Are some hamster species less nocturnal than others?

[Yeti]

I'm wondering if some hamster species are more likely to be awake during the day, or if it just depends on the hamster & other factors.

I've had 3 russian dwarf hamsters and 2 of them were regularly active during the day. Maybe they just really liked food & socializing, but they would often come out when they heard me to ask for treats. The third one was sometimes active during the day or evening, but sometimes not.

I now have a roborovski hamster and a syrian hamster. These guys are both properly nocturnal.

Was it just a fluke that the russian dwarves were more likely to come out during the day?

 

[RainbowBrite]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I think hamsters are all different and some do like to be up in the day while others are very much night hamsters. One thing I have noticed is dwarf hamsters do seem more likely to be up in the day then other species. This is just my own observation.

I have found having a camera in the cage helps with a hamster who wakes up very late as you can find out all they get up to.

 

[Maz]

Hi Syrians will almost always only come out late evening. Some dwarf hamsters and some robos will come out during the day but not all! I've had robos before and they can be very shy at first, but can start coming out during the day as they get more confident. You could try putting the Robo's food and veg out early afternoon

If you put the Syrian's food out early evening and make a bit of cage noise doing it, then sometimes syrians will start waking earlier for feeding time, but they usually go back to bed again and then get up later.

Technically hamsters are crepuscular rather than nocturnal.

 

[Maz]

By the way, we talk about you a lot on this thread As in your username - not many words beginning with Y!

Make a sentence with 5 letters

Grog splendid! Elf glugs greedily G D F S Y

www.thehamsterforum.com

 

[elusive]

Hello & welcome to the forum.


Every hamster is individual so there are no guarantees with any species but all my Russians have been active during the day & some of my Chinese too.
It does seem that most but not all Syrians are much more likely to only come out late in the evening & Robos seem to vary more.

 

[Lovelyness]

Hi Syrians will almost always only come out late evening. Some dwarf hamsters and some robos will come out during the day but not all! I've had robos before and they can be very shy at first, but can start coming out during the day as they get more confident. You could try putting the Robo's food and veg out early afternoon

If you put the Syrian's food out early evening and make a bit of cage noise doing it, then sometimes syrians will start waking earlier for feeding time, but they usually go back to bed again and then get up later.

Technically hamsters are crepuscular rather than nocturnal.

Blossom gets up at 6pm every evening to forage for her tea when I put it out for her, but always goes straight back to bed, and I often don’t see her again!

 

[Maz]

Raffy (Syrian) varies). In spring and summer he gets up about 8pm or 9pm and would pester to come out of the cage. But he is a particularly gregarious Syrian. In winter he won't get up till gone 11pm - sometimes midnight - but still wants to come out! Some people get the hamster in a regime of coming out earlier by tempting them out in a tube with some veg in, if they wake up for feeding time early evening. However if you're an early riser, Syrians can often be about at 6am or 7am and want to interact then or come out then. With the robo it may just be time.

 

[Frida]

Hello and welcome to the forum
I have a Russian Dwarf hamster and he's active during the day and night.

 

[Jain]

My Russian dwarf has no set routine but he is out quite a lot most day's my sister in law always had Syrians and she "trained" hers to come out during the daytime they were always curious happy and active and came out as soon as they heard her voice she only ever had one at a time but quite a few over the years

 

[Maz]

I think you can definitely train Syrians to come out early evening.

 

[Yeti]

wow thanks for the responses everyone! really interesting to hear other peoples experiences.