Sleepy dwarf hamster

CAT24

Hi All

I bought a dwarf hamster at the weekend and I understand that they are nocturnal creatures but she never comes out! I'm wondering if it will take her a while to get used to her new environment even though she is great with being handled etc and when we do take her out she is full of energy. As soon as we put her back in the cage it's straight to bed no matter what time of the day or night.

I also got up to get a drink last night at 3am expecting her to be running around and she was still out cold and again when I woke up.


Are some hamsters naturally lazy?

dudara

In short, yes. I've had many hamsters over the years, and they're just like people in that they all have different characters.

I would expect her to be more active at night, so give her some time yet. Also, have you got a wheel in her cage, or something for her to get busy in? The more stimulus she has, the more likely she is to be busy.

Weidii

My hamster was quite lazy until I put a wheel, sand box, hanging food stick and other things for her to climb through and over. Make sure there's a decent depth of bedding in her cage so she can dig aswell. I actually hid my hamsters food throughout the bedding instead of putting it all in a bowl, so she'd have to dig and forage for it.

Anythin that'll get their little brains chugging!

Sigma Force

As the othes said you can use plain white kitchen roll for their bed area its cheap and they love ripping it up which will keep him busy.

Check out zooplus.ie they have some really cute hammie houses very reasonable too. Cheaper still pop in some empty biscuit boxes and kitchen roll inserts.

However if your hammie ever appears to loose weight, isnt eating and is listless then he would need a vet straight away.

CAT24

Hi Guys

Thanks for the replys. I used to have a syrian hamster years ago and I was so use to him being active all the time so I couldn't understand why this little one wasn't. There has been improvement over the last few days, she has come out of her own accord to eat and run like a maniac around her space age cage (thats what I call the habitrail cage). She has taken to removing the bedding from her hide out and bringing it into her house, she must be trying to tell me something.

She has a wheel and anything you can imagine in her cage, along with loads of bedding and tubes from old kitchen roll. She seems to be coming out a bit more on her own now.

She certainly doesn't like to be woken so I won't be trying that again, she squeeked like a lunatic but it's so cute.

The other thing is, I'm not sure she knows how to use her water dispenser. The people in the pet shop said these cages are suited to dwarf hamsters but i'm thinking its too big and for her to get water she would need to stand on her back legs and stretch up. I haven't seen her do it yet so I'm afraid she's not drinking :-/

dudara

Dwarf hamsters actually need very little water. It's all to do with the efficiency of their kidneys. If you notice a dwarf hamster is drinking too much water, there's a good chance that they could have diabetes, or some other illness.

Don't worry about her, stretching up on her back legs to get water is quite OK. One of my hamsters has currently moved his bedding so as to make a step up to the water dispenser (lazy git)!

CAT24

we ended up buying a different water dispenser and put it in the cage for her as she had taken to just licking the water from the ground instead of learning to use the unusual water feeder.

I have new issue now, she's looking a little but blotchy on her back. I have noticed some white circles of hair starting which are spreading and nearly joing together. I was thinking she might be a winter dwarf that changes colour in the WINTER but it's nearly the summer so I'm wondering what's going on.

dudara

Two of my current hamsters are winter whites. One didn't go fully white until about January and is still very white. It's possible that your hamster may be a winter white.

Did the colour change happen quickly? or gradually?

TBH I'm not familiar with any other reason why the fur would change colour. It might be worth a trip to the vet if you're concerned.

alie

HI, I bought two female russian dwarf hampsters for my kids last august. They were put in seperate cages. One of them was very outgoing and is very sweet natured. The other one slept all the time and would nip if we tried to handle her. It turned out she was pregnant. She had 4 babies two weeks later. There maybe a chance she,s expecting. They can get pregnant very young.

CAT24

Thanks for the replies! She is much more active now, I think she just took time to get used to us. She's very affectionate for a hamster, likes to go asleep in the folds of my jumper and lets you rub her etc.

She had a tiny white patch on her fur when we got her and over the last 2 weeks more patches of white have appeared and are joing together, looks like someone got a little paint brush and splashed some white paint on her back im thinking she must be a winter white that changes in the summer lol

boomerang

If she's very young, she might just be growing in her adult coat?

There's a great online forum dedicated to hamsters where you can share pics and get tips and info on housing, health, and all the other questions you might have that sound silly but are dying to know! I'm a member there and really recommend it - the mods are all hamster experts and are really generous in giving out advice.

Just do a google search for "hamster heaven"

CAT24

That's a great tip! Thanks a million for that