Jekyll and Hyde Hamster!

[Varx]

I bought a male Syrian around 2 weeks ago and his personality is all over the place, making taming him so difficult! He happily accepts treats from my hand and climbs all over me, but then on some days while doing this he'll suddenly scream at me or bite me.
I've had 2 hamsters before and in all of their time combined I have never been so hissed at, it's really confusing. He doesn't seem bothered by my presence at all and he has let me stroke his back, so honestly I don't really know what to do. Any advice on this would be great, thank you!

[NessaDale]

My little dwarf ham can be a little flip flop too. She usually gives me a sharp nip before climbing onto or off of my hand. I put it down to her making sure I'm a stable climbing surface, but no clue since she is my first ham.

[Thin Lizzy]

Crikey, Some hams can get stressed out, have you changed anything in his cage?
I would go back and use the tissue trick. Stuff a few tissues up your sleeve for a short time then put in his cage, let him get use to your smell all over again. Talk as much as you can to him in a soft and quiet voice and encourage him to come near you, each time he does make sure you praise him. Have a set time each day where you do this and treat him. But, when it comes to talking, do so anytime you pass his cage. Take things slowly with him you might've been going to fast before and it's best you go at your hamsters pace.

[Varx]

I will try going back to tissues, thanks! I talk to him a all the time and haven't tried to hold him yet (cause he's such a biter!)
Sometimes if I touch his stuff he gets annoyed with me, like if I try to move something of his he'll run at me and try to bite me. Is there any way to stop this? He has a bottle holder that he knocks over sometimes so I can't really avoid having to do this!

[Pebbles82]

Two weeks isn't very long and yes he will be territorial in his cage, especially if you touch his stuff or try to move it! Our male syrian was like this at first, but was absolutely fine out of the cage. I would avoid putting your hand in his cage while he is in it. We used to get him out in a cardboard tube (from the inside of a kitchen roll) - lower the cardboard tube in and he will probably just walk into it - if he doesn't, he probably will if there's a treat at one end. Then lift the tube out carefully (put your hands over either end so he can't jump out or fall out), put it down somewhere like the sofa and then put one end into his ball. He can then walk from the tube to his ball. Pop the lid on his ball and let him run around for a bit to burn off some energy. I then used to take the ball up to the bathtub (with no water in obviously and the plug in), gently put the ball down in the bathtub and take the top off. We would use the bathtub for taming. He can run around safely in there and he's out of his cage. Even then at first our hamster would 'warn you off' if you tried to touch him - it took a few times of having him in the bathtub before we could stroke him and he got used to touch - after that I would cup him underneath, lift him a few centimetres and let him walk off my hand. From then on it was easy to pick him up and hold him and he was quite tame.

At the moment he is only going for the food and isn't tame enough to be held without feeling threatened. They are often much better out of the cage than in it.

Even now he doesn't like being picked up in his cage and comes out in a tube, but he is very tame now and easy to hold. It takes a bit of time and patience. It's frustrating at first because you want to hold them but they need to get used to feeling safe with you.

His basic nature is to be friendly and lovely, but if he feels scared or threatened he will get aggressive.

Sometimes as well in the early days they just want to be left alone for a couple of days. We would take him out every two or three days for the bathtub training, and most days in his ball because he would come to the side of the cage to get out. It's best to do any minor cage changes while he is out of the cage, but really it's best not to do any cleaning for at least two weeks as he will be marking out his territory and familiarising himself with his cage and will get quite stressed if things move or smell different all the time.

Now Charlie is time I do spot cleaning while he is in the cage because he didn't like coming back to and finding things had changed (I think he thinks there is something else living in there when it's different!) but at first it is necessary.

Hope this helps. It can take some time - it was two months before our Syrian was tame enough to handle, but we did have a setback during that time as we moved him to a bigger cage so he needed another two weeks to settle into that one and work out where everything was.

[Thin Lizzy]

Once he gets your scent back with the tissues, it'll help, take it slowly, sometimes going too fast at the start can stress them.
It can be frustrating, my youngest was an absolute nightmare but, she's sooo great now.
Offer some tasty treats like chicken, broccoli, cucumber, carrot, apple. Try and vary it. Hams love being praised. With my youngest, I would tell her that she was a good girl and so clever when she got her treats.
It boosted her confidence.

[Varx]

He's using the tissues as a blanket which gives me hope
serendipity7000 thank you so much for the very detailed reply! I will try the bath tub after ball soon!

On a side note, he hangs from the ceiling to chew his mesh- should I be concerned? Attached a picture of him in action!

[Varx]

...looking at this picture I'm pretty sure my hamster is a girl, hahah gosh.

[Shana]

it might be a girl. can you see nipples?

as far as climbing to chew the mesh goes, falling would be a main concern and it doesn't look like he (or she?) has far to fall, which is good. does he only chew in that one spot? i might be seeing this wrong, but it looks like some of the wires there are shorter which means that he's able to fit his nose into the gap. it also looks like he could get poked by the ends of them! if this is the case you'll need to figure out a way to file them down or cover up that area.

[Varx]

I've just looked, and yes she seems to be a girl! Explains why she's so large.
I've just clipped those shorter areas, had the same concerns! But it's not a huge drop which is good