Did I scare her?

[KatiePillow]

My dwarf sandy today found the little screw thing at the middle of her wheel, and I thought, as a way to enforce that it was wrong, when i heard her doing it, I'd stand above the cage saying no (over and over)...it seemed to work, I did it twice when she was chewing and she stopped...
But then she went back to bed...And I started to doubt myself...I thought it'd enforce that when she does that, loudish noise happens, which would make her think it was bad..
but what if I scared her >.<

Does it sound like a completely idiotic plan to you guys?
I don't want her to be too scared because she has a lovely little personality, and she already is pretty...well..pansyish (she bites..but it's not vicious, it's just because she's a bit scared) I don't want her to move back in our trust training, but I also don't want her biting plastic =/

[mangoandmimi]

idk tbh !
But whenever my hams do anything similar, like chewing bars or attacking waterbottle holes (!!!) i blow gently on their noses, not so they leap back in fright but just so they wander off works for mine, well it works for Mangos chweing. Mimi... is ... mroe stubborn lol
And no i dont think its idiotic, but i think if you make your voice like a bit like *bad hamster!* lol, well like telling off, then they'll realise that its bad. i'm such a bad explainer!
Goodluck with her

[Podling]

I wouldn't worry, I thought I saw a similar plan in Hamsterloaedia except tapping the nose whilst you're saying no. It's not idiotic at all though because if you don't let her know when she's doing something wrong then she'll keep doing it, sure she may begrudge you doing it but it's much better in the long run I'm sure!

[KatiePillow]

I know...i read that, I tapped her nose, next time I went in her cage she bit me.. >.< I think it was because she was now scared of my hand =/
But now she may be scared of my voice...oh this hamster training just doesn't work D:
I spoil her something rotten though..but I don't want her having a heart attack from fear, and she's not the like...calmest of hamsters >.<
Thanks for replying though podling =] it does actually make me feel better that somebody else doesn't think it was wrong >.<

[Hope]

No I dont think you were wrong - I tell mine off quite a lot. I use the blowing technique too. But to be honest the best technique I have found is just to ignore them. Boris has bars now and has started to chew it I sand there telling him off he does it more, if I walk away he stops.

Maybe dont tap her nose with your finger though - as you dont want her to assosicate your hands with bad things.

[KatiePillow]

Yeah, I'm not going to do the tapping again, I wouldn't have even considered it, but the hamster lopedia told me to D:
She was doing it last night when I wasn't watching...so I think she's just being silly.
It may be that she has built her nest into the wheel and is wondering why the wheel is harder to turn than usual >.<

[Podling]

I don't know if tappings necessarily bad if it's also where her daily intake of meal worms is coming from But it might be a bit confusing for it to be a nice hand one moment and a mean hand the next...

[KatiePillow]

Yeah, she's not the brightest thing, took her an hour to find the upstairs when she was in the mini duna...her brother found it really fast...but think she's more of a pretty thing than a brain box