Is a little biting normal?

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Luna was handled in the pet shop to the point where she was running across our hands in the shop, but since then we've pretty much totally left her. This week she's been here for two weeks, so we've started to try and hand tame her.

She has plain tissues we've been wearing all over her cage and shes quite happy to curl up in them. She likes to come and sit on her shelf and listen to us talking to her. She's been having her dinner hand fed to her the last few nights.

Every time my hands are going near her I'm washing them in carex original soap (the only other soap I have is fruity- going to grab floral or more plain next time) and my hands and wrists are rubbed all over with her substrate.

Now that she's happy taking food held out to her, I've been trying to get her to eat off my palm. I don't have a job for another couple of weeks, so I'm about all the time and just trying to work with her whenever she seems to be awake and lively. Yesterday she was eating off me, but would just stretch her neck up and lean a hand on me occasionally. This morning she ate some sunflower seeds off my hand by hesitantly stepping onto it.

Just now I put some seeds on my hand and she hopped right on without hesitation and grabbed a seed- but then she bit my thumb! It hurt, but I didn't drop her and she let go pretty quickly.

Is this normal or a cause for concern? My hand was in her cage so maybe she's trying to defend it? She didn't seem upset (ie none of that horrible teeth chatteringy noise- she makes that sometimes when things make noises suddenly and things. The ham I had years ago would only bite when she was mad and making those noises, I recognise those as leave them alone noises!) and she didn't run away scared when I shoogled her off my hand back into the cage.

She bit my flatmates friend last week while I was out- but he's loud and annoying- the kind of person with no inside voice. Its possible he scared her, that didn't seem a big bite and she ran away to hide after it (so I've been told)

I'm hoping this doesn't become a habit? Is it normal to get a few nips when training? I think I'll grab gloves when I'm next shopping.. I hope I'm not moving too fast for her- should I go back to just feeding her with my fingers? What is the correct thing to do when they bite you- do they understand being told no, should I just immediately close off the cage and ignore her, what's the best course of action here?

[Rads]

I think a little biting is normal, Pip often tries to knaw or nibble my fingers she has only bitten me "properly" and that was in the early days of ownership, though she did sink her teeth into my eldest stepson when he came between her and her food.....

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I think we're going to slow down the taming for sure. She peed on my flatmate tonight (I was cleaning her cage and my flatmate put her in the bath to keep her out the way and try to interact with her) and then bit her (drawing blood!) when she tried to feed her.

She's obviously still quite scared and especially scared tonight. I don't know if I should take her out of the cage at all yet. I feel bad because she wasn't ready, but it was necessary to give her a bit of a clean up tonight. I think it'll be a while before she's handled or out running about to play :/ She seems a lot happier now that she's back in her home (straight to the sandpit!)

[pinkneon]

Could you get her out of the cage by using a tube/cup/ball then transfer her into a smaller space, with some hidey toys, such a plastic bin? If it's not her territory she might be a little happier, but she is still quite new. If you do put her in a play box, let her have a play first, before trying to handle her. Sweep recommends putting substrate in the playbox as he thinks it is good for digging in! Plus if it already has her smell on she will feel safer. Sweep has substrate always in his playbox. It has his scent on so when he goes in there he knows it's "his" place

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I took her out the the cage in her ball (Which is way too small and I think I'll invest in a big rat one) to put her in the bath and put some of her toys in the bath with her. As soon as my flatmates hand was in the bath she gave her a sniff and then bit her.. I know she was frightened Our bath is pretty big but we thought it was the best place to put her at the time. I didn't want her running about in that little ball!

I don't really have a playbox, I could find a storage box (I must have one somewhere..) or use one of the big drawers out of the cabinet in out living room? I am going to give her a little while again. She came out to see me when I got up this morning, and took some food from my fingers (she's going to get fat from seeds! Pumpkin this morning!) but she seemed a bit hesitant and jumpy.. poor little thing

[Pebbles82]

I would take it slowly - maybe twice a week maximum in the bathtub and go back to feeding treats through the bars in between. The hand in the cage thing was probably her testing your thumb to see if it was edible Out of the cage it is fear and she hasn't built up the confidence with people yet. Also if there's more than one person there she's probably more scared until she's fully tame. Our Syrian used to jerk round as if to bite, when we tried to stroke him in the bathtub, but never actually did (it made you pull your hand away). I did a little video of how we tamed him over a few weeks, if it helps - it doesn't show that much but might have a few tips (mostly got from this site!)

Rather than trying to hold her or put your hands near her, let her do her own thing in the bath for a bit, then try a little stroke with one finger on her back, gently - preferably if she is running up the side of the bath and slithering down as she won't see the finger coming at her that way. We did this maybe once or twice each session, until Charlie stopped jerking round as if to bite and then moved onto the next stage. It takes a bit of time and patience but then suddenly they are tame and completely handleable

It might help if just one person (you) was doing the taming for now. It's really hard when you want to play with them, hold them and interact with them and it's like "don't touch, keep away!" but you'll get there. Patience

I would stick with the standard ball just for taking her to the bathtub, it's easier to get in and out of. I used to leave the ball in the bathtub with the opening on the side and our hamster would hop back in it and sit and look at you, when he'd had enough and wanted to go back to his cage. If you get a rat ball for exercise, the Savic one is the only one I'd try using (I sent for loads and the Savic one has the smallest slits in), but check near the openings - there are some knobbly bits that sometimes are a bit sharp on the end and I snipped mine off and filed them down - some aren't sharp, and more rounded, some are. Also it comes in two parts and you clip them together with some yellow studs that come with it. Sometimes the two parts fit together well, sometimes there's a slight gap - they're a pain! If she's not a huge hamster maybe just stick with the standard ball for now (if it's a 17cm one). We used to let Charlie run in the ball for 5 or 10 minutes to burn off some energy and then take him up to the bathtub in it. I'm not keen on using the ball too much but it can be useful when taming. You always need to be there though in case they bash into something and the lid pops off or in case they go near stairs.

Anyway this is the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjyEme2xcq4

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We don't have any stairs in our flat, and she has a lot of energy, so I think a bigger ball and wee 10 minute runs would do her some good. It was the savic one on amazon I was looking at. She is a small ham so maybe I'll try her in the ball we have and see how she does, and upgrade her when I start work.

Normally it would only be me trying to tame her- my flatmate talks to her and she has tissues that smell like her and when I'm feeding her with my fingers generally she'll eat out my flatmates too, but my flatmate is only trying these things once I've done them first. I just had to clean out the cage at that point, so my flatmate was the one looking after her, but I will tell her not to try the palm feeding until I have mastered it!

I will try her in the bath in a few days - I'll leave her in the cage over the weekend to calm down and start getting her in the bath for pets a couple of times next week. I only cleaned out the messy parts and gave the shelf a quick wipe so she isn't uncomfortable in her cage, it's mostly the same substrate, so hopefully she'll feel better quite quickly.

When I feed her "on purpose" for training (Not just sneaky veggies from cooking dinner through the bars!) I pop the front off the Alaska so my hand isn't in her cage but its "there". Maybe I will try giving her a wee stroke when she's up at the door for snacks too, and see if she tried to turn around or if she's okay with it.

[Pebbles82]

I think they do get freaked by too many people at first (and too many hands ) - so maybe if one person was doing it at first, or one at a time. If she's quite small she might be ok with the standard ball for now. I had this Living World one at first and really liked it as it comes in one piece, not two halves and it's well made. Charlie got too big for it, but he did still like hopping into it now and then as a hidey place on the sofa or in the bath and it's good for carrying them in safely from one room to another

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Worl...l+for+hamsters

[pinkneon]

This is the ball Sweep has
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Savic-Runne...words=rat+ball