Rusty

This doesn't go here.

I finally finished the house I've been working on for Rusty. I adapted a tutorial by Vanilla Ham Ham. I had to scale it down to fit the cage and I couldn't figure out the roof for the life of me, but Rusty seems to like it. This weekend I am going to work on a better lid for his cage. Now that he can get higher up, I don't think the window screen is going to work. I also wasn't very happy with how the current one turned out. Here's to hooding round two will go better.

I've been hiding treats around Rusty's home for him to find. Normally it's sunflower seeds, but today he found a yogi.

Rusty got a cage upgrade today and he got to spend a few minutes out of his house. I found some hamster sand for him to dig around in and out a litter tray where he normally pees to make it easier to clean. Everything I've read said it might take a while for him to get that that's where he's supposed to go to the bathroom. Right now he seems more interested in digging in tray than he is in using it for the bathroom. I probably should have waited for him to get used to the litter tray before introducing sand, but he spread to be enjoying them both. I've also been slowly getting him used to being picked up and taken out of his cage. Today was the first time he actually ate a treat while not in his home, so I think it's working.

Rusty still isn't a huge fan of being held, but he let me pick him up for a little today. I think the sunflower seeds helped.

Rusty got to explore out of his house again today. He's definitely getting used to people. He even crawled on me while he explored. Before I put him back, I hid sunflower seeds in his toys. It took him a bit, but once he found them he was really excited. He doesn't explore his tubes much, but he kept going through them looking for more. I'll have to hide treats for him to find more often.

Rusty got to run around outside his house for a little bit today. He was in his ball at first, but then I realized I could stuff up the door with a towel so he couldn't get out. He explored for a little bit before he told us he was done by taking a nap on the towel. He still won't let anyone hold him, so we get him in and out of his hamster mansion by placing his ball in the cage and waiting for him to crawl in it on his own. He's getting better about taking food from us, he'll even rest his paws on our hands to get it, but he still won't let us pick him up.

Rusty's home now has a temporary lid because he decided he wanted to be an escape hamster. I was already making one, but was unhappy with its progress. So, I set it aside to start over. I didn't think I would need it until I got him some taller toys. I was wrong.

Mmmm. Sunflower seeds.

The night I finally got to leave the pet store.