My hamsters new cage!

Got an awesome deal at a yard sale on a cage that I've been thinking of buying for a while and just couldn't say no!

Although it was a pain to put together.

 

Awesome, I used to have a ferret cage akin to that

 

Yes, this one is a ferret cage actually, haha.

Unfortunately Princess Leia can fit through the bars, so I'll have to get some chicken wire to wrap around it before she gets moved into her new home

 

I've done that! Most of my hamhams have lived in meshed rabbit cages. Wear protective gear is my advice

Are you going to share pictures of Princess Leia?

 

Here's when I first got her. I don't have many pictures of her as she's kind of mean.

When I first got her I couldn't even put my hand in the cage without her spazzing out.
Now I can only feed her through the cage door. It's a mess to get her out of the cage on cleaning days. She actually bit my 3 year old when he stuck his hand in the cage and drew blood.

I can't seem to tame her at all. She always either hates me and runs, or thinks my hand is food.

I do still want her to have a good life with plenty of room, hence the new cage

 

Wow, I have never heard of a mean hamster. Dumb, sure, but never mean... She's definitely adorable though!

 

Wow, I have never heard of a mean hamster. Dumb, sure, but never mean... She's definitely adorable though!

Lol, maybe that's the word I was looking for

 

Hmm. Any chance she was handled badly by someone before you got her? It might be worth a trip to the vet to rule out anything wrong. Sometimes they bite because they're in pain.

She is a pretty girl though! Looks like a couple of my favourite past hammies, Brownie and Surimi

 

I honestly don't think she was handled at all until I got her. I wanna say she was 4 month old at the time. And when the lady took her out she had issues just catching her and she was very wild and hard to hold, bad sign I know, but my 2 year old hamster Padme had recently passed and I really wanted one then and there and didn't make the best judgment

ETA- I loved Padme, she was the sweetest hamster and so smart she even knew her name!

 

Well, if you hadn't taken her she might have not been adopted at all or gone on to a worse fate. Don't give up! She could still surprise you. And remember that food is the way to a hamster's heart

 

I think the food may be the problem XD I've fed her occasionally from my hand so whenever I don't have food in my hand I think she assumes that my fingers are the food now.

 

Can you use a soap or lotion on your hands that smells very unlike food to help her tell the difference? Hamsters have terrible eyesight.

 

Good idea! I've never thought of that being the issue. Would hand sanitizer be okay? Or would that be too strong for her nose

 

They have sensitive noses so you shouldn't need to use anything too strong. Just washing your hands well to get any food smells off them may be enough

 

Well yesterday and this morning we made slight progress. I tried to lure her on my hand with treats but she was really skittish. So I put a pile of treats in the middle of my palm and she put her two front paws on me to reach them.

She did try to nibble the side of my hand. But I wiggled it to dissuade her.

And this morning while she was eating I was able to pet her head and sides, and I set my hand on her as if I was going to pick her up to try and get her used to the placement before moving to the actual movement.

 

Bit more progress today. I gave her a piece of food and she took it, (of course). I then picked her up by her scruff, which is the safest for my well being at this point and moved her to her food tray to try and show her that grabbing=food

This was the first day I was able to EASILY move her, if even for a short distance.

 

Yay! Hammy snuggles in your future I think

 

I sure hope so, my other hamster, Padme, was the sweetest angel, but I let neglect get to her....

I fed her Apple sauce once a week before hand to keep her regulated. And forgot two weeks in a row, she got bloated, I got busy, and she passed while I was at work. I was so upset as she was my first hammy, but so sweet. Would crawl into her ball and my hand when put up to the cage and would hang on my shoulder while I walked around to house doing chores with no problem.

I'm hoping to get this hamster close to the same

 

Aww, I'm so sorry about Padme

 

Thank you Aquaphopia

I'm seeing a trend with hamster names LOL

If I am unable to train this girly, I'll try and adopt her out,and adopt one from petco, as theirs "SEEM" so much nicer, behind the glass at least. I'll give her another 2 months to become "handleable".

Is she won't at least be held by that time then I'll adopt another hamster, within time, with a good personality... Maybe even a couple of rats.... Lol , like my mother would allow that

 

Try wearing gloves when handling. Then if she does try to bite she won't hurt you and you won't be nervous about touching her. Everytime she moves and you flinch she learns that's how to get what she wants

 

I think you should get a rat whether you keep her or not! They're so much fun and so personable. Definitely up there on my list of favorite rodent pets. I used to have one and he seriously loved everyone. People would come over and just want to play with him, feed him treats, watch him eat, etc. So funny to watch a group of guys in their 20s completely stop everything they're doing to gush over a rat

 

Honesty I would LOVE to have 3 rats, I just don't have the time for them. Which is why I just got another hamster instead. She wakes up any time I come home which is unique for a hamster. Just the domestication part is hard for me. I don't want to get a Mischief of rats as I don't have the "outside of a cage" play time required for them

 

So I finished setting her cage up with the chicken wire Wednesday night and put her in with all her stuff.

Unfortunately she got out sometime suring the night...

Once I realized I opened the cage door and put her old cage on the ground with food in it. She still hasn't been into it or eaten any of the food. Ugh, I'm pretty upset.

 

Oh no! Have you figured out how she escaped?

I had a special hamster, who was a total sweetie and never actually ran away, who was a Houdini! She escaped twice from her first cage but I couldn't figure out how she did it until I sat down and watched her do it! She escaped from every cage she ever had but never went far and never caused excessive mischief

Hope you find her soon!

 

I think the chicken wire was too big. It was just standard, it's the only thing I can think of

 

I always used 1/4" hardware cloth. The spacing is small enough that the hamster has difficulty chewing it and the guage of wire used is thin enough to cut and bend easily

 

I can't really see in the picture all that well, but it might be quite high if shes a climbing and takes a drop? You might want to add a ledge or a hammock if you think the same (its hard to tell!)

 

I've already put so much time into that cage, and money. It will be a couple weeks before I do anything new. If she comes back I'm just going to keep her in her old cage for a while.
pinkiepole, there's actually about 3 ledges, and she does love to climb but she also didn't have a problem climbing back down

 

Ugg, she hasn't came back. She hasn't even eaten her food and I know she has to be starving. She always eats 1/4 cup of food every night. I feel so bad now

 

Aquaphobia I know I complained about her, but I love ALL my animals, just as I love Princess Leia back. We have at least 3/5 dogs that will eat a rodent on site as well as 4 cats, I'm only home 5/24 hours a day. My parents haven't seen any of the animals carrying her, or seen her running around.

There is a hole in my wall to access pipes, I'm afraid she got in there, but I also have wild mice in our walls, could they take her as a food source? I know I talked bad about her, but I don't want her to die, I would rather spend years training her than for her to die painfully.

MODERATORS: Please do not combine my posts as these are emergency updates.

 

Oh dear

A trick to find out what room she might be in is to put a small number of large seeds or treats in each room of the house and close the doors between. Then check the piles each day and if any are missing then you have a good idea which room she's in.

 

I will try that in the morning when I revisit. There's only a few rooms the can access. But I'll put food in all so that she doesn't go hungry. That's my greatest fear

 

Hopefully she'll show up soon. Hamsters will store food, thus the puffy cheeks. Maybe do a small disk of water as well for her that she could access?

 

Oh no I'm so sorry I didnt realise you hadn't got her back!

This happened to us a few months back, our completely white hamster turned up in our hallway, just sitting there 4 days later completely grey. I have no idea where she hid to get so filthy but she was fine after a few more days. I genuinely didnt think we'd get her back.

We tried humane traps with the books buckets and peanut butter but she didnt seem to fall for that - but might be worth trying!

 

She has yet to come back, and I'm fairly sure she's gone for good.

I'm looking into investing in a mischief of rats, are there any places that offer rescued rats? I know the animal shelter doesn't

 

Do a search for ratteries in your area and ask them or use Petfinder.com!

I am sorry your hammy didn't come back though

 

Thanks! I didn't think to search for that.

And I did find it interesting. Definitely. I follow a girl on YouTube that has a rat pack. At one point on of her rats passed away from cancer, and his mate got so depressed she stopped eating, and the others would try and bring her food, but she was literally so heartbroken she passed too. It was a sad moment for me as a follower.

 

It's terrible that rats are so maligned. They're clearly the kind of people we aspire to be!

 

Wanting to give a bit of encouragement about the missing hamster. My brother had one for around 4 years, she died of old age. However, my mom and I didn't know this at the time because he wouldn't let anyone in his room, but that hamster was living uncaged for the better part of her life. We knew that he let her out sometimes, and I've now seen videos of her scaling furniture and bedsheets and would at times even sleep near his head. He said that sometimes he wouldn't see her for weeks on end, and come to find out she had been making nests in drawers and in other hidey holes but she would always show back up.

We found old evidence of her habits (lol) when we moved to a new place while cleaning his room xD He loved that hamster dearly, he was 18 when she died and he cried for days and made the sweetest little grave for her and engraved stone with her name to mark it.

So your hamster may turn up when you least expect it!