Poorly chicken

[saiqa]

please I can't get my Syrian to go up and down the tube. i eventually got it up with treat but how can I get it to come down. it's been up all night. i have had to pick her up now so that I can put her down the bottom drawer so she can go sleep in her bed. I'm stressed out because I know she will be. p s I did try and pick her and put her in the tube to go down the tube but she wasn't having any of it and kept coming out  please help me

[Cat tails]

I had a gerbil who was too dim to figure it out. He managed down, but not up. 

Trained him by taking the tube out and letting him run through it when it was horizontal and just increased the angle with every go.

But your hamster will be fine sleeping upstairs for now, just provide a little hideout. Little carton box, one of those wooden houses or something like that. After the last clean out, my Syrian hamster decided she wanted to sleep upstairs. She made her nest in a little wooden house right now. With the next clean out, she might decide to sleep downstairs again, but it’s het choice.

[soapdragon]

That's exactly the reason that we didn't go for a Qute when we moved from dwarf Russians to Syrians! I thought that the angle of the tube looked tricky. Your hamster will be fine on one level although this will limit  burrowing behaviour if she stays on the top and excercise opportunities on one level are necessarily limited! If you give them a nest of torn up hankies they will make their own bed wherever and often decide they want to sleep somewhere different so move it all themselves anyway. Equally, being nocturnal they will be awake all night - probably having an explore. They do like an enclosed space like a little hut, coconut shell etc so that they feel secure.

You'll probably find she get the hang of it eventually but please do monitor her food and water intake in the meantime if she and sustenance are on different levels - although it may be that which gets her into the tube anyway if she smells the food. You could try putting some fresh things (peppers, cucumber, carrot, apple) on the opposite level to the one that she is on and see if that temps her to use the tube.

[Cat tails]

My Syrian hamster uses the tube just fine and has done since I got her. She figured it out within half an hour. If going up is not a problem, it won’t have issues with food and water, as those are technically kept upstairs.

[MariaM]

Hi we got our hamster a week ago and it does not appear to be using the tube. The bedding and food are downstairs with some chew toys but the wheel and other exercise/toys are upstairs. I am concerned it is not getting any exercise as it does not wake in the day and doesnt wake until late at night. Should I be worried?

[Ema]

Following ...

[Cat tails]

You can help him to get to know the tube. I took mine put and let the hamster run through the tube when keeping horizontally. And just kept increasing the incline. You can place the hamster on the top level and see if he goes down at one point. Maybe feed him treats on the top level, so he has a reason to go up.

I would suggest keeping the food and water upstairs at one point. Downstairs is like their burrow and they need to leave in the wild to get food.

[Penny & Em]

I was so worried when we brought our Syrian hamster home as she ignored the tube the first day but by the next morning she was whizzing up and down it no problem at all 

[HeavyTed]

Our gerbils went down the pipe once then wouldn’t go back up for food and water so in the end I removed the orange pipe and put a wooden bridge we bought from the put shop under the hole and now they use that as a sort of set of stairs.

I have left the pipe horizontally in the top section so they get used to it but not sure if we will ever get them to use it.

this is the sort of bridge I mean: https://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/wooden-playsticks-large