Why is she biting me??

[hamtarokid]

I really do not understand my hamster. She doesn't mind me petting her if she's eating. But if she's not distracted by food then she'll do anything she can to get her little paws on my hand, climbing on top of stuff and standing on her hind legs reaching for me, and as soon as she does she bites me as hard as she can. I don't get it.

[cypher]

Is she still doing it out of the cage too?

[hamtarokid]

I don't take her out of the cage that much. :/ She did last time.

[cypher]

I think you need to persevere with the playpen then.

[hamtarokid]

Okay. I'll do that.

[hamtarokid]

Had a really good playpen time with Ambrose today.

I always wash my hands before interacting with her, but I haven't been rubbing my hands with the substrate like ErinsAnimals suggests just because it seemed like kind of a pain. But since I had put some of her substrate in the playpen it was right there so I went ahead and rubbed my hands with it. I don't know if that's what made the difference but Ambrose didn't bite me!

She let me pet her a bunch too and was just seemed pretty friendly toward me in general. :] I'm going to make more of an effort to have playpen time every day and I will always rub my hands with the substrate going forward.

[cypher]

That's really good news, the ones that are a bit territorial in the cage often do better in the playpen, with time she should begin to tolerate your hand in the cage too.