Hamster less active.

[Biscuit2024!]

Hello , my hamster seems to be less active and not going on her wheel , I think she is still borrowing . Just wondered how normal this is in winter ? The room is never colder than 18 degrees and is usually 19/20 degrees . We bring her out for a free roam and she runs then but always seems to be resting in her cage ..

 

[Maz]

She is bound to want to keep warm in her nest in winter As they settle in, they tend to only use their wheels at night. Maybe she's just using it at night? You could try putting a bit of bedding on top of the wheel and see if it's gone in the morning.

 

[Biscuit2024!]

Thanks Maz .. well me being the worrier I am got one of the niteangel pedometers so I could check and she isn’t running on it .. the other day my daughter left the cage door open and she decided to go for a little walk , but we were lucky as she didn’t hide for long and popped out from under the furniture when she heard us so I think maybe she likes her house ! I was panicking a lot

 

[Maz]

Oh my goodness yes I would worry too if she went for a walk ha ha. Is the room she is in hamsterproof? That's one thing to look at in case it happens again. I blocked off one corner of our living room for that reason! Block any holes as well. Sometimes there are holes in floorboards where radiator pipes go down. Once the room is hamsterproof you don't need to worry quite so much. I'm sure your daughter won't forget again after a scare. We've all done it though! Helps to have a little sign on the cage saying "remember to close the door" Also helps to keep the room door closed when opening the hamster cage.

I think the pedometer sounds great Let us know the results! Is the wheel spinning ok? Not jammed up with bedding or something? That sometimes happens when they dig.

 

[Biscuit2024!]

Thank you ! Yes I will definitely look into hamster proofing the room . I did wash her wheel on Saturday so that could be it .. I don’t wash it very often but felt I should after two months as it was looking a bit cloudy . She is quite tame now but still shy and doesn’t sit on our lap for long ! We try and handle her everyday though so she gets more confident ….

 

[Biscuit2024!]

I don’t wash it very often as I am lucky as she used a potty !

 

[Maz]

By the way you can start a personal/diary thread for your hamster if you want It's a place to post updates and photos and videos of her and others can follow and share her antics - they are fun threads to follow
It would be in the Syrian section here

Syrian Hamsters

www.thehamsterforum.com

 

[Biscuit2024!]

Hi Max,
Ah that sounds good . Biscuit came out for a free roam run yesterday and is still quite fast so hopefully her being less active isn’t to do with health … I love to see what her underground system looks like!

 

[Maz]

She sounds like she's being a normal hamster I'm also fascinated to hear about her underground system - can you actually see it then?

 

[Biscuit2024!]

Sorry I meant to say I would love to see it ! She usually covers all her burrows up with bedding before going to bed …

 

[Maz]

No my misunderstanding Yes we can only imagine sometimes I think even with glass tanks you can only see something if it's at the edges of the tank.