When I let my ham free roam my study room (4-5 months old, adopted, female, winter white), recently she keeps wanting to go behind my study table. It's the tall kind, nearly reaches the ceiling and is backed up against the wall, but there is a gap between the wall and the back of the table which she always heads for once she's on the floor. The problem with her going behind the table is that I have no way of watching her, reaching her if she is stuck or catching her if she falls. I would hear her climbing up the back of the table to a height about halfway up the wall, which scares me because it is so high and I can't see her or tell if she can go down safely (seems like she has been able to so far). I have been trying to stop her from going into this gap by blocking the only entrance with heavy objects but she has been trying to go above them by climbing up the curtain beside the study table. So far she has managed to run into this gap twice, and other than the climbing sounds, I also hear crunching (?) and rattling noises. I don't know what is behind my study table, there might be dead bugs and plastic, definitely a lot of dust back there because there is no way of cleaning the area.
I will not be letting her free roam the floor of my study room anymore. I'll bring her to my bedroom and the living room instead where there are no such unreachable areas, so I can always watch her and prevent her from jumping/climbing big heights. She does love the bookcase in my study so that's the most I will let her be in, since she has no way of reaching the floor and going for the gap from the bookcase.
Sorry for the long background, but this was the question: I can't tell if she is just being spoilt, stubborn or there is just something interesting there? If the crunching sounds were from her munching some dead bug or cockroach, will she be okay?
Every time I scoop her up from going over the objects blocking the gap and put her back in her cage, she will want to go out again. Then when I take her out and put her on the floor, she goes straight for the gap. On those two times she managed to enter the gap, this process would repeat itself until I got frustrated and just stopped bringing her out for the day no matter how much she begged (by monkey barring and biting the bar gently, she does this when I open the container of mealworms or bag of sunflower seeds too).
Other details: she lives in a Savic 80x50x38cm cage, has 3 hideouts and a glass hideout, bottle, 21cm wheel, 21x15cm sandbox, sprays, hidden treats, herbs and flowers forage, food bowl. I'm using Oxbow pure comfort bedding, Versele laga chinchilla sand, Bunny nature dwarf dream expert and Rodipet dwarf junior (alternating).
Edit: actually I can't tell if she likes free roaming or all this while has just been trying to escape. Sometimes it seems like she's excited, sniffing and walking around. Other times she seems to be running away from me/finding somewhere to hid. Just found a bunch of food she emptied from her pouches in the bookcase after today's roaming, read from this forum that they do that when they want to move around better (?) or when they're stressed. She is also timid since the day I got her and doesn't like being held for very long.
Edited by layscucumber, 14 July 2022 - 04:20 PM.
Don't get me wrong, I love hamsters, they are the best. But they are not super smart haha. I seriously doubt she even knows you tried to block the area or that you don't want her back there - so she's not defying you or anything like that haha. My money is that she's just a hamster being a hamster. 
okay I'll monitor her, she seems fine so far. Now she's sleeping on her wheel haha
