Quote:
Originally Posted by Serendipity7000
It's time and patience It is so frustrating when you want to just pick them up and hold them. But you will get there. It took 2 months until our last Syrian was hand tamed. Set back by the fact I changed his cage cold turkey after 3 weeks and did a lot of things wrong! Also he was a pet shop hamster, not used to much interaction or being handled - or possibly handled roughly.
It is a wonderful moment when they are suddenly hand tame and trust you - and it may take a while but when it happens it can happen instantly. They just need to learn to trust that you're not going to hurt them, or steal their food and nest - and also get used, gradually to touch and handling.
Bath tub taming is the usual thing suggested. Have added a little video I did of how we tamed our last Syrian Charlie. It doesn't show a lot really but there are some written tips with the stages it took.
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Thank you for this! I have definitely picked him up too early and am very scared that it will make it that much harder for him to bond with me. I am thinking I will give him a few more days of just eating out of my hand (yesterday I picked him up a little too long but this morning he ate out of my hand so he wasn't too cross with me!) before I try to take him to the tub maybe? I've now had him about a month and he will eat out of my hand but that is it. I am completely aware that it's on me that he's so skittish right now. He's also a pet store ham, and I totally cleaned his cage that way too! Ahh! The thing I think I'm stuck on is he will let me pet him while he eats and he will eat a few bites out of my hand but he won't crawl into it. I want to be able to name train him but I know that requires more trust, which I need to build slowly.