Well little Pete came home last night instead of this morning I just couldn't wait and his breeder said evening was a good time to fetch him. He seemed OK when we transferred him from taxi to cage he investigated his domain then tunnelled into his bedding we didn't see him all that evening after that but I got up in the night at 1 a.m and heard him on his wheel but he stopped when I went into the room even though I didn't put the light so I didn't actually see him. I haven't seen or heard him at all since he burroed away hope he comes out when he needs a drink or gets hungry he's not eaten any pellets but ate a teaspoon of the nuts n seed mix that I put near his wheel in the night. He's got a water bottle and a shallow dish but neither looks touched. I will try to post a picture of him during the only 5 minutes we saw of him when he first came home. I know it can take a while before he is brave enough to reappear but he was hand tamed when we got him curtesy of the breeders teenage daughter daily handling him for us I hope he won't regress from that.
Little Petes home coming
- Thread starter Jain
- Start date
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elusive
Welcome home little Pete 
He is lovely, you must be so pleased to have him home at last.
Hybrids can change colour quite a bit so it’s often wait & see with them.
You won’t notice any water going down for a while as they drink so little & if you put fresh water in daily it can look as though they haven’t touched it but as long as he’s up & about in the night & the bottle works ok then he’s probably fine with that.
They don’t eat that much either really but it sounds as though he’s taken some of his mix off to hoard somewhere & eat there.
I wouldn’t feed nuggets, they’re far from ideal & a good dwarf seed mix they can forage for is much better, which mix are you using now.
I would add in more substrate to his cage, if you completely fill the base he’ll be able to burrow & nest happily.
He is lovely, you must be so pleased to have him home at last.
Hybrids can change colour quite a bit so it’s often wait & see with them.
You won’t notice any water going down for a while as they drink so little & if you put fresh water in daily it can look as though they haven’t touched it but as long as he’s up & about in the night & the bottle works ok then he’s probably fine with that.
They don’t eat that much either really but it sounds as though he’s taken some of his mix off to hoard somewhere & eat there.
I wouldn’t feed nuggets, they’re far from ideal & a good dwarf seed mix they can forage for is much better, which mix are you using now.
I would add in more substrate to his cage, if you completely fill the base he’ll be able to burrow & nest happily.
E
elusive
Forgot to say even if he has been hand tamed he’ll still need time to settle in but once he has he will proably get used to you more quickly but just let him settle & go at his pace.
R
RainbowBrite
Welcome home Little Pete. You are adorable.
Welcome home little Pete
He is lovely, you must be so pleased to have him home at last.
Hybrids can change colour quite a bit so it’s often wait & see with them.
You won’t notice any water going down for a while as they drink so little & if you put fresh water in daily it can look as though they haven’t touched it but as long as he’s up & about in the night & the bottle works ok then he’s probably fine with that.
They don’t eat that much either really but it sounds as though he’s taken some of his mix off to hoard somewhere & eat there.
I wouldn’t feed nuggets, they’re far from ideal & a good dwarf seed mix they can forage for is much better, which mix are you using now.
I would add in more substrate to his cage, if you completely fill the base he’ll be able to burrow & nest happily.
Thank you for your advice I'm not sure what the nut and seed mix is I was given it to me in a plain bag to bring him home with I need to ring and ask them I didn't think last night I had so much going on in my head. I will add more substrate it's deeper at one end than the other because I was nervous about it blocking his wheel it also wobbled when I put it onto deeper substrate.
E
elusive
Ideally you need to put the wheel on a shelf or platform of some kind, I make mine but you can buy free standing shelves, it’s not really safe to just have it on the substrate as it won’t be very stable.
There aren’t that many good dwarf hamster mixes available now & some are hard to get hold of but there is a relatively new one, Little ones dwarf mix which is good although with a young ham you would need to add extra protein which could be mealworms, dried chicken, tofu or a little egg white, nuts are good for extra protein too.
You can buy the little ones mix online or maybe in some shope too, Beryl bought some so she will know.
There aren’t that many good dwarf hamster mixes available now & some are hard to get hold of but there is a relatively new one, Little ones dwarf mix which is good although with a young ham you would need to add extra protein which could be mealworms, dried chicken, tofu or a little egg white, nuts are good for extra protein too.
You can buy the little ones mix online or maybe in some shope too, Beryl bought some so she will know.
E
elusive
If you haven’t already have a look at the show us your cages thread, there are quite a few hamster heaven set ups in there that might help give you ideas.
www.thehamsterforum.com
Show us your cages 2022
Hamster Heaven without external tubes and shelves set up for a Roborovski hamster.
www.thehamsterforum.com
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Welcome little Pete! He is really adorable! I think that wheel can attach to the bars can't it? I usually prefer bar mounted wheels for that reason - you don't have to worry about keeping them stable or having lower substrate in one area. If funds allow, the 9" silent runner is a really good wheel for a dwarf hamster, and it comes with bar mounting plates. Meanwhile you can just have it deeper in most of the cage and sort of slope the substrate away from the wheel area (which Is what I've done before). A platform is a good idea too but they can be difficult to fit into a cage with a sloping base perhaps.
E
elusive
Platforms are fine in the HH but you do need to place them a bit away from the side with the slope of the base, I’ve used them in all of mine, I found it difficult to attach wheels to the bars due to the lack of height & the slope so the wheel rubs against the base.
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Good point and it can make a hidey place behind the platform. Just trying to work it out. Inner height of cage is about 36cm, base is about 15cm. Nope - wheel wouldn't fit above the edge of the base!
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elusive
I make my own, using a piece of wood & dowels cut to size, it is tricky as the cage simply isn’t tall enough to comfortably fit the wheel, wihen I used 8” wheels it was easier but with the 9” the shelf does need to be slightly lower than the substrate in the rest of the cage but not by much if the wheel just clears the top of the cage.
I’m not sure what platforms are available to buy now as it’s so long since I looked.
I’m not sure what platforms are available to buy now as it’s so long since I looked.
Yes this is what I have found so will go with really deep at one end and slope down toward the wheel it dosent look deep near the wheel but he burrowed from that end and you could see any part of him. He came out around 3p.m this afternoon grabbed a seed and disappeared again can't even tell where he is now but at least I know he is ok
E
elusive
It won’t fit on the platform or shelf that comes with the cage, can’t remember exactly what it comes with now as I tend to bin most of it! A platform or shelf needs to be slightly lower than the base of the bars.
If he’s burrowing & the wheel is on the substrate he may well try to burrow under it & knock it over so it is best to have the wheel secure on something.
If he’s burrowing & the wheel is on the substrate he may well try to burrow under it & knock it over so it is best to have the wheel secure on something.
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I got one of these recently. You can choose the length of the legs and they just screw in - very easy to put together and they're quite reasonably priced. They do 10cm legs which would be about the right height. It then makes another little hide underneath the wheel/platform. Or it could just stand on the cage base with a lower level of substrate around that area.
www.happyhenryshomes.co.uk
Hamster Platform with Solid Birch Legs | Happy Henry’s Homes
Hamster Platform with Solid Birch Legs Description:Hamster Platform with 4 supporting legs. Legs come complete with brass threaded inserts for stainless steel screw fixings to fix the platform and legs to one another.
www.happyhenryshomes.co.uk
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elusive
Those look really good & the 10cm legs should work ok.