Poor Raffy - has had an upset I think. An uneventful time free roaming while he was out last night. Except he fell in the kindling box again twice (it's only a few inches high but he can't get out again). Timings are different now though. He gets up earlier every night virtually now. Last night he was up at 11pm which is a much more reasonable time. Unfortunately OH was still up and watching something on TV so he had to wait a bit. Too much toing and froing going on with two of us in the room before bedtime and Raffy heads for feet ............So I waited till OH had gone to bed and then let him out. He is not used to both of us talking to each other when he's awake! He is used to just me being there. So I think this might be relevant (or not) to what happened later.
Raffy had had a good long time out of the cage and was back in his cage. I was about to go to bed and had turned most of the lights off. Then suddenly the doorbell went which frightened the life out of me as it's quite loud. It's one of those "Ring" doorbells so Alexa told me there was someone at the back door at the same time as the ring. Well I panicked slightly and called upstairs to OH. Who the heck would be out here in the middle of the night. It was slightly scary. OH came down and got a torch and had a look outside and there was no-one there. We were talking back and forth about what could have happened for a while with a light on. Suddenly I heard this noise from Raffy's cage. He was sitting there looking at me and started doing some funny movement and making a sound like a little bird.
I took it that he was upset about all the noise and upheaval in the middle of the night, so OH went back up and I turned most lights off and went to see Raffy. But he didn't stop making the noise like a little bird. I'd talk to him - he'd do something normal in his cage but all the while making that noise.
I was getting a bit worried about him so got him out of the cage again (he was dead keen for that still) and all the while he was still making this noise. At that time of night there was no way he was going to sit still on my knee. Although I did give him a little stroke and tried to talk to him but he just carried on chirping like a bird. So I popped him back in his cage. And he still carried on. Eventually I thought maybe I could distract him out of it so gave him a bit of cheese. Which he dropped and carried on walking about the cage making the chirping noise. But then he came back to it and started eating the cheese so I turned the light out and he stopped.
I have never heard him make a noise before. I know some hamsters are quite vocal (but not Syrians usually I think). I don't think it was a happy chirping noise. I think he was either stressed or cross or upset. So it was probably just a bit of a fright and noise and disturbance for him in the night.
Still don't know why the doorbell went off! It only rings if someone presses the button. However the internet had been off and come back on again so I'm putting it down to that.
I did a short video clip while he was on my knee chirping - you might need to turn the volume up full to hear it.
top marks for determination Raffy! He must have been able to smell that drawer a mile off & had so much fun finding it 