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Hi everyone,
My girlfriend and I rescued a hamster 3 months ago and we’ve noticed more and more that he is becoming ever so skittish and avoidant. We have messed up a few times while we have had him and I’ll explain that. (He is currently 8 months old and is in a Bucatstate 2.0 enclosure with multiple hides, a 12 inch niteangel wheel, cork log and at least 7-8 inches of bedding. )
Timeline
-Week 1, I gave him some space and then tried hand feeding at the end of the week.
-Week 2, my girlfriend came back and we started hand feeding more and added petting
-Week 3, some playpen time and same routine, but he started coming out later and we noticed him being stressed. We also noticed that his burrow entrance stank real bad and it could’ve been from ammonia build up since he peed where he slept, so we cleaned.
-Week 4, we stopped petting and playpen time and just stayed with hand feeding. He started coming out a little later
-Week 5, we continued our same stuff, cleaned his burrow again because it started to smell bad again. We also re-arranged to give him more enrichment.
-Week 6-7, we gave him time to settle in and then continued to interact with him but we stopped hand feeding because we could feel how stressed he was grabbing food and he was freezing more. Cleaned again after 2 weeks because of advice from Syrian hamster group.
-weeks 7-8, he started avoiding us only waking up after we were gone and went to sleep before we woke. My girlfriend got worried because he made a burrow where she couldn’t see him and broke down his burrow looking for him.
-weeks 8-11, he’s slowly been becoming skittish and freezing to sound, us moving around, and our presence. Very inconsistent behavior around us
TLDR
-after 11 weeks of owning our hamster he went from exploring and curious to skittish, vigilant, and avoidant. A few burrow cleans were done quicker than the recommended 4-6 weeks because he pees where he sleeps. Been pulling back on socializing but he’s getting more and more skittish and avoidant.
Right now we are so confused on how to rebuild our trust with our hamster and every move seems to be negative for him. Does anyone have any advice on how to rebuild that trust that we had before? We just want our little hammie to be comfortable in the same room as us.
My girlfriend and I rescued a hamster 3 months ago and we’ve noticed more and more that he is becoming ever so skittish and avoidant. We have messed up a few times while we have had him and I’ll explain that. (He is currently 8 months old and is in a Bucatstate 2.0 enclosure with multiple hides, a 12 inch niteangel wheel, cork log and at least 7-8 inches of bedding. )
Timeline
-Week 1, I gave him some space and then tried hand feeding at the end of the week.
-Week 2, my girlfriend came back and we started hand feeding more and added petting
-Week 3, some playpen time and same routine, but he started coming out later and we noticed him being stressed. We also noticed that his burrow entrance stank real bad and it could’ve been from ammonia build up since he peed where he slept, so we cleaned.
-Week 4, we stopped petting and playpen time and just stayed with hand feeding. He started coming out a little later
-Week 5, we continued our same stuff, cleaned his burrow again because it started to smell bad again. We also re-arranged to give him more enrichment.
-Week 6-7, we gave him time to settle in and then continued to interact with him but we stopped hand feeding because we could feel how stressed he was grabbing food and he was freezing more. Cleaned again after 2 weeks because of advice from Syrian hamster group.
-weeks 7-8, he started avoiding us only waking up after we were gone and went to sleep before we woke. My girlfriend got worried because he made a burrow where she couldn’t see him and broke down his burrow looking for him.
-weeks 8-11, he’s slowly been becoming skittish and freezing to sound, us moving around, and our presence. Very inconsistent behavior around us
TLDR
-after 11 weeks of owning our hamster he went from exploring and curious to skittish, vigilant, and avoidant. A few burrow cleans were done quicker than the recommended 4-6 weeks because he pees where he sleeps. Been pulling back on socializing but he’s getting more and more skittish and avoidant.
Right now we are so confused on how to rebuild our trust with our hamster and every move seems to be negative for him. Does anyone have any advice on how to rebuild that trust that we had before? We just want our little hammie to be comfortable in the same room as us.