I recently got a "rescue" male dwarf hamster. The term rescue is somewhat misleading because the pet store I bought him from mostly just takes in and re-homes pets that lazy, shitty college students drop off at the end of every semester.
Anyway, he is a nice as fuck hamster (never bit me, never shit/pissed on me, will seriously just chill on my shoulder for hours, etc) even though he is very timid when you go to pick him up. Despite all that, I think he's retarded, at least about his water.
He can't figure the typical water bottle out, so I got a little dish for him, but the second I put it down he sniffs the water and then kicks his shavings all over it. I've had many hamsters over the years and I've never seen one unable to figure water bottles out. Is there some way I can help him figure out how the fuck to use the bottle?
I love this little guy but he seems to be a bit of a retard.
Maybe he's trying to tell you something?
Something like throw away that awful fucking shirt.
>>2151418
In what way?
At my pet store we have to use glass water bottles because hamsters like making waterfalls out of the plastic ones.
>>2151432
He just walks up to it, tries to suckle for like 5 minutes and then gives up. I only realized after a few days when the water hadn't gone down a single drop in the bottle. I have no idea what he's doing to it, but it's clearly not drinking. I've seen him lap up water from the little bowl I got for him, but it seems he's confused about the bottle. As for immediately kicking the shavings into said bowl, I attributed that to typical hamster unawareness, but it's a pain in the goddamn ass to have to replace the water twice a day, AND the bedding 2x as often, just because he keeps burying it.
>>2151428
But that's my favorite shirt, anon.
>>2151418
Try a different type of bottle? The vacuum ones seem like they'd work well in this situation. They are open at the nipple instead of having that tiny bearing or spring in the way
>>2151438
>But that's my favorite shirt, anon.
I'd hate to see what your least favorite shirt is.
>>2151440
Oh fuck, I didn't know they made vacuum-type bottles for hamsters. I found one for a good price on Amazon and am ordering it now.
I was a bit afraid he was just an idiot because he also won't eat any of the chewies I bought him. He loves the tp roll, but not the supposedly cheese-flavored chew.
>>2151441
What's wrong with my shirt, homie?
>>2151448
>Tie-dye shirt with bones on it
Everything is wrong with it.
>>2151461
It's not a bone, it's just a colorful shirt with some floral patterns on it.
>>2151466
Well I think it's hideous and belongs in the garbage.
Tell you what, I'll do you a favor. I'll buy it from you. $10 sound good?
>>2151418
Maybe your hamster is hydrophobic as a result of a parasitic infection?
>>2151418
Oh shit you got sold a broken hamster, you need to take it apart and replace the broken components and then restart it and it'll be working fine, sucking errything in sight
>>2151418
I trained a vey young wild baby rabbit to use a water bottle. Originally i would just set em out in a caged area in the yard and spritz the yard with some water since thats how they naturally drink. But after a bit of persistents it paid off. I just too the end of the water bottle placed it up against its lips and slowly had water come out and touched thier lips till they licked it aways, when they went to do that i would let them lick the ball that blocks the water flow. Slowly but surely after about a week and a half of doing this it started using the water bottle on its own. And shortly after that it was big enough to release and he took off and i saw him aroundbthe neighborhood for a few weeks and then he took off to the huge field i lved near. But the moral of the story is that its persistents and not forcing it to "hurry". The slower you work with the animal the faster it'll learn, no matter how counter-intuitive that seems.
>>2151953
Heres its fenced area.
>>2151953
>>2151954
Finally using the water bottle.
