Testing Lada's hamster ball

I am going to buy a new hamster ball for Vingdragån. Lada's old ball is very well used and hardly even transparent anymore. Not that Vingdragån cares, hamsters don't have eyesight worth sh*t. But I care. :-)

I haven't found a new ball of the right size and make yet though, so last night I decided he might as well try Lada's old ball.

It wasn't the greatest success at first. He basically sat down and ate his broccoli. And this was hilarious: apparently he had to go to the bathroom. So there were a few pieces of poop in his ball. He kept trying to move those away from where he was sitting, sort of pushing them out of the way. But he was in the ball, so the floor wasn't flat and the poop kept falling back towards him!

Anyway, he had a run around the guest bathroom and I removed the poop from the ball. When he got back in the ball after that, he had a decent run around the living room.

Last night's video evidence:

Lada and his hamster ball

Whenever Lada actually gets up at night before I go to bed, he always gets to run around in his little hamster ball, usually for 20-60 minutes depending on how late it is. He also gets 15 minutes of free range time in the guest bathroom, which is the only room in the house with no cables, no big furniture to hide under, etc.

When running around free like that, he always starts by scent marking the same corner of the room. Always. The same corner. And then he runs around for a bit until he gets tired of it and climbs back into his hamster ball.

I have been trying for ages to get this on film! He normally runs around for 5-15 minutes and then climbs into his ball. For some reason it has been hard to get on video! But last night, finally, finally…!

Take 1:

No, wanted to run around some more.

Take 2:

Nope, not done yet.

Take 3:

Having a little climb on two-legs, not ready for ball yet!

Take 4:

Enough of this, let me out into the rest of the flat again! :-)

Lada is confused...

Just when I thought Lucky Lada was showing signs of brains. For three days in a row he has voluntarily approached the cage door when talked to, and then climbed into his ball.

Tonight though, about 15 minutes into his ball-running-time, he did the following. For minutes on end!

Back & forth, back & forth. I wonder what was so interesting about the balcony door! He didn't stop until I made him and returned him to his cage.

To be continued...

The cage door!

The last few days Lada has been climbing into his ball on his own. And after his little outing tonight, he clearly demonstrated that he has found the cage door!

Luckily you need to be Superhamster to open that door. It's a two-hand job for a human to open it, so I'm pretty sure Lada won't be able to, no matter how hard he tries.

I like that he's climbing into his ball on his own, so I don't have to catch him for that anymore. Now he just needs to learn to sit still in my hand...

Taming Lucky Lada

Now, taming this little hamster has turned into a bit of a challenge, but today I picked him up and put him in the hamster ball. Nice way to get him used to the fact that my hand isn't dangerous!

He had a look around, ate some rolled oats and then peed on the floor. So then back in his Hamster Palace Cage he went.

Stand by for Take 2 tomorrow!