Hello
If he's only been with you a week and he's had one escape already then it's still very early days! Even without an escape, it can take them a good two weeks to fully adjust to a new cage. How did he manage to escape and how long did he escape for? He was probably quite scared and needs a bit of time to get over it
So a new hamster needs time to adjust to the cage and also to familiarise themselves with their human owner gradually - and recognise your scent, voice and presence. So don't worry.
He looks to have a nice big cage - is it the Pets at Home habitat 3? And you've got him a nice wheel and a multiroom house so he's a lucky boy. There are a few tweaks that could be made, just for safety:
Unfortunately a lot of items sold for hamsters aren't safe! It's just marketing. But there are plenty of safe things you can use instead and I'll suggest some below (it doesn't have to be expensive
). I did exactly the same thing with our first hamster and wasted money on unsuitable, unsafe things and luckily didn't get any injuries but had to start again and change a few things!
Anyway before you do any of the changes suggested below - do you have a pet carrier? You'll need to put him somewhere (the pet carrier) temporarily and then make all the changes in one go for the least disruption - so when he goes back in he can start adjusting and settling in without any further changes.
So it's best not to have things hanging from chains. A hamster can get a toe or foot caught in chains and end up hanging by a broken leg - so the two items with chains attached, it is best to remove the chains.
The sisal hide with chains, I have had myself so you can just use it without the chains on top of the substrate
However I seem to rememeber that sisal hide comes with a kind of fabric cushion thing inside. If it did then the fabric cushion isn't safe and needs to be taken out of the cage (I would bin it personally). The sisal hide on it's own is fine without the chains and cushion
. The reason being, hamsters chew fabric and the wadding inside could be pouched or swallowed and cause a digestive blockage. So generally it;s best to have no fabric items in a cage. Also threads can get caught around their teeth if they chew fabric. They are drawn to chew soft fabric things because of their nesting instinct, to pouch nice soft things to take back to the nest.
Likewise the little swing. You could use sisal string instead of the chains if you want to keep it as a swing, but it isn't a solid surface and has gaps, so again a hamster could get a foot through the gaps. Now that probably wouldn't injure the hamster as the gaps are big enough, but he might not feel secure using it if it's unstable and he can't walk on it properly.
The same goes for the coloured ladder which has a similar issue with gaps and the clips at the end could possibly be the same issue as the chains - a foot could get caught. Although the clips aren't very high up so not so risky as chains higher up, but even so if a hamster jumps or falls with a foot caught in the clip and can't free themselves, they have been known to chew their leg off to get free.
Otherwise, your cage items seem fine
The brown bendy stick bridge, I can't see how it attaches but just check that one to check there are no small gaps between the struts that a toe could get caught in. If there are you can stuff toilet paper or moss in the gaps
So - I think with a few adjustments it will all be fine and will help him feel more settled. As it is at the moment he maybe doesn't feel very secure.
So I would remove the two coloured ladders/swing and not use them personally, remove the cushion from the sisal hide and take the chains off the sisal hide and just use it sitting on top of the substrate.
Now - once you put deeper bedding in, you won't need things hanging from the roof anyway
It looks like you have pine wood shavings - when you get more bedding, it would be better to get something like Carefresh, Kaytee clean and cosy or fitch - they are all paper based beddings and safer than pine shavings, which contain phenols (that pine smell) and tend to be dusty.
I'd also remove the bedding from the top of the shelf and just keep it as a shelf
So what will make him feel secure is a basic layout with
1) At least 6" deep bedding - 8" or more is better. The base probably only holds 6" but the bars on that cage are narrow so the bedding shouldn't really fall out of the bars (not much anyway!).
You might need to have the bedding a bit lower in the wheel area so the wheel still fits in as that cage is slightly on the low side to fit an 11" wheel in.
So the basics, once you have lots of bedding, are:
A house (which you have)
A wheel (which you have)
Hides and tunnels on top of the substrate - plenty of places to dive into - you have the sisal hide and the cardboard tube so those are fine.
A shelf with a ramp (which you have)
You don't need climbing toys and ladders as hamsters aren't really climbers, they are diggers
They will climb but they're not very good at it and tend to just jump off or fall off - ie they're not very good at getting down again as they can't see very well.
So to fill up the cage a bit you could add a few more hides and tunnels and I'll list some safe items below that hamsters also enjoy and give good enrichment - although you might not have space for much more if you have the multiroom house as well. I can't see where the multiroom house is but if you have it at the other end of the cage from the platform (opposite the wheel) that would be a good place - if it's under the shelf, it's hard to get at.
You could put the ceramic tea light hide on the shelf as well so it doesn't sink into the substrate when that is deeper - also check the size of the opening on that. It needs to be at least 7cm diameter. If it's smaller than that then he could get stuck and you'd have to break it open (which would be stressful for all!). I'm assuming he's a syrian hamster! If he's a dwarf hamster then 5 to 6cm diameter is ok.
So good items:
1) A cork log (you might not have space for this) - they make a nice high/large tunnel and an interesting texture to climb over
2) Hyacinth tunnel - these are nice and popular and safe to chew
Click here
3) Some sprays - you just stick these in the substrate and they give some "cover" in the cage so it's less exposed plus some natural enrichment for them to nibble on
Click here
4) Anything cardboard! You can use a square tissue box as a hide eg or a pringles tube (wiped out) as a tunnel)
If you do decide to get a cork log then you could use it instead of the plastic ladder. You can have it wedged at an angle partly under the shelf so it makes a ramp to climb up onto the shelf and a nice big tunnel to run through leading under the shelf. But they do take up a lot of space. A good place to get one is the Cork shed where you can choose the one you want from the photos and check the dimensions.
Click here
But the main thing is - add lots of paper bedding! And remove the couple of unsafe items.
So - if you can wait till you've got the bedding you can have him securely in the pet carrier and make the changes. ie add the bedding, move things to new places as suggested above. You don't have to wait for everything - it's fine to add a new item later as long as it doesn't mean moving other things around or taking something away, as that stresses them! They like to know where everything is and have a familiar layout that doesn't change - they also scent mark everything in the cage to help them find their way around
So I think then he'll need a few days left alone to adjust and settle in and feel at home and creat some habits and during that time you can just talk to him through the bars (nicely!) so he gets familiar with you. It's a bit soon for any handling.
Edit - you could also check out these threads for some ideas
A new thread for 2023 to show cage set ups :) Some may have changed or be new but feel free to add your existing set up again. It's mainly so all current ones are viewable in the same place.
www.thehamsterforum.com
www.thehamsterforum.com
