Taming a Dwarf Hamster

[Gemma_xo]

So, I've had Zak (Russian dwarf hamster) for roughly a month now and I figured now would be a good time to start trying to tame him since he's now in his "forever" cage and seems quite happy doing his own thing in it.
I'm going to get a play pen shortly to aid the taming, but I was just wondering if anyone has any tips on what they did, any do's or dont's (other then the common sense things) for a hamster taming newbie would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[Fluffagrams]

Hamsters take their own time and I've found that the key is not to rush them. With May it literally had been a case of getting her used to me before she'd allow me to pick her up.

I started with giving her a few treats whilst she was in her cage so she was in that environment that she was comfortable in and would learn to associate human interaction with good things.
After that I got her out of the cage using an exercise ball and would put her in her playpen where I'd just put my hands in for her to sniff around, climb on and explore. I always made sure she had a hideyhole in her playpen so she could retreat if she felt nervous.

[cypher]

How far have you got with taming now?
I'd begin by just letting Zak climb into your hands, maybe offer a treat but it's not necessary & see if he'll just enjoy climbing around on you.
Once you have the playpen it may be easier to interact with him as you can put your hands in for him to explore more easily than in the cage while he's having a run around in there.
A house or box to hide in in the playpen is a good idea, it's good to put a wheel in too as they will often jump in & have a brief run if they feel a bit nervous!
Just go slow, let him set the pace & take your time.

[Gemma_xo]

He takes treats from my hands but wont climb onto them yet, nor sniff them. He's started to bite when there is no treat so I've left him alone because I'm not sure if it's a fear thing and I don't want him to feel rushed into anything like that.

[Leila0420]

Have you tried the tissue trick yet? You put a tissue up your sleeve next to your skin for an hour or so and then put it in their cage so that they get used to your smell? You could also try rubbing Zak's substrate or bedding on your hands before approaching him so that you smell like him too. It should make you seem more familiar and less of a threat to him.
Taking treats from you is a good sign though!! If he takes them and eats them in front of you instead of pouching them then that's a really good!

[cypher]

If you haven't done the tissue thing yet definitely give that a go.
As the next step try putting your hand in the cage, bury your fingertips in the substrate & put the treat on your palm, if he climbs on to your hand & begins to get comfortable with that slowly lift your hand a couple of inches then put it down again, you can gradually extend that until he's happy sitting on your hand & you can lift him out of the cage.

[Gemma_xo]

I'll give that a try, thank you guys! =]

[Pebbles82]

Until they're tame (and even afterwards sometimes) they can see a hand in their cage as an invader in their territory, so might bite it in the cage, but not out of the cage.

We did the treat thing first. Through the bars of the cage initially, then on the palm of the hand, which he would take and gradually started putting his paws on the hand at the same time. If I wanted to get him out I would put a kitchen roll tube in and he would walk into it, or let him jump in his ball and lift him out that way. We had a cage change after the first 3 weeks though and that set taming back, so if he hasn't been in the new cage very long, I would give it a couple of weeks for him to settle in before doing much taming. You can still give him a treat through the bars though. After that it's about them getting used to being handled and that can be a gradual process. Cypher's idea of a large cardboard box is a good one, and Erin's Hamsters has a video on how she tames dwarf hamsters. We used to take Charlie to the dry bathtub in his ball and let him run around in the bathtub with the odd tube or toy in there (put the plug in first). And little boy would sometimes sit in the bathtub before we put Charlie in so Charlie would run all over him and get used to his scent - he seemed quite happy climbing on you but we still couldn't pick him up without him leaping 2 feet in the air to escape or jerking round as if threatening to bite (which he never actually did but it did 'see us off!'.) Eventually it was while he was in the bathtub we were able to start using one finger to stroke his back - he jerked his head round again, but when I did it again a few minutes later he accepted it. Once we could touch him without him leaping things moved quite quickly and I started cupping my hand under him and just lifting him a centimetre of the base and just letting him walk off my hand. A few goes of this and suddenly we could just pick him up and he was relaxed. Always wash your hands first as they have a keen sense of smell and if you smell tasty they will try and nibble you!

As mentioned before, I would wait a couple of weeks if he has just changed cages as he'll be guarding his territory a bit and not quite used to everything.

Here's the Erin's hamsters video on dwarf taming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7hf9d6TF_A

If you put 'How to Tame a Hamster' into the search box on Youtube there are quite a few videos and it helps seeing how people do various things.

[Gemma_xo]

Thank you.
Unfortunately he has an ikea samla tub cage which isn't modified yet so there is no bars or mesh to put treats through, but in time I'll manage, what I started doing was holding a treat above a small box he has in there, then as he'd come out sniff around I'd leave the treat on the box and just call his name so he knew I was still there, but not in his space kind of thing, then he randomly just came straight over and took it from my hand, but he's gone backwards at the moment and wont come out if my hands in there, so I think I will try the bath trick, sounds much easier since it's not his personal space xD
x

[Pebbles82]

Yes I should get him out of the cage for taming in that case because it's not always great trying to give them a treat from above. The bath is good because they can just run around in there (and slither up and down the side lol!). And although you are above it it's big enough to put your arm in so your hand is on a level rather than above (if that makes sense). Will he jump into his ball if you put it in the cage? If not and you use a tube, I used to transfer Charlie from the tube to the ball and then take him up - put both my hands over the tube ends so he didn't fall out and then put one end into the ball.

Here's a video of when we were taming Charlie in the bath when we first got him and he wasn't tame! We had little boy's Octopod in there as a toy and hid treats in it. He didn't bang his head by the way, it was one of the baskets knocking the side of the bath but I couldn't see that at the time and thought he had banged his head! We found tubes and ceramic cups made good toys too. So he would have a bit of a play and slither up and down the side of the bath trying to run up it. I'd leave the ball in the bath and when he wanted to come out he would jump in it and look at me. Sometimes he would jump in and out of it but if he sat there looking at me we took it as a sign he wanted to come out. The first time we just let him play. The next couple of times little boy got in and let him run all over him, and then after that we started with the odd light stroke with one finger. The thing to be careful of if you get in the bath first is that they don't run up to your shoulder and try and jump out! That nearly happened to us once and we had to try and lift him down a bit or just guard that area with an arm and guide him down again. As he would usually run away from any touch or contact at that point it wasn't to difficult to guard him away from running too high.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IndB6nkeP7k

And here's a picture of him now!