Advice for skittish robo?
Hello everyone, meet Beast!
Between 2-3 weeks ago I got her, the smallest of the bunch (female robo). I got her from a pet store (I know) because I wanted to be sure of age and couldn’t find any ethical breeders near me. About half a year ago I had my soul hamster pass and wanted to get the most time I could out of this one.
I know robo’s are generally more skittish and hard to tame than other breeds, which I’m fine with, but I just want to make sure she isn’t stressed.
Anyways, I’ve been giving her time to settle into her new place and haven’t been interacting with her other than to scatter food/replace water. I’ll watch her run around and stuff while she’s awake, but I haven’t tried touching/hand feeding or anything yet. Despite this she is still extremely skittish, and will run away just from your shadow.
Given her size and breed I completely understand why she’d be skittish, but I don’t want her to be stressed while I’m walking around in my room when she’s awake.
I have been draping a towel over the wheel half of her setup and leaving the other half uncovered. Today I was thinking I should start tapering how much the towel covers until I take it off completely. I mainly have the towel on to give her a dark and safe area that she can’t see me from. The other reason for the towel is because I’m a bit of a night owl and stay up late sometimes, I didn’t know if having the light on when it’s supposed to be nighttime and active time would be detrimental.
My questions are:
- Should I keep the towel up to make it dark when I’m awake at night? I don’t have an overhead light on, just a desk lamp and TV.
- Should I keep giving her time to acclimate before I try interacting with her? I was thinking that maybe putting my hand with a treat in there and sitting still could help to reinforce my shadow/movement is a good thing even if it might scare her a little bit the first times.
Sorry for the long winded post. I’ve had several hamsters in the past but none that were anywhere near this skittish. I just want to make she’s comfortable in her space, regardless of if I get to interact with her.