Guest viewing is limited

Orko's adventures

  • Thread starter Thread starter RainbowBrite
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I had a foster Robo named Gerald once who threw a huge tantrum because i hadn't moved his fence a few mm away from the cage side. He was digging and kicking at the fence with substrate flying everywhere.
Once i had put it right he calmed down almost instantly.
 
Oh that's good :)
 
I had a foster Robo named Gerald once who threw a huge tantrum because i hadn't moved his fence a few mm away from the cage side. He was digging and kicking at the fence with substrate flying everywhere.
Once i had put it right he calmed down almost instantly.
You must have been so surprised by that. Sometimes it is so hard to keep everything just the way it is when they move in as we learn things are not working well where they are.
 
Oh that's good :)
I posted at the same time as Beryl. That comment was for the earlier post about Orko! Ha ha. Not good that Gerald had a paddy - although sounds funny.
 
Orko spent such a long time on his wheels last night. His current routine is to get up about 5 or 10 minutes after I go to bed, look for food then run on his wheels before vanishing for a few hours. It is so obvious he is waiting for me to go to bed by him appearing so soon after I go. I will not take it personally. :LOL:

Look at this clip of him drinking. At the end he drinks from his water bowl and lifts one leg up. Is this a hamster version of lifting their pinky finger to drink out of fine china?
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
Looks like he's doing ballet :LOL: . I think he was just trying to reach in and had to stand on one leg to reach?
 
He can reach as he can use his little cork tile. Maybe he wanted to do ballet instead. :ROFLMAO:
 
Orko was up within minute of be going to bed last night. I hardly slept so heard him all through the night which was nice. I love hearing him pottering about. He went to bed at 7 so he really does plan his hours around when I am in bed. Lol.

I saw this cute clip of him. He often looks like he is thinking of trying to climb the wall of his cage.
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

This is a nice close up of him climbing.
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
He was seeing if he could climb the wall wasn't he? They do get more confident as they get bigger and older. Maybe he is thinking of going for a day out :) How old is he now? Pip seemed to just love his cage until he was about 9 months old and then he seemed to start getting a bit bored and I thought he wanted to come out. Once he'd been out he wanted to come out again. I only managed to get him out the first time because he needed a substrate change at one of the cage. The half under his house. This brought him out to keep an eye on what was going on and he investigated a mug I put near the bottom of the cage where I had taken a lot of substrate out and I took the opportunity to pop my hand over and take him out. I'd already thought I might do that if the opportunity arose so had the playpen up already.
 
Orko often tries to see if he can climb the wall. He is 9 months old now. He does not seem bored of his cage yet. I would not be able to offer him the chance to go out anyway as he will not stay around if I am up.

How cute Pip enjoyed his playpen. :)
 
The first time he was a bit scared but he relaxed and settled into it after a while.
 
I don't know - I think he loves his environment and he is testing the boundaries of it, as they often do trying to climb walls and bars - maybe as they grow in confidence and feel secure in their cage, they might want more. With our first robo I was a bit nervous to try and tame him and he seemed happy in his cage and he was well over a year old before I finally got him out during a cage clean and thought I should try and do a health check. Once I'd done it, I wished I had done it earlier. I sat in the playpen with him and he ran up my trouser leg ha ha. And climbed over me - I was just part of the furniture. While doing that I was able to pick him up as he walked past me. I was nervous about that and thought he might wriggle free and I might drop him but he didn't Once held he was very still and just let me stroke his tummy. I am not sure if they are all like that. They run fast but maybe don't ping like Syrians do.

He used to be awake for a short time in the afternoons so it was a good time to do his cage. But I would have woken him up otherwise as it needed doing! Like when you have to go to the vets although I always tried to get a vet appointment as late in the day as possible.

I was so nervous taking him to the vets as he wasn't hand tame and I worried he'd run off the vet table and fall on the floor (I've heard stories like that) so I took a low height storage box with me with hemp mat in the bottom and a cardboard tunnel, a hide and flying saucer and a bit of food and put that on the vet table and let him walk from the pet carrier into the box. He was quite happy in there and ran on his saucer and nibbled the food. The vet managed to get a good look at him like that as I didn't want him freaking out by being picked up from the pet carrier. She did have to pick him up but it was easier from the box and meant he had a nice hide and some food and his saucer after the humiliation of being handled by the vet! It worked really well.
 
Last edited:
That was such a good idea of preparing the box for the vets. It helped make the vet visit not so stressful for him. It is nice he came out in the afternoon sometimes.

How cute how he ran up your trouser leg and enjoyed his time out. :)

Do you know of any signs I can look out for to see if Orko seems bored and like he wants more?
 
It's difficult if he only comes out at night as you can't ask him :) It might not be bored exactly as just seeing if he can get out - that seems to be in their nature to always want to get out of somewhere and see what's beyond it. When a hamster is in a cage that's too small that's when it leads to chewing their way out - or trying to.
 
Thank you. I never thought he seemed bored as he seems so active and busy.
 
He does always seem active and busy and enjoying himself :) They like their routine and familiarity. It makes me wonder what goes on in a hamster's mind over time though. They are such intelligent little things.

But he may be quite happy being left to do his own thing. I think one thing I thought as our first robo got older, was I would like him to have had the experience of being out and handled in case he ever needed to go to the vets, so he was a bit used to it already and it wasn't such a massive ordeal all at once. But I think there is no rush with a robo and you would know if he wasn't happy. For example - Raffy bangs the bars!
 
I would love to handle Orko and have him feel okay with me but he does everything to avoid me. That is why I have 2 cameras. It is to make sure I check how he is every day.

I tried waiting up for him but then he will not come out. I just want him to be happy. If I try and encourage him out I think he will hate it. He looks so happy when I watch the camera every morning. He does not seem to want or need me.
 
Ah he is controlling you :) It is very difficult and robos really do avoid people. I think even a tame robo wouldn't voluntarily come out of a cage - unless you weren't around and left the door open by mistake! Then they would. It's independence. Not always but sometimes.

Some people have this with Syrians too - they won't come out till lights out and you've gone to bed but you can train them to come out earlier with feeding time early evening and some cage noise when you do it. Then they get in a routine of waking for feeding time and coming out for a bit. A lot go back to bed again then but that is the time you can tempt them into a tube with a bit of food and have some out of cage time. They behave differently out of the cage. Our first Syrian NEVER wanted to leave his cage. He had to be tricked into a tube! I didn't feel bad because he enjoyed it so much when he was out and looked happy - so I did it because it was good for him.

I think it's similar with robos except they are much more cautious and independent. I don't know what time you feed him but maybe you could feed him late afternoon/early evening and he might start getting up earlier? It's the smell of the veg that usually makes them come out. Even then Pip will sometimes stick it out and wait for his veg till I'm gone.

A hand in the cage they will avoid - but out of the cage is different. Their cage is their territory.

I feel I should get Pip out more often but it's not that easy and takes a lot of effort and it just wouldn't have happened at all in the first few months - he was too scared. He's bolder now.
 
The first time I got Pip out the only way was to literally start taking stuff out of his cage. I needed to lift his house out anyway to see what was going on underneath and find out where he was peeing. When I did that he just tunneled along under the substrate to stay out of the way. So then I started removing a lot of the substrate and he went over to the far side under a shelf and watched. Interestingly he was not scared of my hand at that time - he was more concerned as to what was happening to his set up! He was so concerned he came out of the shelf and walked down the substrate slope to the bottom of the cage - where I'd put the mug I'd been scooping out the substrate with and walked into it. He was curious. In a way, breaking their familiar routine stops them being so hidey.

They all vary in personality of course. I don't think our first robo started coming out during the day until he was over a year old.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top