Okay, before anyone answers me with something I already know: I know that dwarf hamsters are nocturnal; I'm already quite aware.



About 4 days ago, I purchased two dwarf hamsters from the pet store in my town; Cameron and Caleb. Caleb is a black male dwarf hamster and Cameron is a white dwarf hamster (at least from what the sign said on their cages).

Caleb (the black one) fit in quite well. He's active, he enjoys running on his wheel and running around the cages and overall, being very active during late at night and early in the morning. During the day (as expected), he sleeps.

Now to the problem: Cameron is my white hamster. He doesn't run on his wheel, he doesn't like to play in the tubes and most importantly: he sleeps all he time. o__o I have a pretty wide sleeping schedule and I check him constantly. A few nights ago, I was up until 2 am and he was still sleeping. I got up this morning, he was -still- sleeping and whenever I do wake him up (just to make sure he's okay), I have to poke him lightly a few times in which case he'll just roll over on his side a little and then finally get up. When he gets up, his eyes usually remain closed (though I have seen them open before) and then he walks around for a couple minutes then goes right back to sleep. I'm not sure what exactly is wrong with him and I'm scared he might be sick. Since I only got him a few days ago, I've just been kind of waiting, hoping maybe he's just getting used to his environment/sleep pattern and he'll be okay but he just seems so...listless I guess.

As far as I can tell, he still eats and drinks, he just sleeps most of the day and night.

Anyone have any suggestions or things to look for or ideas of what it could be? ;__; I'm really worried about him since I know they are supposed to be active. I mean, are there hamsters who are just lazy?

Here are two pictures of him:

http://i51.tinypic.com/8xrlua.jpg
http://i53.tinypic.com/10cp5wk.jpg

it could be that the other hamster is picking on him when he leaves the nest, the rolling over when you poke him could be him going into submissive "please dont eat me" mode

were they in the same cage when you got them? if you really are worried about him i would take him to the vets, pet stores are not the best place to get animals from, and quite often the animals they sell are sick.

does he have any marks on him at all? are his eyes bright? is his nose runny at all? what does his breathing sound like?

another thing is what sort of set up are they in? if housing multiple hamsters together you need a large single level cage (no tubes or shelves ect) a wheel and a house per hamster, and you are best off scatter feeding, rather then using a food dish

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I would take him to the vets. If hes breathing ok thats a good sign. However if its an infection they put antibiotics in the water and best to do that sooner then later.

Vets fix things and stop you worrying

It's worth checking up but don't worry if it's nothing. My chinese hamster gets on his wheel between 11 and 12 ish every night and then goes back to sleep. He eats when I do the food run at 9 ish and that is all I see of him. He hates being handled despite me constantly trying to make him like me. I've come to the conclusion that he is just miserable and happy being a miserable git.

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