To let my hamster be a house hamster?

[DifficultSituation19]

I rescued a hamster about 4 months ago who had had a pretty shit life up until then (she was about 8 months old when I got her).

She had never really been handled, but is now super tame and friendly. Her (very large) cage is on the floor of the living room, and since she’s become tamer I’ve been just opening the door of the cage and letting her free roam around the living room every evening, usually for 3-4 hours, sometimes longer. When she’s tired she gets back in her cage and puts herself back to bed.

Last night I was —three sheets to the wind— tired, and fell asleep while she was having her run around. This morning, when I went downstairs, she wasn’t in her house. No sign of her all day, but this evening she woke up and has been running around as normal, popping back into her cage every now and again for food and drinks or a quick run on her wheel.

I closed her cage door at about 10.30, and her little face broke my heart! She just sat at the door of her cage looking very sad indeed. She’s now out running around again. So I’m thinking, people have house rabbits, how about a house hamster? I’d keep her confined to the living room and she’d have the option of being in her cage if she wanted to be there (and I’d obviously put all her food in there).

Is this a bonkers idea? She has a sand bath, soil, deep substrate, and more toys and treats than you can shake a stick at in her cage, but she’d far rather not be in there. We don’t have any other pets that could munch her, and the dc are well trained at keeping the doors closed.

Get an old fish tank, set your cage in top and put a tube down into the tank, effectively double decker the cage. You could do a ramp up to the door for their runaround time.

I let gerbils run around but prep room by lifting all the cables up.

Letting her out when you are home is fine, but she will escape if not supervised, many a hamster ends up under floor boards or who knows where after escaping. Rabbits are so much bigger, but I would not have one run free when I wasn't home (my dog is confined to one room overnight/when we are out!)

how has she had s shit life up until now?

After looking at her face in the picture I vote to let her roam free.

She is gorgeous. Keep her safe in her cage with some supervised time outside it.

@DifficultSituation19

Seriously cute, and a lovely idea to let hammy run around free, but impractical as it could be dangerous with her chewing wires and shit.

Also, you could tread on her, or a cat may get her.

Very cute hamster though.

They continuously pee

They don't do that.

Peanut is adorable ❤

But for her own safety she needs to be supervised. I've seen videos on youtube where owners have set up a whole room for the hamster but it's properly set aside for the ham, not just free reign of the living room.

We let our gerbils out - they're really good at getting upstairs to play under the beds, BUT we supervise them and have all kinds of barriers to stop them doing dangerous/damaging things, like books around the sofas to stop them going in. (We had one that climbed up inside the reclining seat mechanism and didn't see him again for hours - never again).

YABVVVU.It will die soon from internal bleeding, having eaten through wiring. It will gnaw anything it fancies. This is why they're kept in cages away from harm.

Nooooo their pee stinks!!

Aw super cute!!! I think it’s time for us to get another one, our winter White Russian hamster died back in January and we just haven’t had the heart to replace him he was the most lovely friendly thing. Anyway not a good idea. Ours was let out for periods of time supervised then back to bed, ours had a specific spot it peed in in the cage so not sure they pee all the time

If you don't have room for a bigger cage, how about series of smaller cages connected with tubes? If hamster sizes are too small, you can try rat size.

That way you could even place a few cages higher for a better view for Peanut. Plenty of opportunity to roam around safely when you can't supervise.
BTW, I think you are doing a great thing for her by giving her such a good life.

If you have a concrete floor with no floorboard or plumbing gaps then I would let her out for supervised roaming in the evenings - I used to do that with my hamster and he loved it, there was nowhere for him to get lost and he loved being able to climb up all the furniture and explore. His favourite spot was on top of the wardrobe! He did chew through my WiFi cable a couple of times but if you're in the same room with them you can generally hear when they start gnawing things and stop them. Don't get too attached to your carpets and curtains though

Also they will leave little stashes of food under all your furniture ❤️❤️

My brother, when younger, let our hamster out of it's cage and it escaped under a tiny hole next to the radiater pipe (it wasn't even a couple of cm's big) and somehow managed to get up between the walls. We heard scratching every now and then until the scratching stopped altogether.

Definitely a bad idea op, hamster is probably very happy in cage. Have you got tubes in and out of the cage? We had three separate different sized cages for ours, all connected by tubes going in and out with various things in each. Hamster loved it. Didn't even take up much room cause they were stacked on top of each other!

Thanks for the replies, and the Peanut love 💗. She is indeed the most adorable hamster ever, she’s such a little character. She loves people now and I’ll look round and she’ll just be chilling next to me on the sofa. Some more spam as requested by PP.

After careful consideration, I think you’re right. I will not bow down to her DM sad hamster face. Having a house hamster would be impractical. She’s already out and about for most of her awake hours. I’m going to look at ways of extending her cage or getting a different one, which will make me feel better. Her wheel is big enough, to answer a previous question, it’s the Trixie 28cm one.

Oh my gosh, her little face!

Are you in the Hamsters UK Facebook group, OP? There are loads of great enrichment ideas on there and lots of advice about things like cage modifications.

But but but your room will STINK! Hamsters just wee all over the place.

If I were your landlady I’d be charging you for new carpets.

I just stolen one of these photos and sent it to MisterWaffle saying "FUCK IT! I'm getting a hamster"

He said "Why the hell not". I love that man!

@MadamWaffle yessss! He’s a keeper.

@CheerfulPotato it’s a HA house which came with bare floors so the carpets are mine and will be ripped up if I ever move.

@MauisHouseOnMaui yes I’m in that group, it’s great.

Loving the little faces and to add to the rodent love, here is my rescue mouse 🥰

I think it is about the hamster’s own safety. What if you walk on it?

And what do you do with all those little faeces and wee spreading around? It is ok now, but give it a month and the smell of a dirty cage will be lingering all around the house.

I found playlist from Victoria Raechel.

It's full of tips for hamster habitats. There must be something there that would work for your situation.