Hamster wont stop biting me!

Leyaria · 10-26-2016, 06:52 PM

Hi guys! I'm working toward taming my hamster but I'm repeatedly running into the issue of him biting me. I have had him for almost three weeks now, he was left to himself for the first 5 days to settle in. On day 6 I tried giving him a treat by holding it out to him and his response was to boldly, without hesitation, walk up, ignore the treat and bite my finger. I gave him 2 more days to himself and introduced several of the treat in with his food each day so he could see how yummy it was before trying again. Success! He took it right from my hand and ate it right there. I practiced this with him for a week with no more incidents. I thought it was time to move onto placing the treat on my hand and my hand in his cage to allow him to walk on and take it. Back to square one - he again, no hesitation, walked over, ignored the treats and bit me. I reverted to handing him treats for a few days before trying again but alas, he still bit. Is there anything obvious that I am missing here that might be causing him to do this? From all of my research it seems strange that he is so bold about it rather than being timid prior to biting. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

CMB · 10-27-2016, 05:24 AM

You could use a box, tube etc and put the treat inside. Let your hamster climb in then let the hamster out in a playpen or dry bath big enough for you to sit in and allow the hamster to climb on you.

Some hamsters don't like hands in their cage and will bit, but out of their cage are ok.

Leyaria · 10-27-2016, 07:24 AM

Oh I see, I haven't tried taming outside his cage yet. I'll give that a shot, thank you for the idea! Is it common for hamsters who dislike hands in their cage to be so bold when biting? All the research I did said I should expect the hamster to be cautious and possibly smell me before making the decision to bite or not. Mine Just bit seemingly without thinking twice about it.

CMB · 10-27-2016, 01:13 PM

They are all different. I had one who would always bite in her cage or out of her cage I had four hamsters at that time and they all had different levels of tameness. From a cuddly tame male, tame female who was mostly too energetic to sit still long, 1 biter if my hand was in her cage, but perfectly tame out of her cage.

If taming goes well for your hamster outside the cage. You may then be able to let your hamster climb out of the cage onto your hand after a while. Go slow and if necessary take step back in the taming process, work on that step before going forward again to the next step.

Leyaria · 10-27-2016, 07:22 PM

Thank you for the ideas and reassurance. I'll just keep working with him, slowly but surely.

Billy · 10-28-2016, 04:56 AM

Good luck with the taming! I've heard of hamsters you can be very territorial when in their cage - apparently it's called 'cage rage' - so CMB's ideas may just do the trick.

You could also wear some gloves. Getting bitten isn't fun!

Hamsterless · 11-01-2016, 12:13 AM

Wow, that's exactly like my hamster!
Did you get any success? I've had my guy about 2 months now and no luck! However, we did get to the stage where he'd take the treat BEFORE biting me. ( Still bites though haha )