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Pip has been quite vocal on here already on the Rolling Robos thread 
But just starting a thread for him now. Pip is a Roborovski hamster who was adopted from Happy Hamsters. He was the teeniest tiniest robo I have ever seen! He almost looked like a slug! (Sorry Pip!). He was so tiny and kind of sleek and slim. Not fluffy.
So Pip, Aka Pipkin (usually known as Toodle Pip).
He went into a carefully set up Savic Plaza cage. I was going to put him in the Savic Mickey 2XL (which has narrow bar spacing but isn't as big at 80 x 50cm) as our last robo was in that. But I had always thought our last Robo needed more space, and Happy Hamsters thought the bigger Plaza would be much better for him. I was slightly concerned about the bar spacing, but it's less than 1cm (0.9mm) and they reckoned it would be ok - they knew the hamster and he had not tried to squeeze through bars before - I think he'd been in an Alaska cage before with 1cm bar spacing.
So I carefully attached about 5" cardboard all the way round the inside of the bars (attached with cable ties) giving him 10" of substrate and thus reducing the height of the Plaza cage (the height is an issue for a Robo if not reduced somehow). I was still slightly concerned that, in the unlikely event he might actually get up to the roof and monkey bar, he could still fall on his cork bark which isn't the softest landing. There were no other hazards in the cage. So I decided to attach a very large fleece hammock to the inside of the roof bars right at the top. Thinking - he will never get up there and if he does, the hammock will catch him. It was well over his shelf at one side but a bit of a gap at the other side. So I made an egg box hammock next to it to cover that gap. Also too high for Pip to get into.
Or so I thought! He just hops off a back shelf into the egg box hammock then from there into the fleece hammock and runs around up there in it making a mess and depositing food up there! Then hops off the other side onto his shelf. He doesn't go up there very often and it's all fine - he can't fall from a height and hurt himself.
Luckily he is not a chewer (neither of our robos have been) or I'd have had to take the fleece hammock out!
Pip initially used to run at my hand if I put it in the cage and make me jump/squeal! Lol. He's stopped doing that now we've got to know each other. He still doesn't like a hand in the cage and won't take food from you. At first he would run and hide. Now he sits and watches the hand to see it doesn't come too close. If it does he runs and hides!
I've had him out of the cage a few times and an attempt at a hand taming session once - but must do more often. It would be good to have him hand tamed - but as many of us know, Robos aren't always the easiest to hand tame!
Pip, like most robos, loves his sand bath and sits inside his food bowl. He also loves running up his ramp to his shelf really fast - his ramp is right next to the big front door on the Plaza and initially he'd kind of run at me to see me off then swerve at the last minute and go up the ramp! He doesn't do that any more either. But since he's been having out of cage time he clearly thinks about jumping out! So I have to be careful where he is when I open the door! I have a giant cushion on the floor in front of his cage though. Which is a good job as recently he fell out! Either jumped or fell, I'm not sure - I was putting his bit of cucumber on the right side shelf and didn;'t even see him - I just heard this "flump" noise and out of the corner of my eye could see what looked like a bit of tissue on the cushion. It wasn't, it was Pip's white belly.
He then disappeared under his cage table! I put a tube under there with cucumber in and thankfully he walked into that so got him back quickly.
He now knows though, that if he wants to come out, to go into his plastic pod with a tube on the end (I lift him out in that).
Pip's playpen is currently a giant cardboard box. It's really huge, and ideal for a robo playpen. Trouble is finding somewhere for it to live. I sent for a second Skyline ranchhouse playpen but it needs a lot of work! Quite a lot of splinters and some faults - the tabs don't fit in the holes. I couldn't be bothered to send it back to Germany (if that's even possible) so will have a diy go on it at some point.
Pip is over a year old now and has grown and is fluffy! He looks like a proper little robo now. I'm glad he has filled out a bit as he was SO teeny tiny before.
So here's Pip's cage and a few videos of him at night in his cage when he first arrived, and recently running around in his cardboard box playpen . That bit hyacinth hide under his ladder has now been replaced with a similar sized plastic pod with a tube (for getting him out!). He quite likes it too.
But just starting a thread for him now. Pip is a Roborovski hamster who was adopted from Happy Hamsters. He was the teeniest tiniest robo I have ever seen! He almost looked like a slug! (Sorry Pip!). He was so tiny and kind of sleek and slim. Not fluffy.So Pip, Aka Pipkin (usually known as Toodle Pip).
He went into a carefully set up Savic Plaza cage. I was going to put him in the Savic Mickey 2XL (which has narrow bar spacing but isn't as big at 80 x 50cm) as our last robo was in that. But I had always thought our last Robo needed more space, and Happy Hamsters thought the bigger Plaza would be much better for him. I was slightly concerned about the bar spacing, but it's less than 1cm (0.9mm) and they reckoned it would be ok - they knew the hamster and he had not tried to squeeze through bars before - I think he'd been in an Alaska cage before with 1cm bar spacing.
So I carefully attached about 5" cardboard all the way round the inside of the bars (attached with cable ties) giving him 10" of substrate and thus reducing the height of the Plaza cage (the height is an issue for a Robo if not reduced somehow). I was still slightly concerned that, in the unlikely event he might actually get up to the roof and monkey bar, he could still fall on his cork bark which isn't the softest landing. There were no other hazards in the cage. So I decided to attach a very large fleece hammock to the inside of the roof bars right at the top. Thinking - he will never get up there and if he does, the hammock will catch him. It was well over his shelf at one side but a bit of a gap at the other side. So I made an egg box hammock next to it to cover that gap. Also too high for Pip to get into.
Or so I thought! He just hops off a back shelf into the egg box hammock then from there into the fleece hammock and runs around up there in it making a mess and depositing food up there! Then hops off the other side onto his shelf. He doesn't go up there very often and it's all fine - he can't fall from a height and hurt himself.
Luckily he is not a chewer (neither of our robos have been) or I'd have had to take the fleece hammock out!
Pip initially used to run at my hand if I put it in the cage and make me jump/squeal! Lol. He's stopped doing that now we've got to know each other. He still doesn't like a hand in the cage and won't take food from you. At first he would run and hide. Now he sits and watches the hand to see it doesn't come too close. If it does he runs and hides!
I've had him out of the cage a few times and an attempt at a hand taming session once - but must do more often. It would be good to have him hand tamed - but as many of us know, Robos aren't always the easiest to hand tame!
Pip, like most robos, loves his sand bath and sits inside his food bowl. He also loves running up his ramp to his shelf really fast - his ramp is right next to the big front door on the Plaza and initially he'd kind of run at me to see me off then swerve at the last minute and go up the ramp! He doesn't do that any more either. But since he's been having out of cage time he clearly thinks about jumping out! So I have to be careful where he is when I open the door! I have a giant cushion on the floor in front of his cage though. Which is a good job as recently he fell out! Either jumped or fell, I'm not sure - I was putting his bit of cucumber on the right side shelf and didn;'t even see him - I just heard this "flump" noise and out of the corner of my eye could see what looked like a bit of tissue on the cushion. It wasn't, it was Pip's white belly.
He then disappeared under his cage table! I put a tube under there with cucumber in and thankfully he walked into that so got him back quickly.
He now knows though, that if he wants to come out, to go into his plastic pod with a tube on the end (I lift him out in that).
Pip's playpen is currently a giant cardboard box. It's really huge, and ideal for a robo playpen. Trouble is finding somewhere for it to live. I sent for a second Skyline ranchhouse playpen but it needs a lot of work! Quite a lot of splinters and some faults - the tabs don't fit in the holes. I couldn't be bothered to send it back to Germany (if that's even possible) so will have a diy go on it at some point.
Pip is over a year old now and has grown and is fluffy! He looks like a proper little robo now. I'm glad he has filled out a bit as he was SO teeny tiny before.
So here's Pip's cage and a few videos of him at night in his cage when he first arrived, and recently running around in his cardboard box playpen
. That bit hyacinth hide under his ladder has now been replaced with a similar sized plastic pod with a tube (for getting him out!). He quite likes it too.
. But I might have imagined that last bit 
