Hello everyone - a wee update on Rusty, if anyone can shed any light?
His behaviour has changed quite a bit in the last few days. As above, we left him for a couple of weeks to just settle in - didn't have him out at all, just talked to him when he got up in the evening and if still up in the morning, did a loose routine of putting food and water in at the same time each day, and gave him the odd snack out of our hands. He seemed pretty settled and we had no concerns.
He has a multi-chamber hide under the level of his bedding, on stilts. On day two, he made a nest in the inner room, and began to use the room next to it as a toilet. He takes everything into the inner room - food, chews, some sprays... Just after two weeks, we did a spot clean, with him in the cage. Nothing major - cleared away some poo, cleared away the peed on bedding inside his house (just in that second room where we could clearly see the corner he uses) and mixed some fresh bedding in to the older bedding in that room and some other areas of the enclosure that had compressed a bit/diminished during poo clearing. We tried to see where his hoard was but could only find one or two bits of food and didn't want to dig around too much under his nest as wanted minimum stress for a first spot clean and felt we had disturbed it enough. We didn't add or remove anything from his nest. I removed the wheel to clean away poo underneath (I had cleaned the wheel a couple of days earlier while he slept as he pees on it occasionally), and unfortunately ended up with too much bedding underneath. He couldn't wait for me to sort it properly, jumping on before I had the chance to get it going properly again, and got a bit worried when his wheel wouldn't turn, panic climbing the sides trying to get it going. However, it was sorted quickly and he was back on it straight away, before I could get my hand out of it after fixing! When we put everything back to normal, he seemed fine, slowed down to his usual pace, and we gave him a little treat.
That same evening (and wondering if we went wrong here - too much in one go?), we got Rusty out for the first time. We set up a large pen adjoining his cage, just out of cardboard sheets taped together. My daughter sat in it along with various enrichment activities (cardboard tunnels, things to nibble, a little den, etc) and had hidden some little bits of food for him to forage. We didn't force anything, just presented a tube to him at the opening of his enclosure, but he was super keen to get out. We lifted him down to the floor in the tube (blocking the ends when he was inside to avoid a fall). He seemed fine with all of that, and was quick to explore, but unfortunately this mainly consisted of him roaming the boundary of the pen, trying to get a nibble hold or find a way to dig out. He didn't show any interest in my daughter at all, but wasn't one bit fazed by her - going behind her several times (only a few centimetres between her and the walls of the pen) to search/scratch the perimeter. My daughter didn't enjoy it at all, she was quite nervous about this escapee behaviour, and he seemed to be getting quicker/more frantic in his actions, so I popped a little bit of food in the tube and encouraged him inside before returning him to his enclosure. He seemed to settle down, and all was fine - we gave him a little fresh food and thought we'd leave it a few days before trying again (this was Sunday evening).
Now, here comes the change... the last couple of nights, he's started chewing his door and searching the enclosure for ways out. We have the bucatstate 2.0 (150x50 version), so his cage is technically big enough for a syrian. Unfortunately when it's so full of bedding, the sides bow slightly and this has caused the door to not quite sit fully flush at one side, which is where he's found a little nibble hold. This has started to keep my daughter up as it's very noisy - he's quite frantically chewing at it (though not all night, enough to worry us)! Last night I managed to get it flush again and taped it up - he had another go at it after, but wasn't as successful so seemed to give up quite quickly. However, he now climbs on everything to reach up and poke his nose through the ventilation on the top and have a little nibble there, and investigates every air hole and opportunity for potential escape! The multi-chamber house we had also allowed us to see in into the first two rooms of his house, just not the inner one where he nests, but in the last couple of days he has blocked up the whole view into the second room (where he pees) with bedding, so we now can't see in to that room at all. Fine in itself, but just concerning given he was happy with it as it was pre-clean. Otherwise, he still seems to be doing everything he did before. He spends time in his wheel, digs and forages (he has three pots with different digging materials in, plus a bucatstate toilet full of sand, that he peed in once on the first day and now just seems to like digging in!! He digs all the sand to one side, then turns round and repeats in the opposite direction... He has another sand bath area that he doesn't really use for bathing/digging - though seems to have been digging there slightly since the spot clean). This morning he pouched a fresh pile of torn up loo roll we'd left in his little white house hide after we spot cleaned and took it down to his nest, so seems to be looking after his home as usual. He has 8-11 inches of bedding at the deepest area of this enclosure, less at the wheel end, but doesn't seem to burrow much at all yet except a little in his house (I couldn't tell if his burrowing extends further there without disturbing it too much).
Could it be that he's had a taste of life outside his cage and just wants more? Or is he unhappy? Is this maybe just a reaction to the spot clean and he'll settle back down when he understands the threat is over? My daughter is quite distressed about it all, worrying that he's unhappy and just wants to escape
I've attached photos of his enclosure, if there's anything we could change/add to enrich it further? He likes whimzees, but those disappear off to his bed as soon as they're added! He's also taken three other wooden chews into his nest too, so I don't think he's chewing due to a lack of things to chew... I've also just ordered the Omlet large playpen which I think will help, both for him when out of the cage (maybe less chance of him attempting to find a way out?), but also my daughter's confidence having a more secure area that she can reach into until she feels more confident sitting in his space with him (it's also big enough for her to be able to do that when she's ready).
Thanks for making it this far and apologies for the essay!
P.S. Edit to add, his multi-chamber house is under the ceramic white house in the back corner.
. Any tips on early settling and taming gratefully received!
Sounds like you're already doing the right things. 
