Lazy Hamster??

Kimbot

Ok I got a hamster last week. All he does is sleep and sleep and sleep. The only time he is active is at 6am for about 30 minutes then he is back to sleep all the time!! Is there something wrong with him??

dudara

Hamsters are mainly diurnal ( or something like that) which means that they are mainly active at dawn/dusk. They can also get pretty busy during the night. It's best to get him something to do, ie a wheel, tubes to run through. Otherwise he will get lazier and lazier.

Kimbot

He has a Habitrail OVO home which is full of tubes and has a wheel. He has a ball aswell. I let him out to roam about every now and then but he is just plain lazy. Surely its not natural for him to sleep for 23hours a day??

Our man in Havana

dudara wrote: »

Hamsters are mainly diurnal ( or something like that) which means that they are mainly active at dawn/dusk. They can also get pretty busy during the night. It's best to get him something to do, ie a wheel, tubes to run through. Otherwise he will get lazier and lazier.

Diurnal is active during the day & at night (they get up eat/run/play/sleep etc)
Crepsecular is active at dawn & dusk

Most hamsters are nocturnal which is active at night - what species of hamster do you have? Syrians are nocturnal. Most dwarf hamsters are diurnal

Kimbot

I have a Syrian. I understand they are nocturnal alright but only awake for an hour in every 24 hours seems odd to me!! I mean when he is awake at night it wakes us up (We have him in our room at night) and he is forever asleep during the day, if we wake him up he runs to a tube that we can't get him from and goes straight back asleep!!

dudara

Bond-007 wrote: »

Diurnal is active during the day & at night (they get up eat/run/play/sleep etc)
Crepsecular is active at dawn & dusk

You're right. Apologies.

Some hamsters are just bone lazy though. I have a dawrf hamster who has all the gear and essentially only comes out to scratch his backside and eat. He's the hamster equivalent of a couch potato.

All my other hamsters are fairly active.

Our man in Havana

You could take away the bowl of food & hide small amouts of food in the cage - even wrap some up in a parcel (use kitchen paper) & make him work for his grub - tis easy when its in the same place everynight etc.

BeansMeansHynes

I have a Syrian also and in the past few weeks he has gotten quite lazy. He used to love roaming around the sitting room, climbing curtains and chairs for hours on end. Now when he eventually gets up, he only stays up for an hour or two, most of that time is spent sleeping behind the couch, and even puts himself back into bed!!! I bought him a proper metal wheel instead of those plastic ones today to entice him to be a bit more active.