Don't mess with my habitat!!

[pinky]

Something I've noticed with all three of my Chinese hamsters is that each has had a noticeable response when I've cleaned the aquarium and then placed him/her back into the clean habitat, as if to say, "What?? This place no longer smells like ME!! How dare you??" Responses have varied: running around the tank like crazy, running on the wheel like crazy, climbing the walls (something they never ordinarily do), chewing on my fingers, refusing to be picked up. . . . do any of you see the same kind of out-of-sorts behavior on the part of your rodent(s) when you clean the habitat?

This behavior doesn't last--soon new tunnels are excavated, some droppings are added, and all is well. But it's interesting to watch!

[Die Fledermaus]

The worst I saw was when I was cleaning a habitat that had mites. So it took awhile. I had put two gerbs in a holding habitat. I heard some noise and I thought they were trying to escape. I checked later - and Edan (a DEH with a lghtening gene [rare]) had been killed by then other, Sapphire (eponymously named for his color). He later got along fine with a young siamese, Smokey.

Strange. It never happened before. But for some reason the change in locations and smells, and maybe the lack of toys and hiding places (in freezer for mites), caused a freak out.

[pinky]

Yikes! I didn't expect death and destruction in this thread!

[Die Fledermaus]

I didn't expect it in the tank. I felt so bad for Edan. He was old, but I wonder. Wonder if he had some illness that the other gerb smelled or sensed and he attacked due to it.

[silence]

It was probably the smell in the tank of whatever you used to clean it out.
When moving rodents to a new tank you should put a little bit of old nesting material or a scatter of shavings in so they know it is their territory. Otherwise they think it is a new territory and are frightened and on edge.