Taming my new hamster

[Hamstertoes]

I have boy sylvan I spelt that wrong I know! He was born may the 27 any way I got him a week and one day a go.



I keep messing up and I just keep scaring the poor thing to death or freaking him out I don't know

I am trying to tame him and I have no idea how to go about it.

At first he fed out my hand now he won't feed out my hand well some times he does and some times he does't.

My friend who had five hamsters keep telling me to just take him out and put him on belly with a t shirt of my sent on it.

But I can't even work out how to take him out and I am going to put him a small box to start out with I am too scared to put him on my belly!

How do I put him in a carry to put him in the small box?

My friend thinks I am being a bad mum not taking him out but I just don't know how to.

She also thinks I should wake him at 8 every night and play with them four hours a night like she use to do with her hamster.

She says I am his mother my rules I am scared to hurt him so I can't pick him up my hand.

I have a huge tank and that makes it harder to pick up with any thing!

He is so chilled and relax it is me and I am doing everything is just freaking him out or confusing the poor bloke!

I really don't deserve just a chilled and relax hamster I am a bad mum!

[cypher]

I think you need to go right back to the start with taming, what your friend did may have worked for her but it doesn't sound like good advice to me so I wouldn't do any of that!

Begin with the tissue trick, put some plain white toilet tissue up your sleeve for a few hours then shred it up & put it in the cage, repeat that daily for as long as need be, your ham may take the tissue to make a nest if not you can just replace it with fresh tissue. This is to help your ham get to know your scent & see it as something that isn't a threat.
To begin with just talk to your ham, don't try to interact just yet.
Keep any disturbance in the cage to an absolute minimum for now, spot clean any pee areas as needed but don't do any more cleaning that for some time.
Other than that just do food & water.
Give your ham a few days to settle again as he may have been upset with your initial attempts at taming, then if he seems more confident with you around the cage begin offering a treat, maybe through the bars or if he's ok with your hand put your hand in the cage but let him come to you don't force your hand on him.

Once he's begun to get comfortable with this you can move on to getting him out of the cage, it often helps to use a tube or something he will climb into to transport him from the cage to a safe play area where he can't escape like a play pen (this would need to be home made as commercial ones aren't suitable for syrians) or a dry bath, plug blocked so you can begin to interact with him. Keep out of cage time short to begin with & gradually build up the time depending on what he seems happy with.
If possible I wouldn't wake your ham, try to do this after he wakes up naturally.