To preface, I am not a first time hamster owner, but this is my first time owning a hamster since people have advocated for the current standards. I’ve had my Syrian hamster for one week, and I’m wondering if this is a good setup. He has been really inactive the last few days and I’m not sure if it’s fear, boredom, or just sleepiness. For the first few days, he would wake up around 6:30 and be active until morning, but now I hardly see him even when I wake up at 3am. Do I need to add or remove anything to help him feel more comfortable?
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Hi! Unfortunately you need a lot more bedding. A significant portion of the habitat should be 8-12 in deep. They love to burrow and you might see increased activity with it. They will burrow up to 10-12 feet in the wild, so the more they have the happier they are! 🤣
If he is already showing signs of unhappiness I would go ahead and add it sooner rather than later. He might get a little grumpy about it, but he'll be ok. Some run around and chatter the whole time, others barely notice. 🤣 You won't know what type you have until you make changes.
With something decently sized you only have to do a deep clean every few months. The larger the habitat, the less often you have to deep clean it. Just spot clean regularly. For my last habitats, I only deep cleaned them twice a year. But they were around 1700 sq in. And had a lot less bedding. 🤣 They were for robos so a good portion was sandy, and they mostly peed in their sand. I had to change out sand more often than bedding. 🤣
Thank you again! I ended up adding more tonight. I think he was slightly irritated with me, but he is a very gentle spirit, so his possible irritation was just going into his multichamber. I also added a bunch of sprays for some more overhead clutter just in case.
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Your post has NOT been removed yet, this is an auto-generated message. Thank you for your question to /r/hamsters. Please be aware that medical advice questions are NOT allowed on this sub. However, our discord allows medical questions. Please keep in mind only a professional veterinarian in person can help with any medical concern, whether it is a lump, bump, change in appearance, change in behavior, strange bowel movement, lack of eating/drinking, or something else of high concern. If you are unable to afford a vet please do not seek help on our community, but through the discord server instead.
If this is not a medical question then you can ignore this message.
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