little timid but incredibly food-motivated.

Lovely that little Shirley is already so sociable and loves taking food from you She is a lucky hammy who has had a great start in life